Sparks trying to keep playoff hopes alive

The Sparks have lost five consecutive games, four coming since the team agreed to a “contract divorce” with center Liz Cambage last month.

At 12-19, the Sparks are in 10th place in the 12-team WNBA standings. And with five games remaining, their chances of claiming one of the eight playoff berths are slipping away.

However, All-Star forward Nneka Ogwumike is staying positive.

“There’s still a chance,” Ogwumike said. “That’s the only thing we can reckon from all of this, there’s still a chance. Every game is an opportunity.”

The Sparks must win on the road against the Atlanta Dream (13-18) today to capitalize on that opportunity to stay in the playoff race.

The game against Atlanta will be the Sparks’ third game on a four-game East Coast trip that ends Sunday at the Washington Mystics (20-12).

The Sparks beat Atlanta 85-78 in Los Angeles on July 21, when Ogwumike scored a game-high 20 points. However, they lost to Atlanta 77-75 in May, so this is a must-win game. The Sparks need to earn the tiebreaker against the Dream by winning the season series 2-1.

To win, the Sparks must slow WNBA All-Star and Rookie of the Year candidate Rhyne Howard, the No. 1 overall draft pick in April who is coming off a team-high 20 points against the Indiana Fever on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, the Sparks traveled cross-country on an overnight red-eye flight, landing in New York early Monday morning and subsequently lost back-to-back games against the New York Liberty 102-73 on Tuesday and 64-61 on Wednesday.

In their three-point loss, the short-handed Sparks led by as many as 20 points in the second quarter and 15 points in the third quarter but could not sustain the energy for all 40 minutes to contain Liberty All-Star guard Sabrina Ionescu, who scored a gamehigh 20 points, including a game-winning 3-pointer with 6.9 seconds to go.

Ogwumike scored a team-high 19 points on Wednesday and passed Swin Cash for 20th on the WNBA all-time points list.

However, sister Chiney Ogwumike did not start due to a facial injury and guard Chennedy Carter did not play, per a coach’s decision, leaving the Sparks with an eight-person rotation that seemingly ran out of gas against the Liberty.

Rookie center Olivia Nelson-Ododa, a 2022 secondround pick out of UConn, flashed her potential in her first career start. The 6-foot-5 post player had eight points and career bests of 10 rebounds and four blocked shots in a career-high 31 minutes.

“She’s growing up,” Sparks interim head coach Fred Williams said. “Every game she gets better and better.”

Williams said with the balance between the sixth through 11th teams in the WNBA, if the Sparks can put together a winning streak before the end of the regular season, anything can happen.

“It’s still possible,” Williams said. “We’re still in the (playoff) hunt.”