Can anyone beat the Comets?

With three worthy challengers in the West and a couple of rapidly maturing expansion teams in the East, this year the answer might -- finally -- be yes

Tina Thompson crashing the boards. John W. McDonough

The 2000 WNBA season will have a different start (because of the Summer Olympics it begins on Memorial Day rather than in late June), but it may well have a familiar finish: a confetti blizzard at Houston's Compaq Center. The three-time champion Houston Comets have abundant talent, playoff experience and a supremely confident attitude. Not only that, but none of Houston's big three (Cynthia Cooper, Sheryl Swoopes and Tina Thompson) made the grueling spring national team tour or played overseas in the off-season, so they should have fresher legs for the playoffs than Olympians such as L.A.'s Lisa Leslie and DeLisha Milton, Sacramento's Ruthie Bolton-Holifield and Yolanda Griffith, and Washington's Chamique Holdsclaw and Nikki McCray.

Even so, this will likely be Houston's toughest title defense yet. Leslie, Milton, et al. may be battle-fatigued, but they're even more tired of seeing Houston swig all the champagne. Last year L.A. nearly knocked off the Comets in the Western Conference finals, losing two games to one; this year new Sparks coach and former L.A. Laker Michael Cooper will instill his NBA-tested brand of defense into what is already an offensively well-armed team.

Sacramento looked as if it might have upset aspirations too, before Griffith, the league's top defender and last year's MVP, went down with a knee injury before the playoffs. Griffith is back, but her continued health is crucial to the team's success -- the Monarchs went 0-4 without her last year. Phoenix, which nearly beat Houston in the WNBA Finals two years ago, may rise again this year: The Mercury boosted its athleticism by acquiring, from Minnesota, All-Star shooting guard Tonya Edwards and forward Brandy Reed, who led the Lynx in scoring and rebounding last year.

In the East, look for two former expansion teams to emerge from the pack. The Washington Mystics, who improved from a 3-27 record in 1998 to 12-20 last year, will make another leap toward justifying the crowds they draw (a league-leading average of 15,306) when former Charlotte forward Vicky Bullett joins forward Murriel Page, who led the league with a .574 shooting percentage last year, in what may be the best front line in the conference. Also look out for the Orlando Miracle, which had a 15-17 record in its inaugural season and sent three players -- Nykesha Sales, Taj McWilliams and Shannon Johnson -- to the All-Star Game.

Can one of these teams put the brakes on Houston's supremacy? "It has to end sometime," says Washington coach Nancy Darsch. "Maybe this will be the year."

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