LOS ANGELES -- The Sparks will go through these growing pains.
It was a back-and-forth affair between the Sparks and the Lynx in the first half before the team from Minnesota hunkered down in the second half and showed their experience. The Lynx held the Sparks to 30 points in the second half and won, 89-75.
Azurá Stevens caught fire early as she scored 14 points in the first quarter. The Lynx only led by one at the half and the Sparks even briefly led as Rickea Jackson scored the first bucket of the second half. Minnesota would score nine in a row to subdue Los Angeles. L.A. made another run to cut the deficit to five before back-to-back three-pointers by Minnesota pretty much sealed their fate.
Offensive troubles in the second half. Q by @ECreates88. pic.twitter.com/3hN2MFjM1g
— Rey-Rey (@TheNoLookPass) May 19, 2025
"Minnesota amped up their pressure," Coach Lynne Roberts said. "We were a little bit disjointed and kind of got away from playing how we want to play. That synergy went away and we got some tough calls. Maybe they were fouls but they didn't just go our way. Momentum just kind of shifted and we just couldn't come up with the collective chemistry to get going on offense."
The Sparks shot under 30 percent (8 for 27, .296) in the second half.
"We missed a lot of good shots, too, though," Roberts summarized. "It's not always how many points we score but how many good shots did we take? And I thought we took some good ones in the second half that we just missed. Sometimes, your offense is struggling, you gotta give the other team some credit. I thought they defensively dialed it up. It was super physical. That's kind of what happened."
Coach Roberts also talked about how the Sparks need to get better on toughness.
"We've gotta be mentally tougher. Everybody's good in this league," Coach Roberts said. "The margin for error is so small. You cannot let what happened in the last possession affect the current one. And that's where you get better as a group. Just that next play mentality. Doesn't matter if I miss. If I get fouled, they won't call it. They call a foul on me... it's next play. We've got some growth to do there. But I have no doubt we've got great leadership, great veterans... you're looking at two of them here (referring to Stevens and Dearica Hamby during the press conference), they'll get everybody on the same page."
To make matters worse, Rickea Jackson got hurt as she had a collision with Alanna Smith at the end of the third quarter and did not return.
"She's being evaluated right now. We don't know anything else beyond that," Coach Roberts said about Jackson's status.
As mentioned in the preview, the Sparks came into Sunday with nine players. They can ill afford someone else getting hurt and it would be a big blow for the team if Jackson is out for an extended time. Roberts did say that Julie Allemand would be coming back soon, though she stopped short of mentioning an exact date.
While both teams took great care of the ball in the first half, the Sparks ended up with 12 turnovers overall. For all intents and purposes, that's still good but the Lynx only had eight themselves. The turnovers were costly in the second half and it enabled the Lynx to boost their lead. Minnesota also had much better ball movement; they had 27 assists compared to 15 by Los Angeles. That shows the continuity and togetherness by the Lynx and the Sparks hope to get to that level.
Stevens finished with a team-high 21 points. Dearica Hamby had another double-double with 20 points and 10 rebounds while Kelsey Plum finished with 18. On the Lynx's side, Napheesa Collier, who seems to be pretty good at basketball, had 23 points. Alanna Smith converted four three-pointers on her way to 18 points while Courtney Williams (13 points, 10 assists) and Jessica Shepard (11 points, 10 rebounds) both had double-doubles.
The Sparks (1-1) have work to do before they go to Phoenix to face a new-look Mercury team.