Candace Parker

Instead, the Sparks fell into a rough patch, losing three straight games to teams around .500 or below (Washington, New York and Minnesota). Los Angeles rebounded to take the last two games at home before falling by 18 points Thursday at Sacramento.

"I think every team will go through what they're going through one or two times over the course of the year," Seattle Storm Head Coach Brian Agler said after L.A.'s three-game losing streak. "I imagine they'll get back on track shortly."

Indeed, given the parity that has marked this WNBA season, expecting any team to roll all year long is silly. However, the Sparks slump revealed some issues that had been lurking in the team's performance even when they started 10-3. Los Angeles Head Coach Michael Cooper put much of the blame for the team's inconsistent play on his point guards.

"We've got to get a point guard," Cooper said after the loss to Washington, "somebody who can handle pressure and do all the things that we need her to do."

Later, Cooper joked during an in-game interview that he wanted color analyst Derek Fisher to play the point. With Fisher ineligible, the Sparks have four options at the point: veterans Kiesha Brown and Temeka Johnson, rookie Shannon Bobbitt and newly-signed Amber Jacobs. At the start of the month, Brown seemed to have established herself as the starter with Johnson as her backup and Bobbitt inactive. After the loss to New York, however, Bobbitt leapfrogged Johnson to become the starter and has held the position since, with Johnson, Brown and now Jacobs all serving as her backup. In Sacramento, both Brown and Johnson were inactive. Bobbitt was ineffective against the Monarchs, committing five of the 27 Sparks turnovers, so the musical point guards may continue.

While the point guards have drawn the brunt of the criticism, they're not the only issue in Los Angeles. Starting shooting guard Marie Ferdinand-Harris has averaged 8.9 points per game and has regularly gotten to the free-throw line. However, Ferdinand-Harris has never been a good outside shooter. This year, she's made nine three-pointers at a 28.1 percent clip, just ahead of her 27.6 percent career mark. When Ferdinand-Harris is hitting from the outside, as she was in scoring 16 points on 7-of-12 shooting against the Storm, the Sparks can be tough to stop.

Cooper shook up shooting guard briefly as well, starting Italian Raffaella Masciadri. Masciadri has more range than Ferdinand-Harris and has made 14 three-pointers, but at a 26.9 percent clip. The only consistent Sparks threat from downtown is reserve wing Sidney Spencer, who has had a hard time finding regular minutes because Los Angeles is so deep up front and she is at a quickness advantage defensively against guards at 6-1. Overall, the Sparks rank seventh in the WNBA in three-pointers and ninth in percentage.

Because of the inconsistent shooting, opposing defenses can pack in the paint or aggressively double-team Los Angeles' star frontcourt of Parker, Lisa Leslie and DeLisha Milton-Jones. As a result, while the big three have put up strong numbers, the Los Angeles offense has been only average. At 99.2 points per 100 possessions, the Sparks Offensive Rating is eighth in the league - certainly not what would be expected given the ability of the team's stars.

At the other end of the floor, Los Angeles has been stronger. The Sparks are third in the league in Defensive Rating, just ahead of the Storm, allowing 94.1 points per 100 possessions. However, the team has slipped from its lofty perch. Before the three-game losing streak, Los Angeles had the best defense in the WNBA. While the offense was not playing well even during the 10-3 Sparks start, it was when the team's defense slipped that Los Angeles started to struggle. At its best, the Sparks defense can be suffocating because of the length provided by Leslie, Parker and Milton-Jones. Leslie and Parker rank first and second in the league, respectively, in blocks, and the Sparks average nearly two blocks a game more than anyone else in the WNBA.

For the Storm, the June 24 loss at Los Angeles served as a turning point in a very different way. Since then, the Storm has won five straight games, all of them by double-figures, to pass the Sparks in the Western Conference standings. Tonight's game is the Storm's lone matchup at Los Angeles at KeyArena. Because the teams only play three games, a Sparks win tonight would give them the season series and a tiebreaker that could be important in determining seeding as the playoffs draw near.

KEY MATCHUP
	Storm fans are certainly familiar with Leslie's rivalry with Storm MVP Lauren Jackson, but Leslie and Yolanda Griffith have been competing with each other for even longer. The Sparks met Sacramento in the playoffs in 2001, 2003, 2004, 2005 and 2006, three of those matchups coming in the Western Conference Finals. Griffith knows all the tricks for defending Leslie, who was limited to seven points on 2-of-10 shooting in the first head-to-head meeting. Leslie has taken something of a backseat to Parker on offense, where she's averaging 16.3 points a night. On the other end of the floor, Leslie has been as good as ever. Her 3.0 blocks per game not only lead the league but are also a career high.