PhiSlammaJamma

Article written by Fran Harris...

"What teams will have to do to beat Houston is a lot easier to write about than execute on the court.

On paper, the Comets are not the best team in the league. Los Angeles is, then Sacramento. But since there's yet to be one game played on paper, teams have to put together two halves of their finest basketball to defeat the Comets.

Here are my top five things you have to do against them:

1. Effectively defend their pick and roll offense

New York actually did a good job of containing this part of the Comets' attack. They trapped the ballhandler in the pick and roll, forcing Coop or whoever dribbled the ball to cough it up. The problem with this maneuver is that it leaves an equally deadly shooter, usually Thompson, open. The other problem is that Cooper commands so much attention off the dribble that she often penetrates and drops it off down low to an open Monica Lamb or Tammy Jackson.

2. Give Coop, Thompson and Swoopes a few war wounds

The Big Three may absorb the contact, but they sure as hell don't like it. So, teams have to put physical players on them and make them feel the pain of driving to the basket.

3. Keep Houston off the boards

May sound like a strange thing to say about a team that is not that imposing in the paint, but they're one of the best offensive rebounding teams at the perimeter spots. Against New York, it was Arcain and Swoopes who came up big in the rebounding category with eight and six respectively.

4. Handle their full court pressure

This is a relatively new element to the Comets defense, and with it they're even scarier (imagine that). They're smothering teams in the second half when they need an offensive surge, and it's working. Even teams with a solid point guard, like New York's Teresa Weatherspoon, are succumbing to the pressure.

5. Play the game above and below the neck

The Comets are beatable, yes. The Phoenix Mercury proved this in 1998 when they won Game One of the WNBA finals. But then what happened? They went to Houston and let a 14-point lead slip away like water through their hands in Game Two.

Last year, Los Angeles not only beat the Comets in Game One of the Western Conference semifinals, they thrashed them. But what happened next? The Sparks let a few questionable calls in the Compaq Center upset their apple cart, causing them to crumble like a sandcastle on Manhattan Beach.

The mystique of the Houston Comets lies not so much in their physical abilities, daunting as those may be, but rather in their uncanny ability to mentally overpower less experienced, less mature and more instant gratification-type teams. Every team over the past three years that's gone ahead in a decisive game against the Comets has committed the ultimate transgression. They celebrated.

Make no mistake, the time to celebrate a victory against Houston is after the last game of the WNBA finals, when league president Val Ackerman walks to center court to present the championship trophy. If Ackerman is not surrounded by folks holding up four fingers, then, and only then is it safe to come out.

Until then, be afraid ... be very afraid.


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humble, but hungry.

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CometsWin

I would say you have to approach anything that Fran Harris says about the Comets with a little bit of caution. She played for Houston in year 1 and was summarily shipped to Utah in year 2 which I don't imagine went over too well with Fran. She always seems to have some biting commentary when it comes to Houston. I think she postures herself as the Bill Walton of the WNBA. You know, just really annoying sometimes.

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