YPSILANTI, Mich. Katie Smith missed almost the entire second quarter because of foul trouble. Cheryl Ford has been out since the summer with a knee injury. And the Detroit Shock had to play in a college gym half the size of its regular home court.
The Shock overcame all of that in winning its third WNBA title in six seasons on Sunday, beating the San Antonio Silver Stars 76-60 in Game 3.
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.
For Smith, the finals MVP, the win meant a league championship less than two months after she and her U.S. teammates took gold in Beijing.
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.
Smith had a team-high 18 points for Detroit, which also got 13 from Taj McWilliams-Franklin.
Center Ann Wauters led San Antonio with 19 points.
NHL
Wade Redden and Scott Gomez each scored second-period goals and the New York Rangers rallied to beat the Tampa Bay Lightning 2-1 to sweep their two-game, season-opening series in Europe. The game was played in Prague, Czech Republic.
Dany Heatley scored two more goals and captain Daniel Alfredsson had two assists for Ottawa, which beat Pittsburgh 3-1 in Stockholm, Sweden.
Heatley, who also had a goal in the Senators' 4-3 overtime loss to the Penguins on Saturday, helped Ottawa take three of four points during the season-opening European series.
Ray Whitney and Eric Staal each had a goal as the Carolina Hurricanes took a 2-0 home win against the Nashville Predators in their final exhibition.
MOTORSPORTS
Troy Bayliss of Australia clinched a third World Superbike championship after finishing third in the first race at Magny-Cours, France. He finished 6.875 seconds behind the winner to reach an insurmountable total of 385 points with three races left.
Sebastien Loeb won his fourth straight Catalunya Rally in Salou, Spain to move closer to securing a record fifth world championship.
Casey Stoner won his second straight Australian Moto GP at Phillip Island, Australia, leading from the pole for the entire race to beat Valentino Rossi by 6.5 seconds.
SOCCER
Michael Harrington atoned for a first-half mistake with a second-half goal and salvaged a 1-1 MLS draw for the Kansas City Wizards at home against Chicago.
TENNIS
Tomas Berdych won the Japan Open in Tokyo for his first singles title in 16 months, beating Juan Martin Del Potro 6-1, 6-4 on Sunday.
New No. 1 Jelena Jankovic won her second title in two weeks, defeating Nadia Petrova of Russia 6-4, 6-3 in the Porsche Grand Prix final in Stuttgart, Germany.
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