Sparks look forward to their return to Staples
They’re coming home. Finally. The Sparks’ game against Indiana today at Staples Center will be their first at L.A.’s iconic arena since Sept. 15, 2019, when Chelsea Gray had 21 points and eight assists to lead L.A. past Seattle in a second-round WNBA playoff game that sent the Sparks into the semifinals, and set up a scheduling conflict.
Because the Emmy Awards were happening at the Microsoft Theater across the street, the Sparks had to play the third — and, it turned out, season-ending — game of their 2019 semifinal series against Connecticut at the Long Beach State Walter Pyramid.
Then came COVID-19, and the entire WNBA shifted to Bradenton, Fla, where they completed the 2020 season in a bubble at IMG Academy.
The pandemic also pushed the start of this past NBA season back a couple of months, leading to an overlap with the WNBA’s traditional summer slate. The Lakers and Clippers’ seasons extended into the playoffs, with games at Staples Center through June 30, when the Clippers bowed out in Game 6 of the Western Conference finals.
So the Sparks — who went 6-13 in the first half of this season when they were beset by injuries to key players — staged their first 11 home games ahead of the Olympic break at the nearby L.A. Convention Center. The large hall was dressed up to feel as much like a basketball arena as possible, but it was no Staples Center.
“It’s huge,” said Te’a Cooper, the Sparks’ second-year guard after her first practice at Staples Center, the cavernous facility that can seat as many as 19,000 people. “It kind of looks like the end of ‘Love and Basketball.’ It’s really nice to be out there, nice to see ‘Los Angeles Sparks’ on the court instead of Lakers.
Sparks guard Te’a Cooper, right, was impressed with Staples Center after her first practice at the venue.
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It was cool.”
Guard Brittney Sykes joined the Sparks last season, but said she and most of her teammates are still adjusting to being on the home team at Staples Center. Only Kristi Toliver and Nneka and Chiney Ogwumike have stepped on the Staples Center court as Sparks.
“Me and Nia (Coffey) accidentally walked past our locker room, because we’re always visitors when we come here,” Sykes said. “I kind of stopped myself ... ‘Oh snap, I’m here, I’m on the other side!’ And it was pretty cool to walk out onto the court and be affiliated with the Sparks and be affiliated with Staples Center.
“You always hear about Staples Center. You hear about Kobe (Bryant). You hear about the Lakers. You hear about everybody that plays in this. And now we can say that we are trying to make our mark in this arena just as everybody else before us has.”
Coach Derek Fisher has his own decorated history in the arena, having won five NBA titles with the Lakers. This Friday and Saturday, he moved his Sparks from Academy USA in Glendale to Staples Center to help with the acclimation process — a somewhat vexing notion, he said, for a team preparing to play on its home floor (where the Sparks were 15-2 in 2019).