Sparks blow out Mercury in opener
In retrospect, maybe it was expecting too much for the Phoenix Mercury – with five new players and two stars returning from essentially a season off – to hang for a full game Saturday with the WNBA Western Conference defending champions.
The Mercury did so for a half, trailing 50-46 at IMG Academy in Bradenton, Florida. Then the roof caved in during a nightmarish third quarter. The Sparks scored 11 of the first 13 points on the way to a 30-8 scoring edge in the third and 99-76 win in the season opener for both teams.
“We knew it wasn’t going to be sexy to start with,” point guard Skylar DigginsSmith said after her Mercury debut. “A lot of us are learning on the job. Nobody is pointing fingers on anybody. Everybody is saying what they need to get better at.”
That in particular is taking care of the ball.
The Mercury committed 27 turnovers leading to 38 LA points, something of a surprise given the elite caliber of guards. But Diggins-Smith was playing her first WNBA game since Aug. 21, 2018; Diana Taurasi missed all but six games last season due to injuries; and Bria Hartley was making her Phoenix debut (one of five new players).
It added up to a team not ready for what the Sparks brought out of intermission.
“LA went up to another notch and we were too much on our back foot,” Mercury coach Sandy Brondello said. “We were overthinking, making poor decisions, and it kind of divided us a little bit. We’ve got a lot to learn from this game.”
Even without Kristi Toliver and Chiney Ogwumike, the Sparks looked like a championship contender particularly with the addition of former Minnesota star Seimone Augustus and Brittney Sykes to a core group of Nneka Ogwumike, Candace Parker and Chelsea Gray.
Ogwumike and Augustus were a combined 14-of-14 with Parker shooting 6of-10 and LA overall 55.9 percent. Phoenix shot 44.3 from the floor with Taurasi and Hartley going a combined 6-of-23.
Center Brittney Griner played just 2:36 of the first quarter due to two fouls and was never a factor, finishing with eight points and nine rebounds.
“We had trouble getting her the ball,” Brondello said. “We’ve got to work on a lot of things to make things work a little bit better.”
The Sparks are 9-2 against the Mercury in their last 11 regular season games.
Taurasi plays pain free
Taurasi, 38, led the Mercury with 16 points in 22 minutes. She played pain free for the first time since 2018, which “on an individual note was really gratifying after such a long time after rehab,” she said. “The first half felt pretty good. It’s a step in the right direction.”
Diggins-Smith scored 14 and Hartley added 11 off the bench.
For LA, veterans posts Ogwumike and Parker combined for 34 points and 14 rebounds. Augustus, who scored nine straight points late in the third quarter, added 14, Gray 13, Sykes and rookie Te’a Cooper 10 each.
Cooper was a Mercury draft pick who never had a chance to make the team due to coronavirus delaying training camp then after being released was picked up by the Sparks.
“This team has a very high basketball IQ,” Augustus said. “But most importantly, they are workers, so I can play with anybody that works extremely hard because of a lot of the mistakes we’ll have, we’ll make up for it with the intensity and the passion that we play with.”
“I don’t necessarily think we were tired,” Taurasi said. “When you’re undecisive on the court and not sure of yourself and you second guess where you should be or where the pass should go, that’s when you get in trouble. We weren’t as sharp as we need to be, that’s just the bottom line.”
Milestones
Taurasi, in her 16th WNBA season, made her 438th start. Only she and Seattle guard Sue Bird have made at least 400 starts. Bird is up to 509 after her start Saturday against New York.
Griner is seeking to average 20-plus points for a fourth consecutive season.