On Monday night, June 9, the Los Angeles Sparks played the Golden State Valkyries, an expansion team, at home, and lost in overtime by eight points. The Sparks beat them by 17 on opening night in San Francisco. On Thursday night, June 12, the Sparks played the Las Vegas Aces, at the Michelob Ultra Arena, and beat the Aces by eight points, 97 – 89.
The Aces are currently 5- 5 in the Western Conference, and they are tied with Golden State with the same record for fifth place. The Sparks are currently 4-8 which puts them in sixth place in the Westen Conference after losing to Minnesota last weekend.
The Sparks don’t appear to have an identity yet as to who they are as a team and what style of ball they’re going to play. In the eight games they’ve lost this season, they averaged approximately 80 points per game. Conversely, in the four games they’ve won they averaged about 90 points per game. Perhaps a high scoring mentality might be step one in developing an identity to help them win consistently. Whoever scores the most points still win’s the game.
In a small sampling of the Sparks’ last three games shows that they have been victorious when they win the battle in the trenches, rebounds and points in the paint. In one of their recent losses against the Golden State Valkyries they were out rebounded 49 – 34, with Golden State corralling 17 offensive boards to nine for the Sparks. Los Angeles flipped the script last Wednesday night against Las Vegas when they won both the rebound and points-in-paint battles, which is the consistent ingredient needed for the Sparks to be a force in their conference that they can build an identity around.
They’re front court of Dearica Hamby, Rickea Jackson and Azura Stevens are all very capable front-line players as they displayed last Wednesday night, with Jackson scoring 30 on the Aces, and the three of them teaming up to grab 24 rebounds. Guard Kelce Plum had nine assists against the Las Vegas squad, settling the table for her teammates.
The Sparks are hoping that they will start really trusting each other and make good passes that will lead to more assists and more wins. The Sparks next home game is against the Seattle Storm at home at Cryto.com Arena at 7 p.m.