It’s Over, but Sparks Still Scored

In four days last week, the Sparks went from unrestrained joy to despair in the desert.

The joy was the result of a two-point victory over New York before the biggest Forum crowd of the WNBA season, 14,457.

Then, with a playoff semifinal game in Inglewood seemingly in the Sparks’ grasp Sunday at Phoenix, Cheryl Miller

elevated her Mercury team to just the right heights in overtime to snatch it away.

But Sunday’s pain will subside.

And when most of his players have scattered to their European league teams, Spark President John Buss will count the ways his team connected with the Southern California women’s basketball community.

Recent examples:

* The team scheduled a public practice at the Forum last Thursday and was mildly startled when about 1,000 showed up, largely moms and young daughters.

* When the team bus pulled up to America West Arena in Phoenix on Sunday, there were 20 Spark fans, who had driven all day, with a “Go Sparks!” banner.

* After the victory over New York, a fan sent 500 red roses to the Spark locker room, a tribute to their having reached .500.

* After watching her first WNBA game, the 78-76 victory over New York, actress Helen Hunt called Buss. “She told me she absolutely had to have four seats on the floor for every game next season,” Buss said.

*

Slowly, the Sparks are connecting, just as their young interim coach, Julie Rousseau, connected with her players.

Buss’ first postseason task is to take the eraser to the “interim” part in Rousseau’s title.

He indicated Sunday he was ready to do that, after Rousseau took a 4-7 team to a 14-14 finish, winning six of the last eight games.

“I hope Julie enjoyed this experience, because I certainly want to talk to her about next year,” Buss said, saying he would first meet with General Manager Rhonda Windham.

Buss said Rousseau’s contract expires Monday, and that if he wants to rehire her, he will have to call his father, Jerry Buss.

“We’re over budget,” he said. “We’d need more money to sign her. It might have to be done on a handshake at first.”

Rousseau, 32, has another job. She’s coach at Los Angeles’ Washington High. She was an assistant under Linda Sharp, who was fired in mid-July.

Buss, Windham and their coach must then take a long look at their roster. The WNBA will expand by at least two teams, meaning each existing club must surrender players to an expansion draft.

If each team is allowed to protect, say, seven players, look for the club’s No. 1 college draft pick, Jamila Wideman, to go unprotected. Her offense was disappointing.

Daedra Charles, overweight all season, was contractually required to report at 190 pounds or less in June but wasn’t within 50 pounds of that. She lost weight during the season but not enough that it made a difference.

PLAYOFF PREVIEW

The WNBA playoffs will be completed in less than 48 hours, starting tonight in Phoenix and Houston.

In one-game semifinals, the New York Liberty (17-11) plays at the Mercury (16-12) and the Charlotte Sting (15-13) is at the Houston Comets (18-10). The winners meet Saturday at 1 p.m. in the arena of the team with the best record.

Most favor the Comets, the only team that has played consistently all season. They’re at home, they have the league’s best player (Cynthia Cooper), the coach of the year (Van Chancellor) and the league’s best rookie out of college, Tina Thompson of USC.

As expected, Houston’s Cooper was named the league’s most valuable player Wednesday. She’ll receive a $25,000 bonus from the league and a new car. The voting was unanimous for Cooper, who led the league in scoring.

CRUNCHING NUMBERS

NBC spokesman Ed Markey says his network’s ratings are running about even with NHL telecasts.

“We were thinking maybe 1.7 to 1.9 before the season, and we’re averaging 2.1,” he said, pointing out the number translates to about 2 million TV households per telecast.

The 2.1 number, he said, is up slightly because of the 3.7 rating the inaugural New York-Los Angeles game drew in June.

“Since then, the average has settle in at 1.8,” Markey said.

Phoenix finished as the WNBA attendance leader, averaging 13,703. New York was the runner-up at 13,270. The Sparks were fourth at 8,931.

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WNBA Playoff Schedule

SEMIFINALS, Today

* Charlotte at Houston, 4:30 p.m.

* New York at Phoenix, 6:30 p.m.

CHAMPIONSHIP, Saturday

* Semifinal winners, 1 p.m.