Leslie Again Ignites the Sparks
CLEVELAND — It’s looking more and more as if this is the start of something big for the Sparks.
They routed the Cleveland Rockers Saturday night, 75-59, and Lisa Leslie put together a second consecutive stunning game--30 points and 18 rebounds in 32 minutes.
Afterward, assistant coach Michael Cooper said, “She’s the Kareem of this sport.”
Of course he was referring to his former Laker teammate Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.
In her best pro game yet, Leslie gave her team a boost after a second straight slow start, leading an 18-0 run that decided the outcome five minutes after halftime.
The Sparks improved to 2-0 in the Rockers’ home opener before an announced 15,731 at Gund Arena.
Leslie even turned coach in the final minutes, after Woolridge had taken her out, yelling at her teammates: “Hey, this is not over! We’ve shut ‘em down, make sure you keep ‘em that way!”
Cleveland had taken a 37-35 halftime lead, but after the Rockers’ Michelle Edwards got a layup two minutes into the second half, Cleveland didn’t score again for nine minutes, when Chasity Melvin scored inside.
In what may have been the Sparks’ best offensive charge ever, they went from 39-39 to 57-39 before Melvin made it 57-41. During the run, Leslie scored on a put-back, a three-pointer, two drives and a baseline jumper.
When Leslie was done, rapidly developing 22-year-old Mwadi Mabika scored three straight times, on a fastbreak, a layup down the middle and a three-pointer.
She had another three-point shot with 7:18 left that started an 11-0 Spark run to make it 71-47.
There was supposed to be a greater distribution of labor with this team, what with the drafting of three top ABL players and rookie point guard Ukari Figgs. Those four contributed 10 points.
But Leslie played as if she needed to demonstrate she’s the best in the world, and Woolridge wasn’t complaining.
“We have other great players, but if Lisa’s hot, she’s the go-to player,” he said. “And there are going to be a lot of nights when she’s rollin’, like tonight.”
Said Leslie: “I am better, I played a lot of basketball in the off-season--three months alone with USA Basketball.
“Now I need to be consistent, to play like this more often. Defense was the key tonight. Coop told us at the half that we needed to get more active defensively, to kick-start the offense, and that’s what we did.”
The Sparks’ DeLisha Milton went out with two fouls three minutes into the game, didn’t return until the second half, and finished with four points.
