# 1997 Los Angeles Sparks season

The 1997 WNBA season was the first season for the Los Angeles Sparks. The Sparks finished in second place in the Western Division with a record of 14 wins and 14 losses.

## Transactions
### WNBA allocation draft

| Player | Nationality | School/Team/Country |
| Lisa Leslie | United States | USC |
| Penny Toler | United States | Long Beach State |

### WNBA elite draft

| Round | Pick | Player | Nationality | School/Team/Country |
| 1 | 8 | Daedra Charles | United States | Tennessee |
| 2 | 16 | Zheng Haixia | China | China |

### WNBA draft

| Round | Pick | Player | Nationality | School/Team/Country |
| 1 | 3 | Jamila Wideman | United States | Stanford |
| 2 | 14 | Tamecka Dixon | United States | Kansas |
| 3 | 19 | Katrina Colleton | United States | Maryland |
| 4 | 30 | Travesa Gant | United States | Lamar |

### Transactions

| Date | Transaction |
| January 22, 1997 | Drafted Lisa Leslie and Penny Toler in the 1997 WNBA Allocation Draft |
| February 27, 1997 | Drafted Daedra Charles and Zheng Haixia in the 1997 WNBA Elite Draft |
| April 16, 1997 | Hired Linda Sharp as Head Coach |
| April 28, 1997 | Drafted Jamila Wideman, Tamecka Dixon, Katrina Colleton and Travesa Gant in the 1997 WNBA Draft |
| July 16, 1997 | Fired Linda Sharp as Head Coach |
| July 16, 1997 | Hired Julie Rousseau as Head Coach |

## Schedule
### Regular season

1997 game log Total: 14–14 (Home: 8–6; Road: 6–8) :
June: 2–3 (Home: 2–1; Road: 0–2)
GameDateTeamScoreHigh pointsHigh reboundsHigh assistsLocation AttendanceRecord
1
June 21
New York
L 57–67
Lisa Leslie (16)
Lisa Leslie (14)
Jamila Wideman (6)
Great Western Forum
0–1
2
June 23
@ Utah
L 89–102
Lisa Leslie (22)
Lisa Leslie (10)
Jamila Wideman (7)
Delta Center
0–2
3
June 25
Charlotte
W 74–54
Lisa Leslie (19)
Leslie Toler (5)
Penny Toler (7)
Great Western Forum
1–2
4
June 27
Sacramento
W 102–92
Zheng Haixia (28)
Zheng Haixia (10)
Toler Wideman (7)
Great Western Forum
2–2
5
June 30
@ Houston
L 66–71 (OT)
Lisa Leslie (21)
Lisa Leslie (16)
Penny Toler (5)
The Summit
2–3 :
July
: 6–7 (Home: 3–3; Road: 3–4)
GameDateTeamScoreHigh pointsHigh reboundsHigh assistsLocation AttendanceRecord
6
July 2
@ Cleveland
W 74–62
Lisa Leslie (19)
Lisa Leslie (7)
Jamila Wideman (6)
Gund Arena
3–3
7
July 5
@ Charlotte
L 66–78
Lisa Leslie (16)
Leslie Toler (7)
Jamila Wideman (6)
Charlotte Coliseum
3–4
8
July 7
Cleveland
L 70–81
Lisa Leslie (22)
Lisa Leslie (9)
Jamila Wideman (8)
Great Western Forum
3–5
9
July 11
Utah
W 75–68
Linda Burgess (20)
Burge Burgess (9)
Leslie Toler (6)
Great Western Forum
4–5
10
July 13
Phoenix
L 56–57
Linda Burgess (12)
Heidi Burge (11)
Burge Charles Colleton Dixon Toler (2)
Great Western Forum
4–6
11
July 15
@ Sacramento
L 73–78
Lisa Leslie (17)
Burgess Leslie (5)
Penny Toler (10)
ARCO Arena
4–7
12
July 16
Houston
W 77–52
Zheng Haixia (15)
Lisa Leslie (10)
Lisa Leslie (5)
Great Western Forum
5–7
13
July 19
@ New York
L 57–69
Penny Toler (14)
Lisa Leslie (7)
Jamila Wideman (4)
Madison Square Garden
5–8
14
July 21
@ Charlotte
L 64–75
Lisa Leslie (18)
Penny Toler (8)
Leslie Toler (4)
Charlotte Coliseum
5–9
15
July 23
Cleveland
L 85–89
Lisa Leslie (28)
Lisa Leslie (13)
Jamila Wideman (7)
Great Western Forum
5–10
16
July 25
@ Phoenix
W 86–83
Lisa Leslie (17)
Lisa Leslie (8)
Toler Wideman (4)
America West Arena
6–10
17
July 27
@ Sacramento
W 84–62
Tamecka Dixon (20)
Lisa Leslie (9)
Penny Toler (9)
ARCO Arena
7–10
18
July 30
Utah
W 91–69
Lisa Leslie (23)
Lisa Leslie (11)
Lisa Leslie (7)
Great Western Forum
8–10 :
August
: 6–4 (Home: 3–2; Road: 3–2)
GameDateTeamScoreHigh pointsHigh reboundsHigh assistsLocation AttendanceRecord
19
August 1
Houston
L 57–81
Penny Toler (17)
Lisa Leslie (6)
Penny Toler (3)
Great Western Forum
8–11
20
August 3
Charlotte
L 70–77
Penny Toler (19)
Lisa Leslie (10)
Penny Toler (7)
Great Western Forum
8–12
21
August 5
@ New York
W 67–50
Dixon Toler (16)
Lisa Leslie (14)
Penny Toler (3)
Madison Square Garden
9–12
22
August 7
@ Cleveland
W 87–84
Tamecka Dixon (23)
Lisa Leslie (14)
Lisa Leslie (5)
Gund Arena
10–12
23
August 9
@ Houston
L 71–72
Tamecka Dixon (21)
Zheng Haixia (7)
Penny Toler (4)
The Summit
10–13
24
August 16
@ Utah
W 74–64
Lisa Leslie (23)
Lisa Leslie (12)
Penny Toler (8)
Delta Center
11–13
25
August 18
Phoenix
W 75–66
Lisa Leslie (26)
Lisa Leslie (15)
Penny Toler (8)
Great Western Forum
12–13
26
August 20
New York
W 78–76
Penny Toler (17)
Zheng Haixia (9)
Penny Toler (6)
Great Western Forum
13–13
27
August 22
Sacramento
W 88–77
Zheng Haixia (21)
Lisa Leslie (12)
Penny Toler (8)
Great Western Forum
14–13
28
August 24
@ Phoenix
L 68–73
Tamecka Dixon (25)
Lisa Leslie (14)
Penny Toler (4)
America West Arena
14–14 :
1997 season schedule :

### Season standings

| Western Conference | W | L | PCT | Conf. | GB |
| Phoenix Mercury $^x$ | 16 | 12 | .571 | 9–3 | – |
| Los Angeles Sparks $^o$ | 14 | 14 | .500 | 8–4 | 2.0 |
| Sacramento Monarchs $^o$ | 10 | 18 | .357 | 4–8 | 6.0 |
| Utah Starzz $^o$ | 7 | 21 | .250 | 3–9 | 9.0 |

## Statistics
### Regular Season

| Player | GP | GS | MPG | FG% | 3P% | FT% | RPG | APG | SPG | BPG | PPG |
| Penny Toler | 28 | 28 | 32.4 | .426 | .184 | .839 | 3.4 | 5.1 | 1.3 | 0.1 | 13.1 |
| Lisa Leslie | 28 | 28 | 32.2 | .431 | .261 | .598 | 9.5 | 2.6 | 1.4 | 2.1 | 15.9 |
| Tamecka Dixon | 27 | 21 | 26.5 | .456 | .423 | .773 | 3.0 | 2.0 | 1.8 | 0.2 | 11.9 |
| Jamila Wideman | 28 | 14 | 22.6 | .236 | .194 | .794 | 2.0 | 3.7 | 0.9 | 0.0 | 3.0 |
| Katrina Colleton | 28 | 14 | 21.9 | .437 | .360 | .567 | 2.1 | 1.6 | 1.3 | 0.3 | 4.9 |
| Zheng Haixia | 28 | 21 | 19.9 | .618 | N/A | .661 | 4.4 | 0.6 | 0.4 | 0.7 | 9.3 |
| Linda Burgess | 28 | 6 | 17.6 | .541 | .500 | .735 | 4.2 | 0.3 | 0.7 | 0.5 | 6.5 |
| Mwadi Mabika | 21 | 1 | 15.5 | .390 | .184 | .542 | 2.6 | 1.0 | 1.1 | 0.3 | 6.0 |
| Heidi Burge | 22 | 6 | 12.8 | .444 | .000 | .511 | 3.1 | 0.7 | 0.5 | 0.5 | 4.0 |
| Daedra Charles | 28 | 1 | 10.1 | .403 | .000 | .667 | 1.7 | 0.4 | 0.4 | 0.4 | 2.3 |
| Travesa Gant | 2 | 0 | 6.5 | .000 | N/A | N/A | 1.5 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 |
| Kim Gessig | 1 | 0 | 4.0 | N/A | N/A | N/A | 1.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 |
$^‡$Waived/Released during the season $^†$Traded during the season $^≠$Acquired during the season
* Tamecka Dixon was tied for tenth in the WNBA in steals with 49.
* Tamecka Dixon ranked tenth in the WNBA in Field Goal Percentage (.456)
* Lisa Leslie ranked third in the WNBA in points with 445 points.
* Lisa Leslie ranked third in the WNBA in points per game with 15.9
* Lisa Leslie ranked fifth in the WNBA in field goals with 160.
* Lisa Leslie ranked first in the WNBA in total rebounds with 266.
* Lisa Leslie ranked second in the WNBA in blocks with 59.
* Penny Toler ranked tenth in the WNBA in points with 368 points.
* Penny Toler ranked eighth in the WNBA in field goals with 144.
* Penny Toler ranked tenth in the WNBA in points per game with 13.1
* Penny Toler ranked sixth in the WNBA in Free Throw Pct with .839
* Penny Toler ranked second in the WNBA in assists with 143.
* Jamila Wideman ranked seventh in the WNBA in assists with 103.
* Haixia Zheng ranked ninth in the WNBA in blocks with 20.

## Awards and honors

* Lisa Leslie, Center, All WNBA First Team
* Lisa Leslie: Led WNBA, Defensive Rebounds, 203
* Lisa Leslie: Led WNBA, Total Rebounds, 266
* Lisa Leslie: Led WNBA, Rebounds per game, 9.5
* Lisa Leslie ranked second in the WNBA with 2.1 blocks per game.
* Lisa Leslie ranked third in the WNBA with 113 Free Throws.
* Haixia Zheng, WNBA Peak Performer
* Haixia Zheng, Kim Perrot Sportsmanship Award
* Haixia Zheng: Led WNBA, Field Goal Percentage, .618