Speed Thrills, Kills for Sparks

Team Speed blew the doors off another WNBA opponent Wednesday night, the Sparks registering their third win in a row on a night when Western Conference leader Phoenix continued its slide.

With rookie guard Tamecka Dixon following up her brilliant Sunday game with another gem, Penny Toler and Katrina Colleton turning the game at times into a track meet and Lisa Leslie threatening to achieve the WNBA’s first triple-double, Los Angeles (8-10) blitzed Utah (4-13), 91-69.

Spark Coach Julie Rousseau had to restrain herself. After all, this was the Starzz, a team that has difficulty beating anyone.

“We played well, even though we were out of sync at times. . . ,” she said. “But we’ve got to do this one game at a time, be consistent in everything we do, and win all three of these games.”

The Sparks play Houston on Friday and Charlotte on Sunday at the Forum.

Phoenix’s 68-67 loss at Charlotte dropped its record to 8-7.

Los Angeles point guard Penny Toler wasn’t reluctant to talk about the Mercury’s slide.

“This is a great opportunity for us now, Phoenix having tough games on the road and we being at home,” she said. “W can make up a lot of ground.”

Leslie, before an announced 7,231, put together one of her most complete performances of the season.

She had three blocks in the game’s first 12 minutes.

The WNBA’s No. 2 scorer and No. 1 rebounder, she had 23 points 11 rebounds and seven assists in 35 minutes. She also made a half-dozen outlet passes to start Spark fast breaks.

She made two plays seconds apart that helped put the game away in the final minute of the first half. The first was a three-point shot from the top of the key for a 41-27 Spark lead. Seconds later, at the other end, she made a sensational outlet pass to Toler, who made a layup for 43-27.

The Sparks have shown three consecutive foes that speed really does kill.

Wednesday, the team’s sprinters--Dixon, Toler and Colleton--generated a big lead early and the Sparks kept it.

Colleton scored on the night’s first Spark fast break for a 6-4 lead, Toller knifed through Utah’s defense minutes later for 13-10 edge and even Daedra Charles got into the act.

Almost as slow as 6-foot-8 Haixia Zheng, Charles finished a break at 10:50 to make it 19-14.

Colleton’s running, seven-foot jump shot with 13:06 to play gave Los Angeles its first 20-point lead, 61-41.

The Sparks finished with 16 fast-break points, Utah none.

Defensively, the Sparks made sure Utah--the WNBA’s worst-shooting team--stayed that way, with both zone and man-to-man defenses. The Starzz shot 37%, the Sparks 47%.

Toler and Dixon had 17 points each and a total of nine assists.

Around the WNBA

Sophia Witherspoon had four of her season-high 26 points in overtime for the Liberty, which beat the Sacramento Monarchs, 73-68, in New York, ruining the WNBA coaching debut of Heidi VanDerveer. . . . Rhonda Mapp scored 19 points, including four on free throws over the final 16 seconds, to lead the Sting to a 68-67 victory over the Phoenix Mercury at Charlotte. . . . The Sparks announced during the game that Zheng Haixia wants to be referred to as Haixia Zheng.