# 2002 Los Angeles Sparks season

The 2002 WNBA season was the sixth season for the Los Angeles Sparks. The Sparks ended the season winning the WNBA Finals for the second straight year.

## Transactions
### WNBA draft

| Round | Pick | Player | Nationality | School/Team/Country |
| 1 | 16 | Rosalind Ross | United States | Oklahoma |
| 2 | 30 | Gergana Slavcheva | Bulgaria | FIU |
| 2 | 32 | Jackie Higgins | United States | North Carolina |
| 3 | 48 | Rashana Barnes | United States | Penn State |
| 4 | 64 | Tiffany Thompson | United States | Old Dominion |

### Transactions

| Date | Transaction |
| April 19, 2002 | Traded Ukari Figgs and Gergana Slavcheva to the Portland Fire in exchange for Nikki Teasley and Sophia Witherspoon |
| April 19, 2002 | Drafted Rosalind Ross, Gergana Slavcheva, Jackie Higgins, Rashana Barnes and Tiffany Thompson in the 2002 WNBA Draft |
| April 30, 2002 | Signed Erika de Souza, Rhonda Smith and Kim Williams |
| May 3, 2002 | Waived Rashana Barnes |
| May 8, 2002 | Waived Tiffany Thompson |
| May 13, 2002 | Waived Jackie Higgins, Kelley Simon, Kim Williams and Nicole Levandusky |
| May 13, 2002 | Signed Vicki Hall, Shala Crawford and Naomi Mulitauaopele |
| May 16, 2002 | Waived Rhonda Smith and Wendi Willits |
| May 23, 2002 | Waived Naomi Mulitauaopele |
| June 7, 2002 | Signed Katryna Gaither |
| June 11, 2002 | Signed Sophia Witherspoon |
| June 18, 2002 | Traded a 2003 1st Round Pick to the Miami Sol in exchange for Marlies Askamp |
| June 21, 2002 | Waived Katryna Gaither |

## Schedule
### Regular season

2002 game log Total: 25–7 (Home: 12–4; Road: 13–3) :
May: 3–0 (Home: 1–0; Road: 2–0)
GameDateTeamScoreHigh pointsHigh reboundsHigh assistsLocation AttendanceRecord
1
May 25
New York
W 72–64
Leslie Mabika Witherspoon (14)
Lisa Leslie (14)
Tamecka Dixon (7)
Staples Center
1–0
2
May 27
@ Houston
W 68–55
Lisa Leslie (22)
Lisa Leslie (17)
Sophia Witherspoon (4)
Compaq Center
2–0
3
May 30
@ Miami
W 69–65
Mwadi Mabika (17)
DeLisha Milton-Jones (8)
Nikki Teasley (5)
American Airlines Arena
3–0 :
June
: 9–2 (Home: 5–1; Road: 4–1)
GameDateTeamScoreHigh pointsHigh reboundsHigh assistsLocation AttendanceRecord
4
June 1
@ Charlotte
L 87–94 (OT)
Lisa Leslie (26)
Lisa Leslie (12)
Nikki Teasley (6)
Charlotte Coliseum
3–1
5
June 3
Portland
W 89–72
Lisa Leslie (25)
Lisa Leslie (18)
Nikki Teasley (7)
Staples Center
4–1
6
June 8
@ Minnesota
W 76–72
Mwadi Mabika (21)
Byears Leslie Mabika (7)
Lisa Leslie (5)
Target Center
5–1
7
June 11
Detroit
W 90–80
Leslie Milton-Jones (18)
Lisa Leslie (9)
Nikki Teasley (8)
Staples Center
6–1
8
June 15
@ Sacramento
W 72–66 (OT)
Mwadi Mabika (19)
Lisa Leslie (11)
Tamecka Dixon (5)
ARCO Arena
7–1
9
June 18
@ Seattle
W 80–68
Mwadi Mabika (23)
Mabika Milton-Jones (9)
Dixon Mabika (4)
KeyArena
8–1
10
June 21
Minnesota
W 73–64
Lisa Leslie (23)
Lisa Leslie (9)
Nikki Teasley (5)
Staples Center
9–1
11
June 25
Phoenix
W 89–66
Mwadi Mabika (20)
Lisa Leslie (12)
Nikki Teasley (9)
Staples Center
10–1
12
June 27
Washington
W 73–66
Mwadi Mabika (20)
Lisa Leslie (14)
Nikki Teasley (7)
Staples Center
11–1
13
June 28
@ Phoenix
W 84–72
Lisa Leslie (18)
Leslie Milton-Jones (14)
Nikki Teasley (6)
America West Arena
12–1
14
June 30
Houston
L 58–60
Mwadi Mabika (18)
Latasha Byears (11)
Tamecka Dixon (7)
Staples Center
12–2 :
July
: 8–3 (Home: 5–1; Road: 3–2)
GameDateTeamScoreHigh pointsHigh reboundsHigh assistsLocation AttendanceRecord
15
July 5
Sacramento
W 87–65
Lisa Leslie (16)
Leslie Milton-Jones (9)
Nikki Teasley (5)
Staples Center
13–2
16
July 7
Utah
W 102–75
Tamecka Dixon (20)
Lisa Leslie (8)
Tamecka Dixon (8)
Staples Center
14–2
17
July 11
@ Seattle
L 60–79
Lisa Leslie (21)
DeLisha Milton-Jones (10)
Mabika Teasley (3)
KeyArena
14–3
18
July 12
@ Portland
W 82–76 (OT)
Mwadi Mabika (32)
DeLisha Milton-Jones (13)
Mwadi Mabika (6)
Rose Garden
15–3
19
July 17
@ Indiana
W 73–58
Mwadi Mabika (27)
Lisa Leslie (14)
Nikki Teasley (4)
Conseco Fieldhouse
16–3
20
July 18
@ New York
L 59–72
Lisa Leslie (16)
Lisa Leslie (11)
Tamecka Dixon (4)
Madison Square Garden
16–4
21
July 20
@ Cleveland
W 63–50
Mwadi Mabika (15)
DeLisha Milton-Jones (10)
Nikki Teasley (8)
Gund Arena
17–4
22
July 22
Orlando
W 92–84
Lisa Leslie (24)
Lisa Leslie (21)
Lisa Leslie (8)
Staples Center
18–4
23
July 24
Portland
W 73–69
Lisa Leslie (21)
DeLisha Milton-Jones (13)
Dixon Mabika McCrimmon Milton-Jones (3)
Staples Center
19–4
24
July 28
Indiana
W 80–62
Mwadi Mabika (22)
Lisa Leslie (9)
Nikki Teasley (7)
Staples Center
20–4
25
July 30
Miami
L 73–82
Mwadi Mabika (17)
Lisa Leslie (8)
Nicky McCrimmon (6)
Staples Center
20–5 :
August
: 5–2 (Home: 1–2; Road: 4–0)
GameDateTeamScoreHigh pointsHigh reboundsHigh assistsLocation AttendanceRecord
26
August 1
Seattle
L 76–81
Lisa Leslie (30)
Lisa Leslie (16)
Nikki Teasley (7)
Staples Center
20–6
27
August 3
@ Sacramento
W 81–71
Mwadi Mabika (20)
Lisa Leslie (9)
Mwadi Mabika (9)
ARCO Arena
21–6
28
August 4
Utah
W 90–86
Lisa Leslie (26)
Mwadi Mabika (7)
Mwadi Mabika (6)
Staples Center
22–6
29
August 8
Houston
L 64–67
Mwadi Mabika (27)
Leslie Milton-Jones (12)
Tamecka Dixon (5)
Staples Center
22–7
30
August 9
@ Utah
W 85–77
Lisa Leslie (19)
Mwadi Mabika (9)
Nikki Teasley (6)
Delta Center
23–7
31
August 11
@ Minnesota
W 69–58
Mwadi Mabika (16)
Nikki Teasley (6)
Tamecka Dixon (7)
Target Center
24–7
32
August 13
@ Phoenix
W 63–56
Lisa Leslie (23)
Lisa Leslie (11)
Mabika Milton-Jones (3)
America West Arena
25–7 :
2002 season schedule :

### Playoffs

2002 playoff game log :
First round vs. Seattle Storm Won Series: 2–0
GameDateTeamScoreHigh pointsHigh reboundsHigh assistsLocation AttendanceSeries
1
August 15
@ Seattle
W 78–61
Lisa Leslie (24)
Lisa Leslie (9)
Nikki Teasley (8)
KeyArena
1–0
2
August 17
Seattle
W 69–59
Lisa Leslie (23)
DeLisha Milton-Jones (10)
Mabika Teasley (4)
Staples Center
2–0 :
Conference Finals vs. Utah Starzz Won Series: 2–0
GameDateTeamScoreHigh pointsHigh reboundsHigh assistsLocation AttendanceSeries
1
August 22
@ Utah
W 75–67
DeLisha Milton-Jones (17)
Lisa Leslie (8)
DeLisha Milton-Jones (5)
Delta Center
1–0
2
August 24
Utah
W 103–77
Lisa Leslie (25)
Mwadi Mabika (9)
Nikki Teasley (9)
Staples Center
2–0 :
WNBA Finals vs. New York Liberty Won Series: 2–0
GameDateTeamScoreHigh pointsHigh reboundsHigh assistsLocation AttendanceSeries
1
August 29
@ New York
W 71–63
Mwadi Mabika (20)
Latasha Byears (11)
Nikki Teasley (11)
Madison Square Garden
1–0
2
August 31
New York
W 69–66
Lisa Leslie (17)
Latasha Byears (11)
Nikki Teasley (11)
Staples Center
2–0 :
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 |
| Lisa Leslie | 31 | 31 | 34.2 | .466 | .324 | .727 | 10.4 | 2.7 | 1.5 | 2.9 | 16.9 |
| Mwadi Mabika | 32 | 32 | 32.8 | .423 | .366 | .839 | 5.2 | 2.9 | 1.2 | 0.3 | 16.8 |
| Tamecka Dixon | 30 | 30 | 31.9 | .391 | .351 | .831 | 3.1 | 4.0 | 0.9 | 0.2 | 10.6 |
| DeLisha Milton-Jones | 32 | 25 | 30.2 | .487 | .420 | .740 | 6.6 | 1.4 | 1.6 | 1.1 | 11.3 |
| Nikki Teasley | 32 | 32 | 27.6 | .404 | .400 | .750 | 2.6 | 4.4 | 0.8 | 0.3 | 6.4 |
| Latasha Byears | 26 | 5 | 18.7 | .618 | N/A | .566 | 5.4 | 0.5 | 0.7 | 0.2 | 7.0 |
| Sophia Witherspoon | 31 | 1 | 11.5 | .415 | .418 | .761 | 0.9 | 0.9 | 0.4 | 0.1 | 5.2 |
| Nicky McCrimmon | 32 | 0 | 11.1 | .408 | .267 | .636 | 0.7 | 1.7 | 0.7 | 0.1 | 1.6 |
| Marlies Askamp | 20 | 4 | 10.8 | .473 | .000 | .643 | 2.5 | 0.2 | 0.6 | 0.2 | 3.1 |
| Vedrana Grgin-Fonseca | 12 | 0 | 6.6 | .387 | .417 | .667 | 0.7 | 0.1 | 0.1 | 0.0 | 2.6 |
| Vicki Hall | 3 | 0 | 6.3 | .500 | .000 | .750 | 0.7 | 0.3 | 0.3 | 0.0 | 2.3 |
| Katryna Gaither | 1 | 0 | 5.0 | .000 | N/A | N/A | 1.0 | 1.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 |
| Erika de Souza | 11 | 0 | 3.7 | .357 | N/A | .200 | 1.3 | 0.2 | 0.3 | 0.0 | 1.1 |
$^‡$Waived/Released during the season $^†$Traded during the season $^≠$Acquired during the season

## Awards and honors

* Lisa Leslie, Best WNBA Player ESPY Award