NEW YORK -- The Sparks are back on the road for the next three games. And they'll be against a familiar foe in the Liberty on Thursday for the first game of this trip.
The Sparks (12-20) are seven games behind the Liberty (20-14) for the final playoff spot with 12 games to go. It's unlikely they'll catch them but the team will continue to play and see what they have to evaluate for the upcoming offseason.
"We just got to focus on the next game, try and get these wins," Sparks wing Rae Burrell, who is averaging a career-best 13.5 points this season, said about this road trip. "Obviously, we try to win every game, so get wins and get better as a team."
The Sparks have lost 9 of their last 11 games. The way they've lost have been all similar the last few games: they lose it in the last few minutes.
"I think we just had some bad turnovers at bad times and then we didn't get defensive stops that we needed," Burrell said after their loss to the Mercury at USC on Tuesday. "So those things add up, especially at the end like that."
They seemed to play fine the first three quarters. But what stood out on Tuesday was the bad shooting behind the arc. Sparks went 7 for 32 (.219) against the Merc.
"I think it was the last four minutes when they went to the zone and we just kind of stopped moving it," Sparks coach Lynne Roberts said during the postgame presser on Tuesday. "We got a little unsure. Zone offense is not rocket science. You just got to move the ball, I thought. We didn't shoot well, obviously. We had 14 more shot attempts than them but we shot poorly. And so they went to the zone because I think inside we had the advantage. And our shooting wasn't great but our quality of threes weren't great either down the last four or five minutes."
Beating the zone defense, which the Liberty do as well as Roberts pointed out, will be very important.
"I think it just makes you slow down and try to move the ball. It gets you out of the flow, out of the rhythm," Coach Roberts said about the zone defense. "I always think against zone, it's not, you don't run a play, you make plays. It's with spacing, being unselfish, one dribble kickouts, the ball's got to move, the ball did not move. We were trying to throw dimes when you just need to make the easy play. But that's what zones do, you know? And I think if we had shot better, they probably would have gotten out of it.
"But we didn't. And, you know, New York zones too, so we're going to see it. And we're good enough," Roberts continued. "I mean, I think it's frustrating because I know we're better than that. But that's just the nature. That's why you do go zone. If you can get a team to kind of hiccup or get on their back foot a little bit, stop playing with pace. It made us slow down. And we're not great when we slow down."
The Liberty Biberty have been a hot team as of late. Although they lost their last game against the Fever, they are 7-2 in their last nine games. Breanna Stewart has been playing like her MVP self, averaging 24.1 points and 8.1 boards since July started (14 games). It helps to have Sabrina Ionescu back. Jonquel Jones has 13 double-doubles this season. And they've gotten some help from their international players (Marine Johannes, Marine Fauthoux, Pauline Astier, Han Xu). Leonie Fiebich and Satou Sabally remain out, though.
As for the Sparks, they still don't have Monique Akoa Makani, whose perimeter defense and shooting they could use. Nneka Ogwumike (17.1 points, 8.8 boards per) and Dearica Hamby (18 straight games with double-digit scoring) are doing what they can to lead this team down the stretch. Their talent has never been in doubt; they just have to finish games.
All they can do is play hard and play spoiler. Try to get some wins along the way and feel good about them the rest of the season.
At the very least, the Sparks will always have the 30th season Anniversary Game.