2008 WNBA Playoffs Recap – September 28 – No. 1 San Antonio Silver Stars 76, No. 3 Los Angeles Sparks 72

Posted by Michael on November 28, 2008

2008 WNBA Playoffs Recap – September 28 – No. 1 San Antonio Silver Stars 76, No. 3 Los Angeles Sparks 72

Western Conference

No. 1 San Antonio Silver Stars 76, No. 3 Los Angeles Sparks 72

SAN ANTONIO – When San Antonio started building for a championship run last year the Silver Stars only had one player in mind that they wanted to build their team around. In only two years Becky Hammon has the team on the verge of fulfilling the mission she was brought in to complete.

The nine-year veteran scored the second most points in a playoff game to lead San Antonio to its first WNBA Finals. The top seeded Silver Stars won game three at home in the AT&T Center, 76-72, over the Los Angeles Sparks.

San Antonio advances to the Finals where it will meet the winner of the Detroit-New York series that concludes Monday night. Unlike the first two rounds, the Finals are a best-of-five series with the first two games in San Antonio by virtue of the Silver Stars having the best record in the league. Game three and potentially four would be in either Detroit or New York with a game five back in San Antonio.

This was only the fourth playoff appearance for the Silver Stars and just their second in San Antonio. The franchise was moved from Utah to the Lone Star State after the 2002 season. Last year the Silvers Stars were swept by Sacramento on its way to the WNBA title. In 2002 the Utah Starzz were swept by Los Angeles in the conference finals.

The Sparks advanced to the conference finals for the sixth time in their history and the second time in the last three years. LA has won three-straight Western Conference titles, but hasn’t raised a banner since 2003.

The game was a classic back-and-fourth battle with 15 lead changes and four ties through the first two quarters of play. The Sparks ended the first half on a 6-0 run to take a 33-29 lead into the locker room on a Temeka Johnson jumper just as the first half horn sounded.

Baskets by Candace Parker and Lisa Leslie to start the second half quickly got the Sparks’ lead up to 37-31 at the 8:26 mark. Two minutes later Shannon Bobbitt hit a three-pointer to give LA an eight-point lead, 44-36, and three minutes after that Raffaella Masciadri completed an old-school three point play to get the lead back to eight.

With a chance to put the hammer down, the Sparks they went cold over the next two minutes and that allowed San Antonio to get back into the game. Following Masciadri’s three-point play, Los Angeles missed its next two shots and had a pair of turnovers that fueled an 8-0 San Antonio run that tied the game at 50 on a Ruth Riley jumper at the 1:38 mark of the third.

Sophia Young made her third shot in a row just 33 seconds into the fourth quarter to give the Silver Stars the lead back, 56-55. The lead would change hands 10 times over the next seven minutes and Johnson appeared to give LA a solid five point cushion, 72-67, with a pair of free throws at the 1:57 mark.

What Los Angeles didn’t know is that would be the last time it would score a point during the 2008 season. Young followed the free throws with a lay up then Hammon nailed a three-pointer with 1:01 to play to knot the game at 72.

After a Johnson miss that would have regained the lead for the Sparks, Hammon was fouled by Parker and she knocked down both tosses from the charity stripe. LA had a chance to tie, but DeLisha Milton-Jones turned the ball over with 27 seconds left and Los Angeles was forced to foul. Hammon canned two more free throws to seal the victory and the Silver Stars first trip to the Finals.

Just as it has for most of the playoffs, the majority of San Antonio’s scoring came from Hammon (35) and Young (18) as they combined for 70 percent (53-of-76) of the Silver Stars points. The 35 points tied Hammon with Leslie for the second-most points ever in a playoff game. Tamika Whitmore set the record of 41 two years as a member of the Indiana Fever.

Hammon also had a team-high seven rebounds and four assists. Ann Wauters and Erin Buescher added eight points each. San Antonio got all but five of its points from its starters.

Los Angeles had its most balanced scoring of the playoffs with four players in double figures. Parker had 16 points as did Milton-Jones who added 10 rebounds for the double-double, but her turnover late in the game gave San Antonio the lead for good. Parker just missed a double dip with nine rebounds. Johnson had 12 points and Masciadri added 10.

Masciadri got the starting nod at guard over Kiesha Brown and Marie Ferdinand-Harris. Los Angeles’ backcourt has been its weakest link all year and neither Brown nor Ferdinand-Harris played well on the road in the playoffs.

The Sparks had been playing some of the best defense in the playoffs, but when it mattered the most they let San Antonio shoot 49 percent (24-of-49) overall and 50 percent (8-of-16) from behind the arc. LA did shoot well from three-point range, 7-of-17 (41.2 percent), but was only 40.6 percent (26-of-64) overall.

As to be expected, the best rebounding team in the league held a 32-22 advantage over San Antonio, including 13 offensive rebounds. Fouls plagued the Sparks as the Silver Stars made more free throws, 20-of-26 including 9-for-9 by Hammon, than LA took, 13-of-19.