Whether it’s the Los Angeles Sparks against the Utah Starzz in the WNBA or the U.S. women’s team against Poland in the Olympics, it is always a mesmerizing sight.
For one game, Lisa Leslie is a shrimp.
At 7 feet 2 inches, Poland’s Margo Dydek is the tallest woman in the Olympics. She also is the leading scorer in the tournament.
The Sparks’ Leslie, at 6-5, isn’t far behind, and she helped the United States to a 76-57 victory over Poland in its preliminary-round finale Sunday.
The U.S. advanced to a quarterfinal game Wednesday against Slovakia as one of two unbeaten teams at 5-0.
Australia, which will face Poland in the quarterfinals, is the other unbeaten team. The other quarterfinal matches pit Brazil vs. Russia and France vs. South Korea.
Dydek scored 24 points Sunday, but only six in the first half as the U.S. took a commanding 23-point lead in front of a crowd of 8,471, many of whom chanted “Polska! Polska!” and booed some of the U.S. players.
“Polish people, they are everywhere,” Dydek said. “Some people who live in Australia came to cheer for us, and some came from Poland.”
The boos intensified after Poland’s Edyta Koryzna left the game unable to get her breath after a collision with Leslie on a rebound. Koryzna later was taken off the court in a wheelchair and sent to a hospital for X-rays to check for internal injuries.
Leslie scored 14 points, 11 in the decisive first half, showing her outside shooting with a three-pointer during a 26-6 U.S. run.
“I mix it up,” Leslie said. “Depending on where Margo is, I’m going to go opposite. There’s no use in me running in there when I can shoot from the outside. And if she does come out, I just go around her.”
“Margo poses a big threat, obviously, clogging up the middle that way. She can block shots, and even though she just stays right there in the middle, you have to find other ways to score. That’s where the versatility comes into play.”
There is a defensive issue, too, and it was Yolanda Griffith, not Leslie, who did most of the work on that front.
“That was my assignment,” said Griffith, who had 16 points and 12 rebounds. Sheryl Swoopes also scored 16 points.
“You get tired, you get a sub,” Griffith said. “Then DeLisha [Milton] played on her, Natalie Williams played on her. You put a lot of defenders on her and try to slow her down and make her tired.”
Dydek’s stats were solid, but compared with a 32-point, 13-rebound game with five blocked shots against Cuba earlier in the tournament, she was held in check.
More Top Picks Patio Set
“We didn’t want to let anybody get 32 points on us,” Griffith said.