Los Angeles, CA – Two teams familiar with explosive offense production, turned into one team on Wednesday night defusing the other team with unfamiliar defense, at Crypto Arena, as Los Angeles was held to low scoring despite Kelsey Plum scoring a game high 25 points, but no Spark was able to guard Fever’s Kelsey Mitchell from the start of the game and no longer able to contain Caitlin Clark by the end of the game, as Fever prevailed to their first win of the season, 80-67.
Rae Burrell scored the first points of the game with a layup and pair of free throws, but could not match or outscore Indiana’s Clark seven of the Fever’s nine in the first quarter before she finished the game with 24 points after a late game onslaught of drives attacking Sparks defense while both teams appeared to struggle from shooting outside.
“The concerning thing is we only took 15 [threes] that means we’re not…, and I need to watch the film to see why,” Sparks head coach Lynne Roberts said. “I don’t know, but we need to be shooting more than that, but in a spaced-out offense, we’ve got to be able to knock down more threes than that, and maybe, we’re a little rushed or they’re not getting them in the spots they’re used to, it’s a work in progress.”
Sparks still seem to be figuring out on how to play together as a unit with this reconstructed roster including two new veteran starters. But there is an old cliché, ‘old habits, die hard.’ For the second game, Plum got off to a great start for, but her team struggled noticeably to sustain their energy in first half, especially in the second quarter.
“Yeah, we got to show up to play when It’s the first quarter. Like if you ever noticed the pattern in the W, talent is pretty spread out across the board,” Plum said during postgame presser to fi360News. “Hardest team playing, wins a lot of the time. You got to make shots and stuff, but it’s kind of magical when you play hard, kind of end up making shots. So, I think that we have to have the intensity that we had in that [late game] run for a sustained game.”
Sparks trailed by two with a little over two minutes remaining in the first quarter and looked to gain momentum from a crowd stirring rejection from Cameron Brink on Clark yet Indiana sustained their lead most of the game and their composure even as Sparks closed in the first quarter down by four points 24-20.
Fever extended their lead in the second quarter to double digits behind hot shooting of Kelsey Mitchell, dropping 11 points for a total of 17 in first half while the Sparks’ Kelsey rallied 13 points to help keep her team enter halftime only down 14, 48-34, advantage Fever.
“We just had a really bad second quarter offensively and defensively,” coach Roberts said. “A little bit in the first half I thought we came out a little reactive, versus, reading what they were doing versus attacking them defensively, which I thought we did in the second half and it was effective. So, we’ve got to put 40 minutes together.”
Sparks regrouped in third quarter and resume fighting to keep in the game even after starting guard Ariel Atkins went down to never return which allowed Rookie Chance Grey and veteran Erica Wheeler an opportunity to play more minutes.
Sparks would make a 11-3 run deep in the fourth quarter, cutting down Fever’s led to single digits with 1:23 remaining in the game, but a missed opportunity by Plum’s in and out triple to make it a two-possession game instead swung the game momentum back to the Fever scoring to put away the game, 80-67.
Despite enduring their second loss early in the season, some positive signs showed in this game for Brink, whom in a subtle manner perhaps responded to some tough love motivation by her coach, resulting in an 11-point game production plus three blocks and drawing fouls against Fever’s star center Aaliyah Boston, whom eventually fouled out the game. Another positive sign for Sparks was as a team, they shot close to 90 percent in the fourth quarter only missing two shots out of 13 attempts, though having few assists and attempts partially credit to their many turnovers, they still gave themselves a chance to win at the end even without having their signature high scoring high octane offense on full display.
Thus, a pattern of Sparks opponents’ backcourt scoring at nausea is something they have to address immediately as they can’t afford to let other teams’ guards find their rhythm for themselves like Clark and Mitchell did this game but even more have that rhythm flow onto their teammates like the Aces exposed in their first loss behind Jackie Young and Chennedy Carter assisting three other Aces into double figures.
“You kind of have to find your rhythm throughout the game, right? But that’s the beauty of this league. Like you get another opportunity on Friday and then another opportunity after that,” Plum said. “We’ll figure it out. We have smart players. We have great coaching. Like I have all the faith in the world that you know when the regular season is over, we will be there like in the playoffs and pushing. So I I have all the faith. It’s just the process.”
Next up, Sparks will return to Crypto Arena on Friday night still in search of their first win against the Toronto Tempo.