Sparks’ Lisa Leslie likes first-round matchup with Seattle Storm

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Just as Sparks center Lisa Leslie gave an honest critique of her teammates’ play after an 8-13 start last month, she was also upfront on why she preferred meeting the Seattle Storm in the first round of the playoffs starting tonight rather than the Phoenix Mercury.

‘We match up better with them because they don’t have as much as a deep bench,’ Leslie said of the Storm (20-14), which split its regular-season series with the Sparks, 2-2. ‘I think high-wide and player-for-player, it’s a better matchup for us. I think Phoenix is so fast they don’t have a lot of bigs and they do their matchup zone, so I think overall Seattle would be a better matchup for us. But they’re all tough teams. You’re not going to escape the West.’

The Sparks went 1-3 against Phoenix (23-11) in the regular season -- a series in which neither team really presented its full lineup (then again, that was the Sparks’ story most of the season). The Sparks lost the first game after Leslie left with a sprained right knee that sidelined her for 11 games. They lost the second game that featured Candace Parker‘s return from maternity leave. They dropped the third game with Leslie fighting the flu while Parker and Kristi Harrower were absent for family reasons. The Sparks took the last game while the Mercury’s Diana Taurasi, who’s second in the league in scoring at 20.4 points per game, sat out to rest for the postseason.

Not only are the Sparks avoiding the league’s fastest and most offensively explosive team in the first round, they also face a team in Seattle that’s lost four consecutive first-round series, twice to the Sparks. Although Seattle has home-court advantage, its lineup is riddled with injuries. Storm forward Lauren Jackson (back stress fracture) is out for the series while guard Sue Bird (neck) and reserve forward Katie Gearlds (knee) are returning after sitting out Seattle’s regular-season finale.

Seattle has lost three of it last four games while the Sparks have won three in a row. Still, Sparks forward Tina Thompson said, ‘I don’t really care who we’re playing’ while Sparks forward DeLisha Milton-Jones remarked, ‘I’m just glad we’re in the playoffs.’

Guard Betty Lennox harkened back to her stint with Seattle from 2004 to 2007 where she was named Finals MVP her first season, and remembered too well how the Storm’s home atmosphere often made the difference.

‘It’s hard to go there and win at the Key Arena,’ Lennox said. ‘Their sixth man is very important there. That’s what helps them out there a little bit. ... We come here and play and it’s the same thing. I think our sixth man plays a big role in what we do.’

‘When we play our style of basketball, there isn’t anybody that can beat us.’

Except perhaps, as Sparks Coach Michael Cooper suggested, Phoenix. But he says the San Antonio Silver Stars, which host Game 1 against the Mercury on Thursday, have the goods.

‘They have good veterans on their basketball team,’ Cooper said of San Antonio (15-19). ‘They know what it’s like to win a championship. They have a great coach who understands how to play the chess match in the course of the game. I don’t think they’re scared of Phoenix. They’re not scared of anybody in the West. They’re just as good.’

-- Mark Medina