Indianapolis, IN- The Los Angeles Sparks get a great road win 88-82 over the Indian Fever. The bench play was key the difference in today’s game lead by Kia Nurse with 22 and Aari McDonald dropping 21 points.
The Sparks showed growth and depth closing the 4th quarter while keeping the Fever at arm’s length.
“A lot of the bench contributed big minutes,” said Sparks coach Curt Miller “The bench really energized us.”
Nurse kept finding timely threes to keep her team in the game. Just after hitting one the next possession, she drove to the basket and was fouled putting the team in the bonus with 6 minutes to play and live at the free throw line down the stretch.
Sparks had 19 turnovers with over 7 minutes left in the game. They still held a slim 1-point lead even with a thinning bench as game continued.
Fever rookie star Caitlin Clark scored 14 points by the half and finished with 30 points playing a team high 34 minutes of play.
“Road wins are hard to come by, so exciting night for us,” said Miller “Showed some character, that we didn’t quit and dug back in.”
Coming out of the half the Fever caught fire and took the lead fast and had scored more points in the quarter then they did in either quarter scoring 11 unanswered points to grab the lead. They tried to deliver a knock out blow but Sparks took their best punch.
The Sparks first half defense held the Fever to season low 32 points in a half. The Fever shot under 30% from the field and from 3-point line trailing 37-32 to the Sparks in a half of basketball.
The Sparks held a 24-15 lead with 9:28 left in second quarter before Clark was fouled on a deep transaction 3-pointer on McDonald that was upgraded to flagrant 1. So, a protentional 5-point swing but she only made 2/3 and missed there shot with a Sparks rebound. But a play later Clark drilled a three to complete a 5-0 run after all.
This team is growing up during this first part of the WNBA season and will need the whole team on this early long road trip. The Sparks will have a day between the next game in Chicago for a match up with Angel Reese and the Sky on Thursday May 30th at 5:oopm.