Gutsy Sparks 'grew up' to notch crucial road win over Fever

Sometimes you just need a few breaks of your own making.

(Photo credit: Grace Smith/IndyStar / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images)

Sometimes in basketball, as in life, you have to be the change you want to see.

The LA Sparks, riding a season-worst four-game losing streak and trailing by 10 in the fourth quarter on the road against the Caitlin Clark-less Indiana Fever, found a way to do just that.

Instead of folding and letting past disappointments take hold, they rallied with a 35-15 closing spurt to take an 85-75 road victory and snap the skid.

“They were up 60-50. In the past, recently, we’ve kind of gotten a little—panicking is not the word I’d use, but just a little down,” Sparks coach Lynne Roberts said after the team’s first win since June 11.

“Tonight, we never, we didn’t hiccup, they stayed just in the connectedness in the huddles, and everything in the timeouts was different. This was a good growing-up game for us in terms of realizing what we need to do for us to play like that,” Roberts added.

The Sparks turned the ball over 15 times in the first half, looking listless and on their way to another mind-bending loss on the backs of careless miscues and inattentive defensive rebounding.

Those 15 first-half turnovers led to 12 Fever points, and Indiana racked up another 11 second-chance points off of 7 offensive rebounds. That alone could have sunk the Sparks.

But the tide changed in the second half, allowing just 9 combined points off turnovers and second-chance opportunities.

“We only had four turnovers in the second half after really struggling with it,” said Roberts. “They (Indiana) only had three offensive rebounds in the second half. So, if it’s a game of chances, we won the chance battle in the second half, and that’s why I think we won.”