Center Is a Concern for the Mystics

The Washington Mystics have refused to act hastily in significant matters. That began long before the season started, when they knew that the center position would be a problem with the retirement of Vicky Bullett, and continues through the start of a three-game road trip tonight in Sacramento, when another decision must be made about whether Chamique Holdsclaw's hamstring has healed enough for extended action.

"You don't replace a starting center in this league easily, unless you bankrupt yourself [in other positions] with a blockbuster trade," Coach Marianne Stanley said. "So you keep developing people, taking incremental steps, doing things by committee."

Stanley began the season with Murriel Page in the post, but quickly learned that her zest was unable to overcome a 157-pound body. Rookie Aiysha Smith has started the last two games at center, but Stanley senses her natural position is power forward. Almost certainly, Stanley will give extended time during the trip to 27-year-old rookie Nakia Sanford, Washington's most aggressive inside player and its only true center.

"We're counting on her to defend and score in the post," Stanley said after Sanford shot 5 for 6 and had four rebounds on Sunday in a loss to the Minnesota Lynx in her longest action by far (22 minutes).

That will not be easy for whomever Stanley uses in the committee of Smith, Sanford and possibly Asjha Jones as the Mystics, beginning with Yolanda Griffith in Sacramento, face a daunting array of centers over the next five games.

Griffith had 24 points and 10 rebounds as the Monarchs (6-8) upset the WNBA's Western Conference-leading Los Angeles Sparks on the road Saturday. Also, she had 22 points and eight rebounds for the Monarchs in their eight-point victory over the Mystics (2-9) at MCI Center 13 days ago. That was Sacramento's second game in as many days -- and the Mystics also had Holdsclaw for 35 minutes.

It was Holdsclaw's return after a four-game absence with the hamstring injury. The next time out Holdsclaw bruised another area of the hamstring and has missed the two most recent games.

She practiced Saturday for the first time since the re-injury, and the Mystics might well have beaten the Lynx with her in the lineup.

They decided the risk was too great.

Holdsclaw practiced hard for about a half-hour yesterday and said there was an "80 percent" chance she would play against the Monarchs. If the team remains cautious, she will "definitely" play the next night in Seattle against the Storm. The trip concludes Saturday in Houston against the Comets.

Stanley has been mixing and matching more than ever the last week, and Holdsclaw suggested another twist. She said her return probably would be at small forward instead of power forward. Page, who had replaced Stacey Dales-Schuman as small forward after the Smith promotion at center, would move to power forward.

"It's a possibility," Stanley said. "But that doesn't mean [Holdsclaw] will be [at small forward] exclusively."

She said Holdsclaw would not start against the Monarchs.

Stanley also used Dales-Schuman at point guard for close to 10 minutes at the start of the second half against the Lynx in an effort to muster more points. But Washington had its least productive game of the season in the 59-50 loss.

"I'm just trying to search for a combination that works well," Stanley said. "Sometimes, I think I know. Then, all of a sudden, what looked good in practice [one day] doesn't [the next]."

For Sanford, 6 feet 2 and 182 pounds, this is her first experience with the WNBA after spending three years with teams in France, Turkey and South Korea. She averaged 7.6 points and 6.5 rebounds for Kansas but was cut by the Mystics in training camp in 2000 after spending a year coaching high school basketball.

"I'm a little foul prone," she said. "But I'm getting more comfortable."

"We need that aggressiveness," Dales-Schuman said. "She hits people in practice, wants the ball, wants to go to the rim."