Sparks 71, Liberty 63

NEW YORK (AP) _ The Los Angeles Sparks are heading home, one win from a second straight title. The New York Liberty are one loss from becoming the Buffalo Bills of the WNBA. <br><br>With Mwadi Mabika scoring

Friday, August 30th 2002, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

NEW YORK (AP) _ The Los Angeles Sparks are heading home, one win from a second straight title. The New York Liberty are one loss from becoming the Buffalo Bills of the WNBA.

With Mwadi Mabika scoring 20 points and leading a dominating inside game, the Sparks won 71-63 Thursday night in Game 1 of the best-of-three WNBA Finals.

Only one team has lost the opener of the finals and won the championship _ Houston in 1998.

Game 2 is Saturday in Los Angeles, where the Sparks are 28-4 in the regular season the last two years. New York is 0-2 in road playoff games this season. If the Sparks win the title, the Liberty go to 0-4 in WNBA Finals.

``Sometimes we like to do it the hard way I guess,'' said Becky Hammon, who came off the bench to lead the Liberty with 18 points. ``But we're not flying out to L.A. to lose. We're not going to roll over and die.''

They certainly gave the Sparks a fight Thursday. The Liberty built an early nine-point lead, but the Sparks' inside game was too much for them to handle in the second half.

Mabika, Lisa Leslie and DeLisha Milton combined for 52 points, and the Sparks hardly felt the absence of starting guard Tamecka Dixon, who hurt her back and knee when she slipped off the team bus before the morning shootaround.

With Dixon out, the Sparks started the bigger and more physical Latasha Byears, who grabbed 11 rebounds. In all, the Sparks outrebounded the Liberty 37-25. Coach Michael Cooper said it would be a game-time decision whether Dixon can play in Game 2.

``With Dixon being unable to play, they went with their big lineup with Milton, Leslie and Byears,'' Liberty coach Richie Adubato said. ``That big lineup caused us a lot of problems because we couldn't rebound as well as we would have.''

Leslie held forward Tamika Whitmore, who averaged 12.7 points during the regular season, to five points on 2-of-9 shooting. The Sparks also held Vickie Johnson, the most versatile Liberty player, to seven points.

While their inside game was not working, the Liberty did manage to set a finals record with nine 3-pointers, including seven in the first half.

``We couldn't let this team have both inside and outside,'' Cooper said. ``We were very fortunate to take away both of them. Vickie Johnson was one of the people we wanted to key on.''

After going into the break tied at 35, the Sparks took a six-point lead with 11:48 to go and never faltered despite several Liberty attempts at a comeback. Sue Wicks hit a 3-pointer with 1:24 left to bring the Liberty to 64-61, but Milton scored on the next Sparks possession to seal it.

``We're mad we lost, we had a great opportunity,'' Wicks said. ``It would have meant so much with the traveling we have to do, if we could have stolen this one.''

Instead, the Sparks go to Los Angeles with another title in sight.

``We feel good,'' said guard Nikki Teasley, who had a finals-record 11 assists. ``We are playing well at home and doing good in the playoffs. We are looking to take it on Saturday and get it over with.''

But the Liberty are intent on extending the series to three games, just as they did against the Fever and Mystics. Game 3, if necessary, will be Sunday in Los Angeles.

Adubato is confident the Liberty can and win it all.

``Yeah, we can do it,'' he said.