Los Angeles, CA – Returning home to Crypto Arena on Tuesday night fresh off a riveting road win against Seattle Storm, Rickea Jackson set the tone with an opening statement three, 15 seconds into the game foreshadowing what to expect in their third game against the Indiana Fever, as she later finished how she started, hitting her third triple of the game in the final quarter to score a team-high tying 25 point and help snap Indiana Fever’s five game winning streak, 100-91.
LA snagged their seventh win of their last eight games where their starters again scored 85 percent or more of their team’s points. The Sparks became the first WNBA team in history to score 100 or more points in four games while averaging 96.8 during this five game stretch.
“I just feel like as a group, we’re just playing together. I feel like we’re very dangerous, and our momentum and our energy is really good right now,” Rickea Jackson said during postgame press conference. “Like Coach [Lynne Roberts] said, we’re not flinching, so we just have that confidence in each other. If we get down, we’re not panicking anymore… we know what to do.”
Kelsey Plum scored 25 points and dished an impressive 11 assists for her second double-double of the season. Azurá Stevens whom battled throughout game Fever’s Aaliyah Boston alongside frontcourt teammate Dearica Hamby both were able to reach double figures, scoring 19 and 16 points, respectively.
“I think the balance is what makes it tough. [Rickea Jackson is] such a tough guard, and you can put somebody smaller on her to match her athleticism or speed, or you can put somebody bigger on her to match her size, and either way, she’s going to make you wrong,” Coach Lynne Roberts said. “…I could go down the list. Dearica [Hamby] is who she is. She’s so efficient… [Azurá Stevens] was 5-for-5 from [the three-point line]…So, she might go 0-for-5, but she’s on the scouting report, ‘Do not let her shoot…’ That’s who she is. And then we’ve talked about [Kelsey Plum]… she gained so much attention from the other team’s scouting report—as she should—but she’s not trying to get hers, she’s trying to win.”
Jackson took over for the Sparks much of the second half scoring 17 points while it was Plum and Hamby sustaining the Sparks in the first half with 14 points apiece, to close the half on a 23-8 for a 11 point advantage, 54-43 Sparks. The Sparks connected 50% from behind the arc going into intermission, led by Stevens, Jackson and Plum combining to make six out of seven.
Prior to the game, Coach Roberts explained, how they know “they needed to defend the three-point line well as it seems the [Fever]really get going when they’re hitting from [the three-point line], and that could be from anybody, right?”
And that anybody happen to be Indiana’s Kelsey Mitchell’s remarkable range shooting, as she nailed seven trifectas for a game high 34 points.
Coach Roberts said this prior to the game, “Everybody in this league is hard to beat. I think they’re playing really well right now, they’re a balanced team. I want to give a shout-out to Aari McDonald, I think she’s done a tremendous job there,” Coach Roberts added. “She’s really elevated their group. They’re physical, they play hard… [they’re] playing with a little more swagger and a little more confidence. They’re coming in here [as] one of the hottest teams right now, so we have our hands full.”
Sparks indeed was unable to just cruise off in the sunset after a dominate second and third quarter as Mitchell and McDonald
together led the charge for their team to fight back on an attempted comeback despite missing their franchise favorite three point specialist, Caitlin Clark for her eighth straight game due to injury.
Still Fever found balance scoring with their front-court, Aaliyah Boston and Natasha Howard scoring 15 and 17 points, respectively. But it was not enough to crash Cameron Brink’s block party, tying her career high five blocks in her third game for the season, while helping to hinder Boston to continue her double-double streak.
“That was their run. We got to defend the three. That was a flurry by them, and that’s a sign of a great team,” Coach Roberts said. “They didn’t quit… [When] we were up 22 [points], they could have folded. They didn’t, and I respect that. The lead was a little too big for it, but they hit some big shots.”
After Indiana went on a 21-5 run in the final quarter that seem triggered from a Rickea Jackson’s triple, giving the Sparks their largest lead, 90-68, Fever could not overcome the cure of Sparks savage shooting, particularly deep range as Stevens made her fifth three-pointer with less than two minutes remaining in the game to seal a nine-point win just as the Fever had cut the lead to six.
“It was a great win, and that’s something that [the team] has talked a lot about being successful on the road and not as successful at home,” Plum said. “We want to be in the playoffs. We got to win our home games. So I think you just saw a level of intensity and competitiveness, and [Rickea Jackson] wasn’t doing anything other than what she normally does. I thought collectively as a team, we came in and it was our energy. And I think the difference between us winning and losing is really our energy and our intensity. Shots fall, shots don’t fall. But at the end of the day, we had an energy about us that won us this game.”
Los Angeles (13-15) bring their winning streak to three this season versus Indiana (17-13). They have their season finale matchup this month back in LA on August 29th. Until then, Sparks gear up for two more home games this week, Connecticut Sun on Thursday and Seattle Storm on Sunday, August 10th with Golden State Valkryies in between on Saturday, August 9th.
