Teasley Keeps West the Best

In WNBA All-Star Game, East Falls to 0-5; Leslie Injures Knee: West 84, East 75

NEW YORK, July 12 -- Before the season started, Los Angeles Sparks Coach Michael Cooper asked guard Nikki Teasley what her goals were for the season. She mentioned winning another WNBA championship and making the Olympic team but never even uttered the words "all-star."

So the fact that the Washington native was named the game's most valuable player after the West's 84-75 victory -- a win marred by a knee injury to Sparks teammate Lisa Leslie -- surprised even Teasley today at Madison Square Garden.

"I'm just blessed and so happy -- and kind of at a loss for words," said Teasley, who collected 10 points, 6 assists and 5 steals. Teasley, who played in high school at St. John's/Prospect Hall in Frederick, barely made the all-star team. She was named as a replacement after Houston's Cynthia Cooper was injured.

Teasley helped lead the West to its fifth win in five tries and edged out Leslie for the award. Leslie scored 17 points -- all of them during the first half before she hurt her right knee early in the second half when she collided with Detroit's Swin Cash under the basket.

Leslie was taken to Beth Israel Hospital for an MRI exam, where a bruised knee was diagnosed. Cooper expressed optimism that the injury was not that serious after Leslie was able to put pressure on the knee as she walked off the court.

When Leslie departed with 14 minutes 35 seconds left in the game, she was on pace to obliterate her WNBA all-star record of 20 points.

Leslie stayed on the court for about five minutes after the injury before being helped off.

"It was just a really physical game, but you never want it to get so physical that people get injured, like what happened today," Cash said.

The game was loosely officiated and Cooper was quick to note that fact when talking about Leslie's injury.

"I'm not naming any players; they went over the back and the officials let that go and this happened," Cooper said. "I think you have to call this one to kind of calm them down a little bit . . . but you just don't say, 'Okay, we are going to let them play,' because now players are going to start swiping, taking liberties more than they are supposed to, cheap shots."

But the same aggressiveness that resulted in Leslie's injury was also a hallmark of the game.

"I have always said women play this game, per player, harder than men," Cooper said. "In the men's game, you have three players standing out by the half-court line deciding which car they are going to drive home for the night and two other players trying to play."

Players from both teams credited the West's winning streak as motivation: The West was fixed on extending the streak to five, the East seemed bent on halting it at four.

During Friday's practice, Leslie had joked that the league keeps holding the All-Star Game on the East Coast -- it's been here four years -- to try and give the winless East a boost. WNBA President Val Ackerman denied the conspiracy theory.

Leslie supplied the bulk of the West's offense in the first half, scoring 13 of her team's first 14 points, but the East took a 46-38 lead into intermission.

The West rallied after Leslie was hurt, scoring 14 straight points to take a 62-50 lead.

While the league boasted a sellout crowd of 18,610, there were a number of empty seats in the Garden's far upper reaches.

After the game, Teasley settled down to celebrate the victory with her glass trophy. But she said she was planning on going to Beth Israel Hospital to check on Leslie.

"Lisa's a very strong individual," Teasley said. "This is obviously nothing that we wanted to happen to any player. But for me, I'm so close to Lisa that when she went down the only thing I could think to do was pray that she would be okay."