The 6-foot-5 center, who missed a jam in the inaugural WNBA game in 1997, slammed home a one-hander Tuesday night to become the first woman to dunk in a professional game.

"I thought today would be a great time to try," Leslie said. "There has been a lot of talk and pressure around it. I finally had the opportunity."

Leslie received an outlet pass from Latasha Byears, took two dribbles and dunked with 4:44 left in the half of the Los Angeles Sparks' 82-73 loss to the Miami Sol.

She smiled broadly and spread her arms wide as she raced back down the court, greeted by brief hugs from teammates. During the next stop in play, the team gathered on the court for more hugs and a quick celebration.

Sparks coach Michael Cooper jumped up and down after the jam.

"We should have won this game for that reason alone," Cooper said.

Leslie quieted all the talk about who would be the first to dunk in the WNBA.

Sylvia Crawley of the Portland Fire and Houston Comets rookie Michelle Snow had both signaled their intent to dunk when the opportunity arose. In fact, Crawley's coach even designed a breakaway play aimed at getting a slam.

Leslie's teammates said they had been waiting for this.

"We were anticipating the moment and it was spectacular," forward DeLisha Milton said. "Lisa did not let us down. It was clean, and no one can say anything about it. She put it down, plain and simple."

"It was great for the women's game," the Sol's Debbie Black said.

The first woman to dunk in a college game was West Virginia's Georgeann Wells, who did it Dec. 21, 1984. North Carolina's Charlotte Smith dunked in 1994. Snow had dunked three times during her college career at Tennessee.

Leslie said she'll certainly try to dunk again.

"I feel really good about it," she said. "It was a good dunk. It was hard enough."

Leslie, who finished with 13 points and eight rebounds, dunked three times in practice during the recent All-Star weekend in Washington, but it had not been done in a game in the WNBA's six seasons.

On July 22, Leslie became the first player in league history to score 3,000 points.

"It's just been such a blessing," Leslie said. "My life has been almost like a storybook."

Miami coach Ron Rothstein called Leslie's jam just "another dunk."

"It doesn't matter. We won," said Rothstein, who coached for four seasons in the NBA, and whose Sol dominated the Sparks most of Tuesday's game.

Sheri Sam had 18 points, Betty Lennox added 17, and Sandy Brondello had 16 points for Miami (12-14), which stayed a half-game behind fourth-place Orlando in the race for the Eastern Conference's final playoff spot.

Mwadi Mabika scored 17 points for the Sparks (20-5), whose lead over second-place Houston in the Western Conference dwindled to one game.