Detroit captures third title
YPSILANTI, Mich. — Winning a gold medal in Beijing, a WNBA championship and the league finals MVP award.
How does it feel, Katie Smith?
“I mean, it’s been OK,” she said to laughter in the interview room Sunday after the forward led the Detroit Shock to their third WNBA crown in six seasons.
The 76-60 win completed a three-game sweep of the San Antonio Silver Stars and came less than two months after the 34-year-old started for the gold-medal winning U.S. Olympic team.
“It’s been fun. It’s just been a lot of fun,” she said.
Smith, who scored a team-high 18 points, was lifted from the game with time running out as coach Bill Laimbeer emptied his bench to the ear-splitting delight of the crowd.
A few minutes later, she was sprinting back on to the court with her teammates to celebrate yet another championship.
Detroit became the second team in league history to win a third championship. Only the Houston Comets, who won the first four (1997-2000), have more. Los Angeles (2001, 2002) is the only other team with more than one.
It was an especially sweet win for the Shock, who let the 2007 title slip away, losing Game 5 at The Palace to the Phoenix Mercury.
“Last year was brutal. Last year was discouraging and we lost the championship, and I thought about moving on,” Laimbeer said. “At some point, I’ll move on, but I don’t necessarily think it is right now.”
Detroit swept the league’s best regular-season team, winning the clincher at Eastern Michigan University’s Convocation Center, a venue forced upon them because of a scheduling conflict.
The Shock won their 2003 championship at The Palace and their ’06 title at Detroit’s Joe Louis Arena, also a substitute venue because of a logistical conflict.
It might not have been The Palace and its seating capacity of more than 22,000, but the cozy Convocation Center and its 9,000-plus seats served as a fine home-court advantage for Detroit — which won all three postseason games here.
One sign in the stands said simply: “Not in our rental unit.”