Sparks blow 14-point lead, drop fourth straight game. What's the problem?
Another instance of a tough second half spelling doom.
Clinging to a narrow lead with roughly 7 minutes to go in the fourth quarter, the LA Sparks looked poised to potentially end their losing streak. But a 24-6 run stopped that from happening, sending the Sparks to yet another loss.
Oh, wait a minute.
That was Saturday.
You’ll understand why the games can bleed together.
On Tuesday, the Sparks were clinging to a narrow lead with roughly 7 minutes to go in the fourth quarter, looking poised to potentially end their losing streak. But a 17-4 run evaporated any chance of that happening, sending the Sparks to their fourth straight loss following a 97-86 defeat at the hands of the Chicago Sky.
Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on … you again?
“Panicking,” forward Dearica Hamby said after the game when asked what’s causing the team to go through offensive struggles late in games that see the Sparks give up these massive runs, leading to losses.
“I don’t think anybody has ill intention, but just trying to play hero ball, and obviously, people have had success at it at certain points,” Hamby continued. “We gotta be more mentally tough to continue to play through that and continue to, like Coach [Lynne Roberts] said, do the things that were working in the first half and not resort to one-on-one ball. And, I mean, quite honestly, we gotta shoot better. We can’t have our starting five at times go, and it’s not just this game, but continue to shoot not efficient [sic] shots.”
So, what’s leading to the panicking?
“Not getting stops,” Hamby elaborated. “Like Coach talked about, it puts pressure on our offense and people feel like they have to go and make plays, and then we’re turning the ball over, and then we’re not getting back in transition. It’s a never-ending cycle.”
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At 4-11, it’s tied for the second-worst start to a season in Sparks franchise history, equaling last year’s dismal mark. The coach changed, they acquired a star in Kelsey Plum, and it’s still the same ol’, same ol’.
It’s hard to pin down what these losses are coming down to.
Could it be fatigue?
The Sparks are third in the WNBA in 3-point percentage in first halves, knocking home 39.1 percent of their tries. It craters to 27.6 percent in second halves, tied for the third-worst mark in the league.
Could it be carelessness?
They’re currently sporting the third-worst turnover rate in the entire league.
Could it just be a lack of defensive aptitude?
Their 107.6 defensive efficiency ranks third-worst in the WNBA.
Do they not get to the line enough?
Can’t be that. They rank second in free-throw rate.
Do they not get enough rebounds?
They’re middle of the pack in both offensive and defensive rebound rate. So, not likely.
Are they not good enough at stopping teams from netting extra opportunities?
Turns out, that’s part of it. They’re the second-worst team in the league in both opponents’ second-chance points per 100 possessions and opponents’ points off turnovers per 100 possessions.
As Hamby alluded to, when you turn the ball over at an exceedingly high rate and get killed off those turnovers, it becomes very hard to win basketball games, especially when coupled with the efficiency at which opponents are converting second-chance opportunities. The “never-ending cycle”, as Hamby put it.
But that alone doesn’t make you a bad team. And, yes, the 2025 LA Sparks, as of right now, are a bad team. Their 4-11 record says that.
Injuries undoubtedly play a factor in this, as well, considering they lost reserve guard Rae Burrell just 41 seconds into the season opener, have been without Cameron Brink for the duration of the season thus far, missed Rickea Jackson for five games due to a concussion, were without Kelsey Plum for a game, and have now missed both Odyssey Sims (personal reasons) and Julie Allemand (overseas committment) for the last handful of contests.
The Sparks can use the injury excuse all they want—and they would be well within their right to do so since, as you can see, they’ve been missing some massively important players for considerable stretches—but that still doesn’t absolve them of what’s transpired during this recent stretch.
It’s OK to call a bad team a bad team. They’ve been bad. But that also doesn’t mean they have to stay bad.
They are, after all, supposed to get Cameron Brink back sometime soon, and that’ll alleviate some of the burden shared by the front-court partnership of Dearica Hamby and Azurá Stevens, who have both had good starts to the season, but can be getting worn down under the workload.
They’re also five weeks into the 6-to-8 week absence that Rae Burrell was supposed to endure, so perhaps her return is imminent, as well. Odyssey Sims could return soon, too, and so will Julie Allemand when her commitment to the Belgian national team ends in the next few days—Belgium’s presently in the quarterfinals of EuroBasket with a game against Germany on Wednesday. Allemand is averaging 10 points, 4.7 rebounds, and 4 assists across three games so far.
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Tuesday’s loss was a heartbreaker for a lot of reasons, chief among them that the Sparks could have moved to 2-0 against the Sky and slipped to within striking distance of the 8-seed.
There’s still a long way to go in the season, and perhaps the Sparks can be a team that others in the WNBA aren’t itching to play in the second half of the season when their full allotment of players are available and able to play the style of basketball that Lynne Roberts is convinced they can get to.
But there’s a bit to go between then and now. And, as things stand, there’s little to believe in the Sparks turning things around. They haven’t won a home game since May 25. They have one win against a team currently sporting a winning record, and that was on opening night against the debuting Golden State Valkyries.
“When you have a championship team and you want to contend with the top, you can’t do that,” Hamby said about the “never-ending cycle” following Tuesday’s loss. “You have to be able to get stops and score.”
Right now, the Sparks are doing neither, especially in crunch time.
They’re the only team that’s winless in clutch games, a wretched 0-6.
It’s felt like it.
A lot of things are the problem. Everything is a problem.
Work on one at a time and perhaps, just maybe, righting the ship can follow suit. Or else that “never-ending cycle” is all this season will be remembered for.
Azurá Stevens dropped in 21 points, 7 rebounds, 2 assists, 4 blocks, and 4 steals, becoming the first player in WNBA history to notch 4 made 3s, 4 blocks, and 4 steals in a single game. Kelsey Plum had 20 points. Dearica Hamby added 15 points, 7 rebounds, and 5 assists. Sparks shot 49% but turned it over 18 times and gave up 28 second-chance points on 12 offensive rebounds.
Kamilla Cardoso led Chicago (4-10) with a career-high 27 points to go with 7 rebounds, 3 assists, and 2 blocks. Angel Reese tallied 18 points, 17 rebounds, and 6 assists, plus 4 steals. Reese joins Tina Charles as the only players in WNBA history to do that.
‣ Up Next: LA Sparks (4-11) play the Indiana Fever (7-7) on Thursday in Indianapolis.
