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Los Angeles coach Joe Bryant has demonstrated this season that less is Moore, and he hopes his strategy will lead the Sparks to their third WNBA title.
Bryant has started little-known Jessica Moore and Tamara Moore and brought perennial All-Star Chamique Holdsclaw and onetime starter Christi Thomas off the bench en route to the best record in the Western Conference.
Lisa Leslie remains the focus of the Sparks offense, and the Moores only average 10.4 points combined. However, their limited shot opportunities allow Mwadi Mabika the chance to get off to a fast start -- a key to the Sparks' success.
"There's no players out there counting shots, counting minutes," says Bryant, who allows the Sparks players to make decisions. "Chamique has accepted coming off the bench, which shows she has a lot of respect for what we're trying to accomplish. By her coming off the bench, I can play her at four positions, whatever is needed."
Los Angeles opens the postseason against Seattle.
Storm coach Anne Donovan, who says Seattle is clicking at just the right time to make a playoff push, will pay a lot of attention to the Moores, Mabika and the rest of Leslie's supporting cast.
"I think the role players are what makes that team click," Donovan says. "Lisa and Chamique are two of the best players in the league, no doubt. But without the right pieces around them they can't be as effective as they are."
Thomas averaged 6.1 points and 5.3 rebounds off the bench, and Holdsclaw, who missed the first six games of the season to handle a family crisis, has not started a game this season. Holdsclaw averaged a career-low 15.0 points and 6.1 rebounds but has played a vital role in L.A.'s run.
"We have some veterans, but we're relatively young," Holdsclaw says. "Besides Mwadi and Lisa, we don't have any veterans with deep playoff experience, so we're going to have to be tough mentally."
Leslie says though Los Angeles is the top seed, there is no favorite to come out of the West.
"We're not the best team," says Leslie, a leading MVP candidate. "I think people are being really disrespectful to the Sacramento Monarchs; they're the defending champs.
"We won the West, but now everybody is 0-0. The fourth-place team can beat the first-place team and so forth. We've got our work cut out for us. But as to who will win, all I can tell you is that we're going to be in the fight."
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