Los Angeles, CA- Los Angeles (10-17) struggle to repeat success of their first home matchup against New York (16-12), losing 113-109 on Tuesday night at Crypto Arena.com in front of a 15,500 crowd but still found “sunshine” in midst of a stormy season by shifting a spotlight on the long-awaited jersey retirement of Sparks legend and WNBA champion, DeLisha Milton-Jones.
“ Sunshine is that individual that you’ll get every single day,” Milton-Jones said to FI360News during pregame presser. “Sunshine is full of love and consideration… ‘D Nasty,’ [laughter] that’s my alter ego. I had to have someone to counterbalance who Sunshine was because I could not bring Sunshine on the court or I would not be sitting here today…D Nasty is someone who loves the defensive side of the ball. Everything starts on the defensive end for her…Michael Cooper ingrained in us that defense wins championships. And the first time I heard him say that was the first time I fell in love with the quest of wanting to be a champion within the WNBA.“
Sparks unable to showcase that standard this season established by Milton-Jones and those early Sparks championship teams during the All NBA defense legend coach Cooper era as they failed to slow down one of Liberty’s sharpshooters Sabrina Ionescu like in their previous win, instead of sticking to that game plan where team relies more on defense rather than rallying up buckets of points to outscore their opponent which ran dry in the end and Liberty made it rain led by Breanna Stewart’s 29 points. Ionescu added 27 points including five triples.
“New York’s talented and they’re huge, I don’t know how else to say it,” Sparks Head Coach Lynne Roberts said to FI360News during pregame presser. “They’ve had some injuries too this year, and so their lineups have changed quite a bit, and they’re similar in terms of getting into a rhythm, they’ve had a hard time just with guys in and out. But they still have Stewie, who’s one of the best players in the world. I have so much respect for how she carries herself, how she leads that group. And so, I think with them, you know, they got JJ, Jonquel Jones, who was the MVP of the All-Star game…All those guys can shoot and will. Just try to negate their size by playing with some pace. You know, we just want to stack days.”
The Sparks entered halftime up by three, 56-53, in a high scoring game that even a Women’s Basketball Hall-of-Famer known for being an outstanding two-way player would be tempted to suit up to show today’s players how it’s done.
“Well, I was joking with Thomas Archie while I was walking to the press conference and he said, “D, I’m so happy for you.” And I said, “Thomas, you need me throw a jersey on the night,” [laughter] Milton-Jones said. “That would be great.” But I think that we want to win every game. Yes, you want to be in the top three to five when it comes to the standings, but we know that as this league has grown, teams have gotten better, even within the expansion of it all.”
Following in the steps of a Milton-Jones fellow SEC-Spark, Rae Burrell led the Sparks as a starter in scoring with 24 points. Knocking down 10-of-17 field goal attempts and 4-of-8 three-point, Burrell also grabbed three rebounds, and four steals while dishing three assists.
Sparks got outrebounded, 28-21 and their bench outplayed, 41-19. Still, the Liberty’s largest lead was 11 points.
Out of the Sparks last 11 games, they’ve won only two while All-Star points record holder, Nneka Ogwumike continues to chart milestones as a Spark, contributing 21 points and nine assists tonight, short of making her fifth straight double-double.
Both teams came off All Star break appearing refreshed, particularly on offense as both shot around 60 percent from the field and 50 percent from deep, though the difference maker for Liberty hitting 88 percent of their free throws, 14-of-16.
“I think that our team really kind of took advantage of the All-Star break,” Stewart said to FI360News during postgame presser. “Obviously, JJ and I were there, but everyone else was resting, recovering, getting their work in, and knowing that we have a big push coming second half of the season…sometimes you just need to like step back or like step away for a second and come back rejuvenated and refreshed…we know how important this these next 13 games are before the World Cup break, and we want to take full advantage.”
After a well earned celebration filled with highlights or stories about the versatility, longevity and tenacity of Milton-Jones’ game during halftime, the Sparks squandered their small lead and allowed Marine Fauthoux to come off the bench and nail two straight daggers behind the arc in the final period,96-88 enroute to avenge their previous road loss against the Sparks.
“Everyone’s not going to have the year that they wish that they could have… But when you look at the overall work of everything that the Sparks have done, this has been one of your premier franchises perennially, you know. So, this is just a moment,” Milton-Jones said.
Sparks will travel to matchup next against Portland Fire on Sunday and Liberty continue on their west coast trip to face Las Vegas Aces on Thursday.
