Chicago, IL- Los Angeles Sparks came out hot in the first quarter led by starting Center Azurá Stevens efficient sharp shooting before being stopped on the road enroute their 5th win of the season by the Chicago Sky, 97-86, Tuesday night at Wintrust Arena.
The Sparks were on a three game losing streak and appeared more hungry or desperate to break it against another team struggling to win, jumping out to a quick 10-2 run over the Sky in the first few minutes of the game, led by two triples from Stevens whom went a perfect 6-6 and scored 11 of her team’s 29 first quarter points.
“I just felt like LA was playing with more aggression with a faster pace, and we were just kind of allowing them to move where they wanted to,” Sky’s Head Coach Tyler Marsh said. “And that wasn’t part of the game plan or the energy we wanted to play with in that first half.”
Forcing the Sky to call an early timeout in the first few minutes of the game seem to slowly snap the Sky’s defense out of sleeping on Stevens’ offense as their front court awaken with Kamilla Cardoso and Angel Reese getting into their high-low action and being the only two starters for the Sky to score in the first quarter.
Cardoso and Reese finished the game with 27 and 18 points, respectively as Reese affectionately known last season during her record breaking run as ‘double-double queen’ notched another career double-double by gathering 17 “mebounds.”
Sparks lead as much as 14 but the Sky cut down their lead to six before halftime, 48 -42. Reese and Cardoso both finished with 5 offensive rebounds despite the Sparks out rebounding the Sky in the first half 17-11.
“My box score says they had 28 second chance points…” Coach Lynne Roberts said. “That’s what they’re good at and we’ve known that…they seem to have timely ‘o-board’ putbacks.”
LA’s Rickea Jackson started off strong, hitting 3-5 from the field while finding herself in a physical skirmish with Sky’s Rebecca Allen which gave a glimpse of how physical the game turned suddenly as both teams grew more aggressive with each other, increasing their intensity and competitiveness.
“Like Coach said they were just aggressive, especially in the fourth, and it seemed like it was timely buckets that they got putbacks. I mean, specifically her [Kamilla Cardoso],” Stevens explained. “We just gotta do a better job next time, we play them in five days, so we gotta do a better job of limiting that, because that’s where they got a lot of their points from.”
Four of the five starters for Sparks reached double digits while limited minutes and production of their bench. Jackson finished with 11 points plus a career high 4 assists. Kelsey Plum scored 20 points, hitting perfect 8-8 from charity stripe along with 5 assists though she struggled with three point shooting and questionable shot selection.
“I mean just stick to what’s working like we kind of get away from that sometimes and then it bleeds into us not getting stops, we’re like rushing on offense and we get to trying to do too many things,” Stevens said. “if we stick to what’s working, I think we had 18 field goals on 14 assists like in the first half…that’s when we’re playing at our best and when we’ve won games.”
The Sparks travel back home to LA for a ceremonial game as they retire former Sparks superstar and their first round draft pick, Candice Parker as they look to return the favor against the Sky, Sunday at Crypto Arena.
