LOS ANGELES — The Sparks are currently on a three-game skid.
And a team is coming into Crypto.Com Arena for the first time since July 24, 2002. Meet the reborn Portland Fire.
The Fire consist of Bridget Carleton (formerly of the Lynx), Carla Leite (young dynamic point guard who was drafted by an expansion team for the second straight year), Megan Gustafson (with the Aces last year and mother of Pancake the corgi), Emily Engstler (rough-and-tumble defender who is currently second in blocks), and Sarah Ashlee Barker (formerly of the Sparks and showing a much improved game in her second year). They also have a very young coach in Alex Sarama, who has some unusual practice habits (such as having his players practice in socks) and eschewed morning shootarounds.
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It’s clearly working. Sarama won WNBA Coach of the Month for May and the Fire are currently 6-6, which is very impressive for an expansion team.
The Fire have beaten the Liberty twice (including their first win of the season off of Barker’s putback game-winner at the buzzer) and defeated the Fever in what was probably their signature win this year. They did lose their last two games but there’s no mistaking the talent and the grit of this Fire squad.
As for the Sparks, the pendulum swings mightily. After two games (losses to the Sun and the Aces) where their defense had been much better, it went the other way in their entertaining game against the Wings last Friday.
Now it’s about putting it all together on both sides of the ball.
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“I thought we played better,” Sparks coach Lynne Roberts said after Friday’s loss. “The ball was moving. Balanced scoring, five players in double figures. That’s how we want to play.”
Sparks forward Dearica Hamby talked about having that finishing kick that they lacked against the Wings.
“Just mental toughness, rebounds, helping strong side when we shouldn’t be,” Hamby said when asked about the end of the game against the Wings. “Just little things that we could have had a little bit more control over. That we have to be more disciplined to finish a game.”
The bad news for the Sparks is that they have lost three games in a row, as mentioned on the top of this article. But the good news is that the injury report was clean and clear. Kelsey Plum, who had missed three games before coming back on Friday, seems ready to go and continue her onslaught on the offensive side of the ball. Plum leads the league in scoring with 26.9 points per game and has been excellent in involving her teammates with 6.3 assists per, which is tied for seventh in the W.
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“So while she is leading the league in scoring, her assist numbers are elite, too,” Roberts said about Plum before the game on Friday. “She just has a gravity to her when she… wherever she goes, she’s going to get attention and that opens things up for other people.”
They’re going to need everything from Plum, among other things, on the offensive end. But they have to be able to get stops, too; they continue to be last in defensive rating.
If they want to make that run to the playoffs, they’re going to have to play some defense to go along with their offensive prowess. So far that’s not happening and that’s why they’re 4-6.
But, hey, a Fire can possibly be lit under the Sparks on Sunday. Let’s just see what way it lights up.
