1997 Los Angeles Sparks season explained

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		USC
Penny Toler		Long Beach State

WNBA elite draft

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

WNBA draft

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

Transactions

Date	Transaction
January 22, 1997	Drafted Lisa Leslie and Penny Toler in the 1997 WNBA Allocation Draft^[1]
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

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

Season standings

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^[2]
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 ^[3]
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

^[2]

References

Sparks on Basketball Reference

Notes and References

Web site: 1997 Los Angeles Sparks Transactions . 2024-05-24 . Basketball-Reference.com . en.
Web site: 1997 WNBA Season Summary.
Web site: Postseason Awards: 1997 . WNBA.com . 2022-09-04.