LOS ANGELES -- These new Sparks are about to open house.
Previously, the Sparks were the Golden State Valkyries’ first opponents in franchise history. Kelsey Plum went off for 37 points in that game as the Sparks ended up winning by 17.
Sunday will be a different beast altogether. The Sparks draw the Minnesota Lynx for their first match-up in Crypto.Com Arena. And the Lynx are irritated, vengeful, and seeing red after a fifth championship was snatched away from them by the New York Liberty in an epic five-game series last fall.
The Lynx are led by Napheesa Collier. Phee won the Defensive Player of the Year award and was second in the Most Valuable Player race last season. On Friday, she tied the record for most points for a season opener before the aforementioned Kelsey Plum broke it outright later in the night. Still, Collier is pretty good at basketball.
Courtney Williams returns as Minnesota’s point guard. Bridget Carleton is also back with her shooting. Unfortunately for the Lynx, all-star Kayla McBride is out for personal reasons while Alanna Smith is questionable with a quad injury. But Diamond Miller (second overall pick of 2023) played well on Friday. And they also added former Spark Karlie Samuelson and got back Jessica Shepard in the offseason.
The Lynx defeated the Wings on Friday so their Revenge Tour has officially begun. It’s a big challenge for the Sparks. Yes, they played well defensively and held the Valkyries to 67 points on Friday. But there’s a difference between going against an expansion team and a championship contender.
The Sparks offense looked horrendous to start on Friday. They did eventually get it together a bit, especially Plum. Los Angeles dominated Golden State in the paint, 40-22. Can they actually do it again against Collier and the Lynx?
The Lynx may be shorthanded but this has gotten way too familiar for the Sparks. Julie Allemand and Cameron Brink are not expected to see action for a few weeks and they can add guard Rae Burrell to the mix. She’ll be out for 6-8 weeks so as of this writing, the Sparks only have nine active players on their roster. This has become a worry for Los Angeles yet again; they led the league in player-injuries by a mile the last two seasons.
This will be a huge test for the Sparks on Sunday afternoon to see where they measure up compared to the rest of the league. And with another player lost to injury, it just got even tougher.