CHARLOTTE, N.C. — By the time the Utah Starzz (16-13) take to the floor tonight at 5:30 MDT at Charlotte Coliseum, their fate may have been already sealed.
If Sacramento (19-10 going into Friday's game at Minnesota) or Phoenix (19-10 going into today's 2 p.m. MDT game at Los Angeles) have won their games this weekend, Utah is out of the WNBA Western Conference playoff picture.
If either Sacramento or Phoenix loses its game, Utah remains alive.
All the Starzz have in their favor as of dawn today is the tiebreaker over Sacramento and Phoenix. To exercise it, one of those two teams must lose all three of its remaining games AND Utah must win all three of its remaining games.
"Our goal was to be in the thick of things at the end, and we are," says Utah coach Fred Williams, whose team pummeled Charlotte (now 7-21 and loser of its last three games) 96-68 on June 15 in the Delta Center.
A win tonight would ensure the Starzz their first-ever winning season.
But Thursday's 74-71 loss by Utah at Cleveland coupled with a Phoenix win over Seattle put the Starzz at the brink, where a slight breeze is all that's needed to push them off the playoff plateau. If Utah misses the postseason in 2000, it will be the fourth straight season of broken promise. Utah's the only one of the original eight WNBA clubs to have never made it to the postseason.
Charlotte has the league's worst defense, allowing 76.5 points a game to opponents, who shoot .459 against them, the second-highest percentage allowed by a WNBA team. They're also last in the league at forcing opponent turnovers, getting only 13.6 a game — perhaps a good sign for the Starzz, who in the last two games have gone back to their pre-Jennifer Azzi ways and made 19 and 22 errors.
Sting All-Star Andrea Stinson is averaging 17.7 points a game, seventh in the WNBA, .3 behind Utah's Natalie Williams (fifth) and .7 ahead of Adrienne Goodson (10th). Utah's Korie Hlede leads lead 3-point shooters at .434, Williams leads rebounders at 11.7 and in double-doubles at 17, Margo Dydek leads blockers at 3.21 a game and Azzi leads all free-throw shooters at .923.
Utah returns home for its final two games of the regular season Monday with Portland and Wednesday with league-leading Los Angeles.