SPARKS PREVAIL, GIVE PARKER FIRST TITLE
Shortly after basketball coaching legend Pat Summitt died in June after a long battle with early-onset Alzheimer’s, Los Angeles Sparks star and former Tennessee standout Candace Parker declared in a postgame interview, “From here on out, I’m playing for her.”
Thursday, in front of a raucous crowd at Target Center, Parker won Summitt a WNBA title when the Sparks beat the Minnesota Lynx 77-76 in Game 5 of the WNBA Finals.
League MVP Nneka Ogwumike hit the game-winning shot with 3.1 seconds left, denying Minnesota a repeat title.
“(Summitt) would have been proud of our rebounding. It came down to rebounding and defense,” said Parker, the Finals MVP, who led the Sparks with 28 points and 12 rebounds Thursday. “I could hear her voice telling me to keep going. She was definitely present tonight.”
The title was Los Angeles’ third overall, its first since 2002 and the first of Parker’s pro ca- reer. It came at the end of a trying year for the longtime Sparks star, 30, who also was surprisingly left off the U.S. Olympic squad.
“She’s been through so much,” Ogwumike said of Parker. “I told her I wanted her to get one. She had an awesome game tonight.”
Said Parker, “I think I’m excited because we won the championship, but the journey to get here, I wouldn’t want to do it with anybody else.”
Maya Moore had 23 points, 11 assists and six rebounds to lead the Lynx.