Shock Doesn't Kill Sparks

By Linda Edwards: SPM CA Writer
Posted Thursday, June 12, 2008

Keisha Brown had the first start of her six-year WNBA career. Photo by Donald Barnat.

LOS ANGELES - The night before at Staples Center it was the Los Angeles Lakers scratching and clawing to hang on in the fourth quarter to finish off their Eastern Conference rivals. Wednesday night at Staples it was the Los Angeles Sparks’ turn, as the L.A. women battled the reigning Eastern Conference champion Detroit Shock, and held off a fourth-quarter comeback to triumph 80-73 in their second home game of the 2008 WNBA season.

The home team began the fourth period with an eight-point lead, 68-60, but four Shock players took turns scoring in the first 4:83 of the fourth to close to within one point, 72-71, before the Sparks answered with eight points of their own from four different team members to nail down the win.

The win was the Sparks’ first one at home for the season, and hopscotched them into lone possession of second place in the Western Conference at 5-2, behind Minnesota (6-2). Detroit (7-3) maintains second place in the East behind Connecticut (8-1). The Sparks face Connecticut on Friday at 7:30pm at home. Next up for Detroit is a 12:30pm game at Phoenix on Saturday.

Lisa Leslie led all scorers with 17 points and added 12 rebounds for her fifth double-double of the season. She started out the game aggressively, racking up eight of the points less than half way through the first quarter. DeLisha Milton-Jones and Kiesha Brown, in her first WNBA start at the point for the Sparks, added 13 points each, as Marie Ferdinand-Harris had 12 and Candace Parker had 10 for LA.

Regular starting point guard Temeka Johnson was placed on the inactive list, as coach Michael Cooper experimented with the combination of Brown and rookie Shannon Bobbitt at the helm.

Milton-Jones reached 500 career assists in the game.

“When you have Marie Ferdinand-Harris, Lisa Leslie, and Candace Parker to pass the ball to, 80 percent of the time something good is going to happen” she said. "I'm very, very glad to be back here in a Sparks uniform. This is a venue that I am very comfortable in. It's an environment where they want hard work every day, and they know how to win championships. I love that. I love winning. And in Washington it got frustrating at times, because I just felt like we were spinning our wheels. We weren't getting anywhere. We were crossing our fingers hoping that someone would lose... so we could have a chance to get into the playoffs. And I don't like that."

Katie Smith led Detroit with 16 points, Deanna Nolan had 14, and Plenette Pierson contributed 11 for the Shock.

The teams never seemed to get into a groove the entire evening, as play was frequently stopped by a referee’s whistle. There were 47 combined personal fouls called in the game – 26 against the Sparks and 21 against Detroit. But LA did come close to a WNBA record it holds as a result of those fouls, as the team did not miss one of the attempted 24 free throws taken the entire evening. LA tops the league record for perfect free-throw nights, at 27 attempted and made in 2003 versus Phoenix.

At times the game almost seemed like a University of Tennessee scrimmage, with Parker, Bobbitt, and Sidney Spencer for LA facing off against Alexis Hornbuckle for Detroit. Bobbitt made her Staples Center debut Wednesday, and in her first offensive play, shot a textbook bounce pass through the key to Leslie, who scored her tenth point of the game on the assist.

“I was excited about it," Bobbitt said. "I just wanted to come out and bring some excitement, bring some energy to this team.” Asked if she ever was tempted to pass the ball to Hornbuckle, she laughed, “No, never.”

Meanwhile, Parker was held to a season-low point total, and only gathered five rebounds, had one assist, and got one bloody nose against the physical Shock defenders. The contest was the first non-sellout of Parker’s WNBA career, with attendance of 8,520, even as the Sparks hosted NBA finals media members and others attending the NBA playoffs at Staples.

Staying focused, Parker said, “Our main goal was just to get the win.”

The good news for the Sparks is that Parker’s previously dislocated shoulder is not giving her any pain.

“The shoulder’s good,” she said after the game.

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