LAS VEGAS — What a difference a few days makes.
The Sparks go into Las Vegas and defeat the Aces (4-2) in one of the more entertaining games in the W this season, 101-95. That win puts them at 2-0 on the road and 3-3 overall. After an 0-2 start, Los Angeles has won three of their last four games.
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Former Ace Kelsey Plum was a flamethrower, scoring 38 points. That is a high for her as a Spark.
“She’s competitive as hell,” Sparks coach Lynne Roberts said. “And what she’s done for our org has been remarkable in terms of validation and all the things and the players that we got in free agency. KP’s a big part of that because she’s a competitor in that space too. But I think what she said at the end, she just wants to get better. That’s legit. I personally don’t think she gets talked about enough in the, you know, the best player conversations, those MVP conversations. For whatever reason, she doesn’t get talked about enough and it’s kind of an injustice there. But she’s fun to coach because she and I, all of us, we just want to win. And whatever it takes. I promise you tonight, if we had won and KP had four points, she’d be happy. It’s not about scoring 38. But I’m happy for her to do it here and for us to get the win.”
Plum has scored 25 or more points in five of her first six games this season. It’s a feat that only two other players in WNBA history have done: Maya Moore and Elena Delle Donne.
“I think that it’s one thing to score but my biggest thing this year is just efficiency,” Plum said, who went 12 for 17 from the field. “You know, my dream would be to go 50-40-90. I know that’s going to be tough; I didn’t know the free throws were going to be kicking my ass right now but other than that, I just think, you know, I go out there and play and I’m trying to win games. Right now, we need me to score the ball a lot but hopefully as the season goes on, you actually see me scoring a little bit less. And like tonight, I mean, we have, what, six people in double figures? And that’s how you win in this league.”
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The Sparks credited their ball movement as well. The starting backcourt (Plum and Erica Wheeler) combined for 15 assists, with the team totaling 26 in all.
“I trust Dub (Wheeler) to run the show,” Plum said. “And so just tonight, I think that every game I’m getting better at learning her but really, she makes incredible decisions. So I just delegate, like E, whatever you think, whatever you call, whatever you want, put me where you want me. I think that we’re getting better at that and you’ll continue to see that grow.”
“I think the great thing about it is when she’s on the heater, I’m running to the corner,” Wheeler cracked. “Don’t even look at me, don’t even pass me the ball, stay on the heater. So I think that’s the balance of it. Like Coach said, just having her off the ball and me being able to create and get my teammates involved has been tremendous. But when she’s on the heater, don’t look at me.”
“She hit the two biggest shots of the night. So back at you!” Plum countered.
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Wheeler capped off an 8-0 run with a three-pointer to give the Sparks an 80-73 lead early in the fourth. And then she made the tiebreaking three with 1:15 left in the game to give the Sparks a 97-94 lead. A bit later, Dearica Hamby was called for an offensive foul, which would’ve been six fouls for her but the call was overturned. Hamby would make both free throws and it helped preserve the Sparks the win.
While the Sparks had 17 turnovers in the game, they only had four after halftime.
“The decision-making was better,” Coach Roberts said. “We made the adjustment at halftime. When you’re telling a team and, again, this is part of the process of us learning each other… but when you’re trying to play with pace, sometimes, that can bleed over into playing too fast. And I can’t tell them to play fast and then get pissed off when there’s a turnover. They’ve got to figure out that for each of them, what it is to play under control while still playing with pace. And I think just a couple of minor adjustments at halftime and they just took care of the ball.”
The offense has certainly kicked in for the Sparks as they are averaging 98.3 points per in their last four games. And they have played just enough defense to win three of those contests.
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As mentioned earlier, the Sparks had six players in double figures and were led by Kelsey Plum with 38 points and nine assists. Cameron Brink took the place of Nneka Ogwumike (who was out with a hand injury) in the starting line-up and scored a season-best 16 points and grabbed eight boards. Hamby also had 16 points. On the Aces’ side, A’ja Wilson woke up in the second half to finish with 24 points, 15 boards, four assists, and four blocks. Chennedy Carter was dynamite off the bench with 23 points. NaLyssa Smith was a monster inside, scoring 22 points and getting nine boards.
The Sparks will enjoy these two wins off last year’s Finals teams and take five days off before a back-to-back on the road against the Mystics in the nation’s capital and then the Sun in Connecticut.
