Clueless Effort Is Simply Inexcusable

HOUSTON — The Houston Comets regrouping, refocusing and beating the Sparks in the second game of the WNBA’s Western Conference finals should come as no surprise.

The fact that the Sparks looked absolutely unprepared to do anything about it ought to send tremors of concern throughout the organization and its fans.

The mere sight of the Compaq Center, where Houston Rocket Coach Rudy Tomjanovich delivered his famous “never underestimate the heart of a champion” line and the Comets earned the first two WNBA championships, should have provided the Sparks with enough reminders of the difficulty of the task before them.

Yet they failed to respond to the challenge.

The Comets played exactly the way you would expect an experienced team in a must-win situation with the support of its crowd to play. The Sparks played as if they were helpless bystanders, unable to affect the outcome.

The Comets beat the Sparks in so many ways besides the 83-55 final on the scoreboard.

The Comets beat the Sparks on the boards, they beat them to loose balls, they beat them down the court to bring this series to a decisive third game tonight.

“They played very well,” Spark reserve Allison Feaster said. “They are a great team. But so are we. We have to focus on how we play. We can’t play as tentatively as we did today and expect to win.”

“Playoff basketball is about very physical basketball, and I think our team was a little stunned at just how physical it was,” Spark Coach Orlando Woolridge said. “We have to make an adjustment--now we know what to expect, we know what it’s going to be like.”

They should have known exactly what to expect: the best effort from the best team in the league. And they should have known they would have to be at their best to counteract it.

The list of problems begins with Lisa Leslie, who had led the Sparks to their home playoff victories against the Sacramento Monarchs and the Comets in Game 1. Superstars really earn their glory on the road. That’s when their teams need them most. They are the players who are supposed to thrive on the opportunity to silence the crowd, they are the ones who can get the benefit on referees’ calls.

Leslie didn’t do that Sunday, and Woolridge didn’t do anything to put her in a position to dominate.

Leslie didn’t score in the first half and didn’t make a field goal until 10:19 remained in the game. She finished with 11 inconsequential points.

“My team didn’t do a good job of getting the ball inside, and when they did I had tough shots,” Leslie said. “I have to do a better job of being aggressive.”

She needs to be more like Cynthia Cooper. Cooper provided everything the Comets needed Sunday. She played an intelligent game, either shooting before the defensive help arrived to double-team her or finding the open teammate whenever she drew a crowd. She had 22 points and nine assists (both game highs) in addition to five rebounds.

She also helped return the attention of this emotion-wracked team to basketball. They were having difficulty coping with the loss of teammate Kim Perrot to cancer Aug. 19. On Sunday, the Comets were finally able to make a distinction between who they are and what they do.

Cooper, Perrot’s closest friend on the team, admitted she was “emotionally spent” during her subpar, 12-point performance in Game 1.

She recharged her batteries by Sunday.

“When I got up this morning I was focused on what I had to do,” Cooper said. “I knew what we had to do.”

With their captain back on board mentally, the Comets had a higher level of concentration that was evident from the moment they took the court for pregame warmups.

The Comets got the type of shots they wanted, they just didn’t always make them. The Sparks were lucky to trail by only six points at halftime.

Except for Cooper, Houston didn’t move the ball well. But teams can get away with one-on-one play when players consistently beat defenders off the dribble and get to the basket. That’s what the Comets did.

The Sparks, meanwhile, tried one-on-one moves that resulted in long jump shots. Bad combination.

One stretch in the second half demonstrated how little things turn into big things. First, 5-foot-7 Comet guard Sonja Henning boxed out 6-3 Spark forward La’Keshia Frett to grab a defensive rebound. Down on the other side of the court, Cooper, while on the ground, outscrapped two Sparks for a loose ball and was fouled.

After Henning missed a jump shot, Polina Tzekova had good position and Mwadi Mabika was called for an over-the-back foul while going after the rebound.

The Comets maintained possession and Cooper made a three-pointer to give Houston a 45-33 lead with 13:06 to play.

After that, it was simply a matter of filling out the box score.

“Tonight was just Comet basketball at its best,” Woolridge said. “We just happened to be on the other end.”

The Comets didn’t want their season to end, and they wanted to match the standard of effort set by their late teammate.

They paid tribute to Perrot with their hustle. Cooper took it one step further, holding up an index finger and a fist--in the same way a referee would signal 10, Perrot’s jersey number--after each of her four three-pointers.

If you think they lost Game 1 because of how Perrot died, you might say they won Game 2 because of how she lived.

Woolridge took umbrage at the implications that the only reason the Sparks won at the Great Western Forum on Thursday was because the Comets were still in mourning.

“I’m not an excuse-maker,” Woolridge said. “I was a little bothered from hearing the excuses they made when they lost to us.”

At least they had an excuse. A legitimate one. And that’s much more than you can say about the Sparks on Sunday.

J.A. Adande can be reached at his e-mail address: [email protected]