Sparks defeat Mystics, win season series
Rey Moralde
Host · Writer
LOS ANGELES — There will be no playoffs for the Sparks again but you gotta take your wins where you can get 'em.
And that's what the Sparks (14-25) did as they defeated a tired Washington Mystics (24-16) team, who are on their second game of a back-to-back. The Sparks defense held the Mystics to 31 points and 36 percent shooting in the second half. Los Angeles also had only nine turnovers the whole game as they defeated Washington, 88-82.
"Yeah, we were down 17, I think at one point. But these guys have done that all season," Sparks coach Lynne Roberts said, who celebrated her birthday on Friday. "We have not packed it in. We've had some great wins. We've had some tough losses but I have not seen them quit. And I think it's a great team. Even though we were down big, I felt like we were still, and I know that sounds silly, but that we were in it like we were okay. Washington's a good team and they've got a good balanced roster.
"And I thought in that second half, we just tightened up," Roberts continued. "I thought defensively we were really, really good. Especially in that second quarter, not as good. But that second half we were really good defensively. Connected, talking, flying around. They only had three offensive rebounds in that second half. And they feast on O-boards. They get second chance possessions. We won the possession game holding them to six offensive boards and us only having nine turnovers and having 16. I think that's where the game was won."
Nneka Ogwumike admitted that the Mystics frontcourt is a handful.
"This front court is one to deal with. And so it's a lot," Ogwumike said. "And it's like when you turn around, there's two more that come off the bench. And so we wanted to do our best to make things challenging. In my experience, when you have a front court like that which I was kind of trying to tell (Cameron Brink) and (Dearica Hamby), you're not going to stop everything but you just want every shot for it to be like a mental process. You know, you don't want anything to feel second nature. And so I thought we were doing a good job.
"We were kind of tag teaming," Ogwumike went on. "We were guarding everybody. And there were at times where, you know, we had to fill in those gaps when, you know, with how their offense is, mismatches occur. There were times when (Rae Burrell) was on (Lauren Betts). I was on Georgia (Amoore). Having that trust and that communication and ensuring that we're trying to stop what makes them feel most comfortable is, I guess, kind of the foundation of the game plan. We have schemes. And I think, as Coach said, we stuck to those schemes pretty well and we didn't falter when we felt like, you know, it might have gotten away from us. And we were connected in that way on defense tonight."
Burrell didn't get off to a good start but took over the fourth quarter as she scored 12 points in those final 10 minutes.
"In the first half, they were hedging me hard. Teams are starting to do that now," Burrell said. "They know I come off the screens hard. Just making sure that I'm getting those plays off the ball and outside of actions as well, just trying to read that. I think that's where I was getting my plays started going was off the off-ball actions that I was able to get going."
Brink also had a big game offensively. She said at practice on Thursday that she believes she's a three-level scorer and it was a matter of getting to her spots and converting.
"I feel pretty comfortable. I just tried to take what the defense was giving me," Brink said. "Overall, it was a really great team win."
Ogwumike led the team in scoring with 24 points. She also had four rebounds, five assists, and four steals. Burrell scored 15 points, 12 in the fourth. And Brink scored 13 points off the bench as she displayed an array of moves from a bank shot to transition lay-ups to threes. As for the Mystics, Sonia Citron scored 22 while Shakira Austin (19 points and 10 rebounds) and Kiki Iriafen (12 points and 10 rebounds) both had double-doubles.
The Sparks are going to go to Seattle and play the Storm on Sunday before the league goes on the World Cup Break.
