Sparks continue with home stand against Sun

LOS ANGELES — The Sparks (12-24) home stand resumes as they play the second of four games at Crypto on Saturday. They have the Connecticut Sun.

The less the game against the Dream last Thursday is talked about, the better for the Sparks. They're going to throw that away and move on.

To be fair, the Sparks probably want to throw away the 2026 season. They're currently in a six-game losing streak. They've lost 13 of their last 15 games. What was supposed to be a run to the playoffs has turned into a run to the lottery. For the sixth consecutive year. This team was once 8-8 and it all came crashing down. Everything that could go bad for the Sparks went bad.

And that includes going against the Connecticut Sun (9-26). They're 0-2 against the Sun. They never led in their loss on Tuesday in Boston.

But the Sparks just have to keep pushing through.

"You don't really have a choice. I think at the end of the day, we all have to understand there's a bigger picture," Sparks guard Ariel Atkins said after Tuesday's loss. "That's kind of what I've been hanging my head on. I haven't been the player that I want to be this season and so I can't be too down on myself and also can't be too down on my team. The goal is continue to push through and find a way to fight. And that's what we're going to do every day."

As mentioned in days past, this is Nneka Ogwumike's last season as she is retiring after the 2026 campaign. So the rest of this season will double as her farewell tour. At the very least, no matter how the rest of the games go, there is something to celebrate.

"I knew that wherever I went, I was like, okay, I'm going to sign like a couple years," Ogwumike said in her press conference last Thursday. "Free agency happened; it was such a small period of time and things kind of changed and I only ended up signing one year. And I think it ended up being kind of a blessing in disguise and so once training camp hit, I think I realized like, you know what, I think what I have left is one more season and I was okay with that. And I wanted to do whatever I could to play my best to ensure that the last season, I could help my teammates."

It's the usual for the Sparks in terms of the keys. No untimely turnovers. No bad starts. Shoot better behind the arc. Get some stops, especially in transition. It would probably be good to not get down by 20 and it'd be nice to keep a team under 120 points.

The Sun won't have Brittney Griner and Aaliyah Edwards. But former Spark Olivia Nelson-Ododa gave them problems all game on Tuesday. Leila Lacan is a talented lead guard on both ends. Former Bruin and WNBA champion Kennedy Burke gave them fits as well. And another former Bruin in Charlisse Leger-Walker made all the right plays.

There seemed to be some directive that the bench play more minutes the rest of the way, especially with the Sparks officially eliminated from the playoffs. The Sparks got some good minutes from Chance Gray and Tonie Morgan on Thursday. Cameron Brink actually played the second most minutes of her career (27) that game and scored 14 points. Might as well see what the Sparks have for the future.

But for the present, the Sparks will attempt to get a win this season against the Sun.