SEATTLE -- The Sparks are looking to start a new streak.
They didn’t stay very long at home, which turned out to be a loss to the Las Vegas Aces last Tuesday. They took to the skies once again as they went to Seattle to have a Friday night match-up against the Storm.
The last time these two teams faced each other? It was a blowout of massive proportions. The Storm (16-11) dismantled the Sparks by 31.
But then again, the Sparks (11-15) were already wrecked before that game even started. Kelsey Plum was not available. Julie Allemand was doing Eurobasket. Julie Vanloo was still a member of the Golden State Valkyries. Rae Burrell was still recovering from the Opening Night injury. The only guards available were Shey Peddy on a hardship and rookie Sarah Ashlee Barker. They signed Grace Berger just to play that one game and Liatu King had to basically fill in at guard when she came into the game.
So this team coming into Friday is a much different squad. A completely healthy team, too.
“The last time we played them, it's not even really worth game planning from,” Sparks coach Lynne Roberts said. “KP didn't play. We had three hardship guys out there and they did a good job but we just were outmatched. So today, it's nice to get our whole roster back and this was actually our first real practice since we've had everybody. We’ve got some momentum to get back to but Seattle's good. They're veterans. They're one of the more veteran teams in the league and they're really good at home. So, as I say every week, we have our hands full.”
Even though Gabby Williams (eight steals) and Ezi Magbegor (six blocks) were padlocks defensively, Coach Roberts didn’t put much stock in that contest with half of the team basically missing. Still, she acknowledged what a great team the Storm is.
“It’s hard for me to pick (an X-Factor),” Roberts said. “Erica Wheeler, Skylar Diggins, Nneka (Ogwumike), Ezi, Gabby Williams, Alysha Clark, they know who they are. They know what they do. I don't think you can pick one and say we’ve got our hands full. What I thought against Vegas is we did not do a great job defensively as a team. We were not locked in.
“And Seattle will be the same thing,” Roberts went on. “They've got a championship pedigree and they'll make you pay. So we've got to be locked into the defensive game plan.”
And someone is familiar with the one-time MVP and ex-Spark Nneka Ogwumike,
"The way she carries herself, (Nneka is) just a professional on and off the court,” Sparks guard Rae Burrell said. “She just takes care of her body. So I think that's just what is able to keep her playing and looking the way that she still looks at her age. Andshe's still in her prime at this point and, you know, all flowers to her. She's killing it. That's my vet. I literally like can talk about her all day. But yeah, she's a monster and it's just something that we have that any team has to prepare for any game.”
One of the many players missing from their first match-up against Seattle was Cameron Brink. Brink returned to the court on Tuesday and played just under 14 minutes. Both Burrell and Coach Roberts are happy to have her back in the fold.
“It feels great,” Burrell said when asked about having Brink back in the line-up. “Her energy has been great and that defensive monster that she brings into the game. I’m super excited.”
“She actually did better than I thought she would do in terms of just looking like she'd been out there before with these guys. So I was proud of her,” Roberts said.
Still, when it comes down to it, the Sparks want to take care of the rock.
“I am more concerned about us turning it over, us being able to get stops, us being able to follow the game plan and get defensive boards,” Coach Roberts said.
“I feel like we're being a little bit more passive instead of being the aggressor,” Burrell said about Tuesday’s game against Vegas when they had 19 giveaways. “And we're letting the other team dictate what they want us to do instead of us dictating. So we just got to take care of the ball and play at our pace.”
In that five-game winning streak, the team only averaged 13.8 giveaways and scored 97.2 points per. Against the Aces on Tuesday, the Sparks managed to only score 74 and turn the ball over 19 times as mentioned in the paragraph above. Rickea Jackson (6) and Azurá Stevens (9) were held to single digits when they had been averaging 18.2 and 17.0 points per, respectively, in the five games before Tuesday’s contest.
The Sparks take care of the ball then the rest may take care of itself.
