# 2002 Houston Comets season

The 2002 WNBA season was the sixth season for the Houston Comets. They made their best record in two years at 24–8. Despite with that, they eventually lost in the first round to the Utah Starzz.

## Transactions
### WNBA draft

| Round | Pick | Player | Nationality | School/Team/Country |
| 1 | 10 | Michelle Snow | United States | Tennessee |
| 3 | 42 | Shondra Johnson | United States | Alabama |
| 4 | 58 | Cori Enghusen | United States | Stanford |

### Transactions

| Date | Transaction |
| April 3, 2002 | Traded a 2002 2nd Round Pick to the New York Liberty in exchange for Rebecca Lobo |
| April 19, 2002 | Drafted Michelle Snow, Shondra Johnson and Cori Enghusen in the 2002 WNBA Draft |
| April 23, 2002 | Traded Shondra Johnson and a 2003 2nd Round Pick to the New York Liberty in exchange for Grace Daley |
| May 8, 2002 | Waived Niesa Johnson and Tora Suber |
| May 21, 2002 | Waived Larecha Jones |
| May 22, 2002 | Waived Nekeshia Henderson |
| May 22, 2002 | Signed Anna DeForge |
| May 24, 2002 | Waived Anna DeForge and Cori Enghusen |
| May 24, 2002 | Suspended contract of Elena Shakirova |
| June 17, 2002 | Traded Amanda Lassiter to the Seattle Storm in exchange for Sonja Henning |
| June 17, 2002 | Traded Elena Shakirova to the Charlotte Sting in exchange for a 2003 3rd Round Pick |
| June 20, 2002 | Waived Amaya Valdemoro |
| July 22, 2002 | Traded Coquese Washington to the Indiana Fever in exchange for Rita Williams |

## Schedule
### Regular season

2002 game log Total: 24–8 (Home: 14–2; Road: 10–6) :
May: 1–1 (Home: 1–1; Road: 0–0)
GameDateTeamScoreHigh pointsHigh reboundsHigh assistsLocation AttendanceRecord
1
May 27
Los Angeles
L 55–68
Sheryl Swoopes (15)
Tina Thompson (8)
Sheryl Swoopes (6)
Compaq Center
0–1
2
May 29
Phoenix
W 61–56
Sheryl Swoopes (20)
Tina Thompson (12)
Tina Thompson (6)
Compaq Center
1–1 :
June
: 11–2 (Home: 5–0; Road: 6–2)
GameDateTeamScoreHigh pointsHigh reboundsHigh assistsLocation AttendanceRecord
3
June 1
@ Cleveland
W 69–65 (OT)
Tina Thompson (26)
Johnson Thompson (8)
Sheryl Swoopes (8)
Gund Arena
2–1
4
June 3
@ Charlotte
L 52–67
Sheryl Swoopes (17)
Johnson Snow (6)
Janeth Arcain (5)
Charlotte Coliseum
2–2
5
June 5
@ Indiana
W 56–45
Tina Thompson (20)
Arcain Johnson Thompson (8)
Swoopes Thompson (6)
Conseco Fieldhouse
3–2
6
June 9
Sacramento
W 75–62
Tina Thompson (23)
Tina Thompson (13)
Daley Swoopes Thompson (3)
Compaq Center
4–2
7
June 11
Charlotte
W 78–66
Sheryl Swoopes (25)
Sheryl Swoopes (8)
Sheryl Swoopes (6)
Compaq Center
5–2
8
June 13
@ Washington
L 64–70
Tina Thompson (18)
Swoopes Thompson (7)
Sheryl Swoopes (5)
MCI Center
5–3
9
June 15
Minnesota
W 51–50
Kelley Gibson (13)
Tina Thompson (11)
Tynesha Lewis (4)
Compaq Center
6–3
10
June 18
@ Miami
W 53–46
Sheryl Swoopes (16)
Snow Thompson (7)
Sheryl Swoopes (4)
American Airlines Arena
7–3
11
June 21
Phoenix
W 61–59
Sheryl Swoopes (27)
Tina Thompson (10)
Janeth Arcain (6)
Compaq Center
8–3
12
June 23
@ Portland
W 71–58
Tina Thompson (31)
Tina Thompson (6)
Sheryl Swoopes (5)
Rose Garden
9–3
13
June 25
@ Minnesota
W 73–55
Swoopes Thompson (18)
Tina Thompson (7)
Janeth Arcain (7)
Target Center
10–3
14
June 28
Utah
W 73–57
Sheryl Swoopes (27)
Arcain Johnson (7)
Janeth Arcain (5)
Compaq Center
11–3
15
June 30
@ Los Angeles
W 60–58
Sheryl Swoopes (20)
Tiffani Johnson (14)
Arcain Henning Swoopes Thompson (2)
Staples Center
12–3 :
July
: 8–4 (Home: 5–0; Road: 3–4)
GameDateTeamScoreHigh pointsHigh reboundsHigh assistsLocation AttendanceRecord
16
July 3
@ Utah
W 78–67
Janeth Arcain (23)
Tina Thompson (9)
Janeth Arcain (6)
Delta Center
13–3
17
July 6
Detroit
W 61–40
Tina Thompson (19)
Tina Thompson (9)
Sheryl Swoopes (5)
Compaq Center
14–3
18
July 9
Seattle
W 67–59
Sheryl Swoopes (24)
Tina Thompson (13)
Coquese Washington (5)
Compaq Center
15–3
19
July 11
@ Phoenix
L 52–58
Sheryl Swoopes (20)
Sheryl Swoopes (8)
Sheryl Swoopes (4)
America West Arena
15–4
20
July 12
@ Washington
W 74–60
Sheryl Swoopes (15)
Tina Thompson (7)
Janeth Arcain (6)
MCI Center
16–4
21
July 17
@ Utah
L 67–75
Janeth Arcain (17)
Michelle Snow (8)
Janeth Arcain (4)
Delta Center
16–5
22
July 19
@ Portland
L 60–70
Swoopes Thompson (22)
Michelle Snow (9)
Arcain Swoopes (3)
Rose Garden
16–6
23
July 20
@ Seattle
W 56–54
Tina Thompson (18)
Tina Thompson (10)
Janeth Arcain (6)
KeyArena
17–6
24
July 23
Seattle
W 74–66
Sheryl Swoopes (19)
Michelle Snow (9)
Sheryl Swoopes (10)
Compaq Center
18–6
25
July 25
Miami
W 69–60
Janeth Arcain (22)
Tina Thompson (8)
Sheryl Swoopes (4)
Compaq Center
19–6
26
July 28
@ New York
L 56–62
Sheryl Swoopes (23)
Tina Thompson (5)
Tina Thompson (3)
Madison Square Garden
19–7
27
July 30
Portland
W 89–59
Tina Thompson (19)
Snow Swoopes (7)
Sonja Henning (4)
Compaq Center
20–7 :
August
: 4–1 (Home: 3–1; Road: 1–0)
GameDateTeamScoreHigh pointsHigh reboundsHigh assistsLocation AttendanceRecord
28
August 3
Orlando
W 69–62
Sheryl Swoopes (25)
Sonja Henning (9)
Sonja Henning (5)
Compaq Center
21–7
29
August 6
Cleveland
W 67–54
Tina Thompson (19)
Tina Thompson (7)
Arcain Henning (4)
Compaq Center
22–7
30
August 8
@ Los Angeles
W 67–64
Sheryl Swoopes (31)
Michelle Snow (11)
Sonja Henning (4)
Staples Center
23–7
31
August 10
Sacramento
L 59–61
Sheryl Swoopes (32)
Michelle Snow (9)
Janeth Arcain (3)
Compaq Center
23–8
32
August 13
Minnesota
L 63–51
Rita Williams (15)
Michelle Snow (8)
Henning Swoopes (4)
Compaq Center
24–8 :
2002 season schedule :

### Playoffs

2002 playoff game log :
First round vs. Utah Starzz Lost Series: 1–2
GameDateTeamScoreHigh pointsHigh reboundsHigh assistsLocation AttendanceSeries
1
August 16
@ Utah
L 59–66
Sheryl Swoopes (17)
Sheryl Swoopes (10)
Sheryl Swoopes (4)
Delta Center
0–1
2
August 18
Utah
W 83–77 (2OT)
Sheryl Swoopes (28)
Tina Thompson (14)
Sheryl Swoopes (7)
Compaq Center
1–1
3
August 20
Utah
L 72–75
Sheryl Swoopes (28)
Michelle Snow (8)
Sheryl Swoopes (6)
Compaq Center
1–2 :
2002 playoff schedule :

### Season standings

| Western Conference | W | L | PCT | Conf. | GB |
| Los Angeles Sparks $^x$ | 25 | 7 | .781 | 17–4 | – |
| Houston Comets $^x$ | 24 | 8 | .750 | 16–5 | 1.0 |
| Utah Starzz $^x$ | 20 | 12 | .625 | 12–9 | 5.0 |
| Seattle Storm $^x$ | 17 | 15 | .531 | 10–11 | 8.0 |
| Portland Fire $^o$ | 16 | 16 | .500 | 8–13 | 9.0 |
| Sacramento Monarchs $^o$ | 14 | 18 | .438 | 8–13 | 11.0 |
| Phoenix Mercury $^o$ | 11 | 21 | .344 | 7–14 | 14.0 |
| Minnesota Lynx $^o$ | 10 | 22 | .313 | 6–15 | 15.0 |

## Statistics
### Regular Season

| Player | GP | GS | MPG | FG% | 3P% | FT% | RPG | APG | SPG | BPG | PPG |
| Tina Thompson | 29 | 29 | 36.3 | .431 | .370 | .823 | 7.5 | 2.1 | 0.9 | 0.7 | 16.7 |
| Sheryl Swoopes | 32 | 32 | 36.1 | .434 | .288 | .825 | 4.9 | 3.3 | 2.8 | 0.7 | 18.5 |
| Janeth Arcain | 32 | 32 | 34.9 | .424 | .270 | .883 | 3.9 | 2.7 | 1.6 | 0.2 | 11.4 |
| Tiffani Johnson | 32 | 32 | 25.5 | .433 | .000 | .810 | 5.4 | 1.2 | 0.5 | 0.8 | 6.3 |
| Sonja Henning | 23 | 10 | 22.7 | .346 | .250 | .455 | 2.5 | 2.2 | 1.0 | 0.3 | 1.9 |
| Coquese Washington | 21 | 15 | 16.6 | .340 | .381 | 1.000 | 2.0 | 1.5 | 0.6 | 0.0 | 2.1 |
| Michelle Snow | 32 | 2 | 15.0 | .469 | .500 | .596 | 3.7 | 0.4 | 0.4 | 0.8 | 3.9 |
| Tammy Jackson | 5 | 1 | 13.8 | .375 | N/A | .000 | 2.6 | 0.2 | 0.6 | 0.6 | 1.2 |
| Kelley Gibson | 29 | 2 | 9.5 | .382 | .389 | .667 | 0.7 | 0.5 | 0.3 | 0.2 | 2.1 |
| Rita Williams | 9 | 0 | 9.4 | .455 | .333 | .700 | 0.7 | 0.8 | 1.2 | 0.0 | 2.1 |
| Tynesha Lewis | 17 | 1 | 8.5 | .433 | .375 | .625 | 1.1 | 0.5 | 0.2 | 0.2 | 2.0 |
| Grace Daley | 23 | 4 | 8.0 | .432 | .250 | .617 | 1.0 | 0.7 | 0.1 | 0.0 | 2.7 |
| Amanda Lassiter | 6 | 0 | 7.7 | .000 | .000 | .500 | 1.0 | 0.3 | 0.3 | 0.3 | 0.2 |
| Rebecca Lobo | 21 | 0 | 6.3 | .469 | .429 | .250 | 1.1 | 0.6 | 0.0 | 0.2 | 1.6 |
$^‡$Waived/Released during the season $^†$Traded during the season $^≠$Acquired during the season