Sparks Show No Spark, Lose Big

It was to have been Lisa Leslie’s 25th birthday party, on the first of a three-game homestand for the Los Angeles Sparks. The opponent was the road-weary Cleveland Rockers, who had lost the night before in Sacramento.

But the party turned out to be a bust.

In easily their worst performance, the Sparks lost, 81-70, Monday night at the Forum.

The Sparks are beginning to look very much like a non-playoff team in an eight-team league.

Before an announced 5,987, Los Angeles dropped to 3-5 and Cleveland, which had lost four in a row, improved to 2-5.

Hard to believe, but Los Angeles just last Thursday beat the Rockers in Cleveland, 74-62.

Lynette Woodard, 37, the first woman to play for the Harlem Globetrotters, helped turn Monday’s game into a laugher with 20 points, 11 rebounds and six assists in 36 minutes.

Woodard was Cleveland’s steady hand. She fed low-post players Janice Braxton, Eva Nemcova and Isabelle Fijalkowski. Those three were 18 for 26 from the floor, with Braxton accounting for 20 points.

The Rockers shot 54.5%, the second-best WNBA shooting game so far.

Cleveland did it all with their most productive player, the 6-foo-5 Fijalkowski, out 11 minutes of the second half with five fouls.

The Sparks played without starting guard Tamecka Dixon (sprained ankle), but Coach Linda Sharp was still in a slow burn afterward.

“Somebody came to play,” she said, meaning Cleveland.

Her team is still in too big of a hurry to shoot, she said.

“I’m not happy with shot selection. . . . We need that extra pass, it never hurts you and it helps you shoot better.”

Sharp said Cleveland suckered her team into taking low-percentage shots.

“They baited us into taking the outside shot, then doubled-down on us in the low post,” she said.

The Sparks led most of the first half, but got only two points in the last 5:14 of the first half and went scoreless for 3:05 late in the game.

Leslie led the Sparks with 22 points. Jamila Wideman, who entered the game averaging a WNBA-leading 5.7 assists a game, had a game-high eight.

WNBA Notes

There’s no WNBA roster term for “designated friend,” but if there was, Wendy Chang would be the league’s first. The Long Beach State graduate student is now the season-long interpreter for Zheng Haixia. The move ends the team’s practice of hiring one in every city when traveling. Zheng broke down and cried during an NBC interview Friday in Charlotte, when asked about American officiating. (She was told U.S. players don’t understand it, either). Team officials decided Haixia needed a friend, someone she could confide in, and put Chang on the travel list. She had translated for Haixia throughout training camp. . . . The Sparks’ game with Phoenix on Sunday, marking the return of Cheryl Miller to Los Angeles, is an 8,505-seat sellout. Upstairs Forum seating will be made available.