Sparks Get to Enjoy a Summer Breeze

The Sparks are back, and they’re waiting for company.

The defending champions returned to the WNBA Finals on Saturday by sprinting past Utah, 103-77, at Staples Center to clinch the Western Conference title with a two-game sweep.

Amid the giddiness of an afternoon when the Sparks set a WNBA playoff record with 103 points and led by as many as 30, the question on some people’s minds was this:

Will it even matter whether it’s Washington or New York that wins the Eastern Conference title today?

“I never say never with anybody--Washington’s a fabulous team, New York’s a fabulous team,” Utah Coach Candi Harvey said. “But they better be playing near-perfect basketball.

“I hate to take it from Tiger [Woods], but they better bring their A, double-A and triple-A game, the way this team is playing.... I mean, who are you going to leave open? Who are you not going to guard?”

Harvey called the Sparks’ performance Saturday “fabulous basketball” and Coach Michael Cooper said it was “the best I’ve ever seen this team play” in his 3 1/2 years with the team.

Try leaving the analysis to Latasha Byears, the brash and bruising Spark forward:

“It doesn’t even matter which team it is,” Byears said. “It could be the Chicago Bulls right now. That’s how confident I am.”

Still, it was less than a month ago that the Sparks lost successive games at home and were beaten by Houston in a critical game.

Their defense was suspect, and the offense seemed confused unless it could get the ball to Lisa Leslie or watch Mwadi Mabika go one-on-one.

Suddenly, they are transformed.

Leslie scored 25 Saturday in front of a crowd of 10,139, but every other starter reached double figures too.

DeLisha Milton, back in the lineup after a stint off the bench, contributed 19 and her usual high-energy defense. Tamecka Dixon, the darting guard who is peaking at the right time, had 15 points and eight assists. Mabika had 15 points, nine rebounds and five assists despite a sore ankle, and rookie point guard Nikki Teasley had 11 points and nine assists in 24 minutes.

The Sparks shot 51% overall, made 11 of 23 three-pointers and 16 of 18 from the line, and played an up-tempo, crisp-passing game that led to 31 assists on 38 baskets.

The 24-2 run they started seven minutes into the game took them from six points behind to a 34-18 lead--and that was the ballgame.

“We felt like the Lakers of the ‘80s,” Dixon said. “We just let the ball find the open player tonight, and that was evident with the 31 assists. Call it ‘the zone’--and everybody was in it.”

Margo Dydek, the 7-foot-2 Utah center, gives plenty of teams trouble.

“Margo against most teams is fabulous,” Harvey said. “But against this particular team, the way they take us outside and force us to guard the three-pointer, their versatility at the post position really, really bothers us.”

Leslie showcased her versatility at 6-5 with a baseline drive punctuated by a spin move that would make a guard proud, and she made one of three three-point shots as she continually drew Dydek away from the basket.

The Spark defense did its job too, rotating sharply and helping force 18 turnovers that led to 28 points.

Guard Marie Ferdinand, Dydek and Natalie Williams were held to single digits, with Adrienne Goodson and Jennifer Azzi leading the way for Utah with 16 points. Azzi added 12 assists.

“It’s so much of a mind-set with this team,” Harvey said. “It’s not just physical, what to do X-and O-wise, but you better match their mentality also.”

Their mentality is focused on the WNBA title.

“We want the second championship, and I think most importantly, we want our respect,” Milton said. “It seems like whatever we do, no one really wants to give us our just due.”

The only way they can get that is to win the series that will open Thursday against either New York, a team the Sparks split with during the regular season, or Washington, an upstart led by Chamique Holdsclaw that the Sparks defeated in their only meeting.

Cooper doesn’t think it matters which team it is.

“[The players] understand now not only what it takes to become a champion but to repeat as champion,” he said. “This wasn’t one of our better seasons, so to say, if you want to call seven losses bad. But right now, we’re at the point where I think we were all last year.”

They just want to finish in the same place, too.

“I just told Coop, I’m not going to allow us to lose another game,” Leslie said