They Add a Little Spark to Forum

Guess we found something we could beat Houston at. Their coats-and-ties may have an edge on ours when it comes to the sport of pro-football-team acquisition, but don’t assume we’ll come up short in women’s basketball.

Los Angeles, home of the NBA champion Lakers, is starting to feel more like Indiana every day. All basketball, all the time.

Friday night at the once great Western Forum, made somewhat less so by the great-and-also-glitzy Staples Center, Los Angeles’ entry in the WNBA did itself Laker proud.

Coach Michael Cooper summed things up when he said that his Sparks got tired of being pushed around and tired of seeing Houston, three-time champion in the three-year-old league, sticking its chest out en route to a 15-point lead midway through the second half.

“They just decided to start to play,” Cooper said.”

The Sparks’ 63-58 victory was special for more reasons than beating the Comets. It was special because it was a good show for a good crowd, the latter a rarity for women’s basketball in Los Angeles.

Despite having the second-best record at 17-3, behind Houston’s 19-3, the Sparks carry the third-worst attendance average in the 16-team league. Going into Friday night’s game, Los Angeles averaged 5,889 at the gate, in an arena that the Sparks say has been reconfigured with curtains around the upper level for a capacity of 9,540. The only teams doing worse at the gate are Charlotte at 5,199 and Utah at 5,843. Washington is the best with 14,051.

But Friday night’s announced attendance of 11,378 said a number of things, including the fact that Sparks’ officials either can’t figure their house’s capacity or they opened some drapes for this one. It also said that women’s basketball, though clearly not generating Laker kind of interest, may have a chance, after all. To get 11,378 people into an aging arena in Inglewood, at 6 o’clock on a beautiful summer Friday night, in a city that has always worshiped the fashionable and easily turned its back on everything else, should be a clear message to WNBA officials not to take down the hoops here quite yet.

Certainly, the Sparks’ recent 12-game winning streak had gotten some attention. And clearly, even if you pay only minimal attention to this summer version of Showtime, you know that Houston and Cynthia Cooper and Tina Thompson and Sheryl Swoopes is the team you want to spend your money to see.

For those who decided to do just that Friday night, they got a good deal. Not hard to get into the Forum, not a lot of limos in the way, plenty of parking. And even with an ill-conceived promotion that gave away Beanie Babies but only did so at two doors, jamming up until gametime what should have been an easily manageable crowd, there was a feel to the event that was comfortable, easy.

Houston’s coach, Van Chancellor, walked along the sideline, tossing candy to the fans before tip-off. The National Anthem was sung by a group of teenagers and the entertainment during timeouts was by the Sparkids, who dance and entertain quite nicely with lots of clothes on, certainly a new concept in this city.

Even though the Sparks got an incredible performance from Tamecka Dixon to lead the way, it was hard to watch anybody else when Swoopes was on the floor. Fellow superstar Cooper was on the bench with a sprained ankle, so that put even more focus on the former All-American from Texas Tech.

Watching Swoopes play is like eating whipped cream. She is easy, no wasted motion, a visual joining of Clyde (the Glide) Drexler and Jamaal (Silk) Wilkes. She finished with a game-high 26 points, and played with a kind of above-it-all poise that seemed to keep her distant from the frantic side of the frantic ending.

And frantic it was at the end, when the Sparks finally took the lead with just over two minutes to play. This was not Staples in June, nor Shaq and Kobe, but the venerable Forum, six Laker banners still strung overhead, rocking and rolling from a crowd of excited fans that had paid between $7.50 and $35 to watch. On this night at least, there could be fewer bargains anywhere in sports.

“Give L.A. credit,” Chancellor said afterward, over and over. “They beat us.”

Now, if we could just outfox them in the NFL boardrooms. . . .