WNBA Playoffs: Shock's Ford Absorbs Sun While Monarchs Douse Sparks

(Guru's Note: Updating to reflect Western Conference finals result)


By Mel Greenberg

Three seasons ago, the Detroit Shock appropriately added a Ford to its Motor City assembly line and the result was a WNBA championship in a thrilling finish over the Los Angeles Sparks.

Prior to the then best-of-three finals, Cheryl Ford, the Louisiana Tech all-American, was named the rookie of the year as coach Bill Laimbeer’s bunch executed an all-time worst-to-first turnaround after dwelling in the league’s cellar the previous season.

Ford, a tremendous post presence, came from good basketball stock in that her father Karl Malone was also known to dominate in the paint during his legendary NBA career.

On Thursday night, Ford demonstrated how powerful she has become with a few miles of acquired experience.

The 6-foot-3 center set a career high and WNBA playoff record with 23 rebounds as the Shock put the Connecticut Sun’s backs to the wall with a 70-59 victory in the best-of-three Eastern Conference finals opener at the Palace in Auburn Hills, Mich.

“That’s just a Herculean effort,” Laimbeer said of Ford’s performance. “She’s been very driven and focused all year, and it has been a joy to watch.”

All right, the Sun was already in some difficulty before arriving to defend its two-time Eastern Conference crown after losing Katie Douglas to a foot injury in the closing minute of Sunday’s closeout of the Washington Mystics.

Connecticut did manage to stay in contention much of the way Thursday night and will be back home for the rest of the series on Saturday and potentially Sunday if the Sun expect to return to the WNBA championship series.

Connecticut coach Mike Thibault even suggested that if the Sun had had a better shooting night they might have "won the game by 10 points."

On the other hand, Detroit has two of its three victories in a 3-0 regular season sweep of Connecticut in the Mohegan Sun Arena.

Connecticut’s situation recalls the 2003 finals when Los Angeles Sparks steamrolled the Shock in the opener in Los Angeles and then afterwards Laimbeer calmly and boldly suggested his team felt great and they were going home for the next two games.

Of course, Detroit was much healthier than Connecticut’s current condition.

The Sun did have four players score in double figures Thursday night but Nykesha Sales’ struggles from the field continued with a 1 for 6 effort that has her playoff stroke to date similar to A-Rod’s performance in the baseball postseason since he joined the New York Yankees.

“I’ve never been through anything like this in my life,” Sales said after also previously shooting 1-for-17 in the opening series against Washington. “It’s hard, because I don’t want to force things, but I also don’t want to
pass up good shots. Right now, I just have no rhythm.”

No, we did not see Thursday night’s action up close and personal due to staffing shortages in the home office this week so the quotes you see here are off the wire reports.

And, for that, matter, other than checking scores on our handy blackberry internet connection during dinner in a restaurant, we didn’t see the game from afar since NBA-TV is not carried on cable systems in Philadelphia.

So someone else will have to comment on the studio analyst debut of Phoenix Mercury rookie Cappie Pondexter, the former Rutgers all-American who was No. 2 overall in April’s draft and finished second to Minnesota’s Seimone Augustus in the rookie-of-the-year voting.

Meanwhile, Ford, who set a WNBA rebounding record for the season, was the only player in the league to average a double double this past season and with one slot still open for the USA Squad that will compete for the FIBA world championship in Brazil, one wonders whether the native of Summerfield, La., may have become a top contender, even if she can't make the audition next week if Detroit is in the finals.

“It just seemed like the ball was falling right into my hands,” Ford said of her work Thursday night, which fed Smith and Deanna Nolan, who had a game-high 21 points.

The previous playoff record was 18 by the Los Angeles Sparks’ Lisa Leslie and Ford also shattered Leslie’s rebound record for a half with 16 in the first 20 minutes of play. The three-time Olympic gold medalist had the old rebound record for a half with 14.

Chamique Holdsclaw holds the regular season rebounding record for a game with 24.

Incidentally, one Shock player already on the USA team is veteran Katie Smith, who had 17 points Thursday night and came to Detroit in a trade last season that has also been effective in helping to make the team a title contender again.

If Detroit wins it all, Smith will become the first person to win pro women’s basketball titles in the WNBA and the former American Basketball League when she helped the Columbus Quest to the league’s two titles in its brief existence in the mid-1990s.

Sparks Doused

On a day when Pluto’s planetary status was dispatched from the solar system, the WNBA’s two top dogs saw their title contender designations approach re-classification as also-rans in the playoffs.

Connecticut, the team with the best overall record, faces an elimination game Saturday in the Mohegan Sun Arena after the Sun lost their Eastern Conference finals opener to the Detroit Shock.

The Los Angeles Sparks are in a similar situation on Saturday in Anaheim, Calif., after a tenacious fourth-quarter rally by the defending champion Sacramento Monarchs produced a 64-61 victory in the closing seconds.

Yolanda Griffith, who might retire if the Monarchs win a second straigt crown, scored the go-ahead basket, a layup with 10.3 seconds left, to finish with 18 points and give Sacramento the triumph in the opening game of the best-of-three Western Conference finals.

In the previous nine-year history of the playoffs, the finals have never been without both of the top two teams from the regular season.

Chamique Holdsclaw, who is struggling with a foot injury, again was unable to play for the Sparks.

On a night when Lisa Leslie scored just seven points, Mwadi Mabika almost got the job for the Sparks done herself with 23 points.

“She killed me,” said Monarchs veteran point guard Ticha Penicheiro “It’s frustrating. You play your best defense, and she still keeps making them. The shots she made, I was right there. She shot it right in my eye.”

Monarchs coach John Whisenant complimented his team's fortitude to come back from a nine-point deficit that existed in the third quarter.

“I really thought my team showed determination, character, courage,
whatever you want to call it,” Whisenant said. “We needed this one badly.”

The Monarchs have eliminated Los Angeles in the conference semifinals two straight seasons after the Sparks had appeared in three straight WNBA finals from 2001-03.

Of course, Los Angeles just recovered from a similar situation as this series when the Sparks lost the opener of the conference semifinals to the Seattle Storm in Seattle before taking two games at home in the Staples Center.

“Sacramento did what it was supposed to do, and now we have a chance to
go home and hopefully make our shots this time,” Leslie said. “We learned
from the first(-round) series against Seattle that it can be done. It just
takes composure.”

Due to an American Idol-related event in Los Angeles, Saturday’s game will be in Anaheim, near Disneyland, the one place where Pluto still has star status.

-- Mel