Lynne Roberts’ brutal admission after disappointing loss to lowly Sun appeared first on ClutchPoints. Add ClutchPoints as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
The Connecticut Sun may have come into Sunday’s game against the Los Angeles Sparks as the worst team in the WNBA record-wise at 1-8, but you couldn’t tell that from the way they handed the Sparks a loss to end the current road trip. The team still went 3-1 on the trip, but with the loss to the Sun still fresh, Sparks head coach Lynne Roberts couldn’t quite come up with an answer when asked what positives they could take away.
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Despite the Sparks being on the second night of a back-to-back going up against a rested Sun team, Lynne Roberts chalked up the loss to the Sun simply wanting it more.
“Honestly I think they were just playing harder. We were telegraphing passes, we missed free-throws, we missed some layups, we gave up 11 offensive boards in the second half,” Roberts said. “They deserved to beat us today, they did.”
On the surface, the numbers were almost even. The Sparks shot 41 percent from the field and 32 percent from the 3-point line. The Sun shot 42 percent from the field and 27 percent from the 3-point line. The Sparks shot 26 free-throws, converting on 19 of them, while the Sun shot 31 free-throws while knocking down 22.
Both teams turned the ball over 16 times. But the Sun were simply relentless and didn’t fold when the Sparks made runs to try and take control of the game. They were quicker to every play, just out-hustling and outworking the Sparks. The Sparks struggled to take care of the basketball. They rushed things on the offensive end instead of settling down and running clean offense.
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It would be easy to blame the travel fatigue for the poor effort, the Sparks got in to Connecticut in the early hours of the morning. But Roberts would have none of it.
“Everybody in the league has to play back-to-back so everybody gets in late … and has to lace ‘em up the next day. The tough teams find a way,” Roberts said. “They out-toughed us, out-executed, outplayed … we were not good.
“I’m not trying to downplay what our players go through, but the great teams, you find a way to have a toughness, physical and mental, to still be good enough … maybe that’s because we were tired, but we’re going to give in to that, then we’re going to have a long up and down season.”
The Sparks will return home for a three-game stand beginning with a showdown against the defending champion Las Vegas Aces on Tuesday, June 2. Overall, the team has shown improvement since their 1-3 start to the regular season. But it stings knowing that effort was a key reason for having a win streak snapped.
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“I’m proud of the fact that we’ve gone 3-1 on that four-game road stretch, I’m happy about that. Really disappointed in today so it’s hard to kind of see the positive in this moment,” Roberts said. “But I think over the stretch we found out rhythm offensively. We’ve been better organized, tonight was just a bad night.”
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