Sparks keep their playoff hopes alive with rout of Storm
LOS ANGELES >> With their postseason window threatening to slam shut, the Sparks’ V-I-C-T-O-R-Y on Sunday kept it lodged open for at least another night.
In stunning fashion, the Sparks snapped a six-game losing streak and kept alive their postseason hopes with a runaway 81-53 victory over the defending champion Seattle Storm.
Credit Sunday’s compelling victory before a crowd of 4,181 at L.A.’s final regular-season home game to a few perfectly delivered words of wisdom from a 14-year-old Scripps National Spelling Bee champion.
Zaila Avant-garde — who, in addition to being the first African American to win the prestigious spelling contest, is an aspiring WNBA player who holds three basketball-related records in the Guinness Book of World Records — spent Sunday as an honorary member of the Sparks.
Her address to the team at shootaround and shortly before tip-off proved inspiring.
“She is wise for her age,” said L.A. guard Brittney Sykes, who Sunday finished with 15 points, nine rebounds and had a big hand in holding Seattle’s illustrious backcourt to a combined eight points. “It’s like simple, what she says; it’s very A-B-C … simple things that you kind of forget as you get older, as everything becomes so serious. But seeing it through her eyes, she said go have fun, play hard, win the game — because we want to make playoffs.
“So we did.”
They blew past the nowfourth-place Storm (20-11) to avoid being eliminated from the playoff conversation for just the fifth time in the franchise’s 25-year history.
The Sparks (11-19) could sneak into the postseason still if they win their final two regular-season games — on Thursday at Atlanta and next Sunday in Dallas — and get an assist from Washington. At 12-18, the Mystics will have to lose their last two games after
SPARKS 81, STORM 53 Up next: Sparks at Dream, Thursday, 4 p.m., Amazon Prime
beating Chicago 79-71 on Sunday afternoon to back the Sparks into a corner.
On Sunday, the Sparks combined their typically stingy defense and an atypically stout offensive effort.
L.A. did it without Chiney Owgwumike, who was out again with right knee soreness (as well as Kristi Toliver and rookie Jasmine Walker, who are sidelined with a broken pinky and torn ACL, respectively).
The Storm were notably short-handed too, taking the court without 2018 MVP Breanna Stewart (left foot) and former UCLA star Jordin Canada (right knee).
Seattle missed them. The Storm established a new season-low in points (by 14) and shot a seasonworst 32.1% from the field. Epiphanny Prince was the only member of the Storm to score in double figures, finishing with 12 points. Storm star Sue Bird finished with just 3 points (on 1-for-7 shooting) and no assists for the first time since Sept. 6, 2012. Jewell Loyd finished with just five points on 2-for-9 shooting.
For its part, L.A. shot 48.4% (30 for 62) and eclipsed 80 points for just the seventh time this season.
After falling behind 17-0 on Thursday in their loss to Connecticut, the Sparks bolted out of the gate Sunday.
Sykes went charging into the heart of the Seattle defense for layups at the rim. Nneka Ogwumike (17 points, including going 5 for 5 at the free-throw line) and Nia Coffey (nine points, two blocks) connected on jumpers.
And Erica Wheeler’s nasty, tone-setting crossover dropped Bird, who crumpled onto the court a contorted pile of limbs as the Sparks’ guard (17 points) sank the open shot to make it 6-4.
The result: L.A. built a 24-13 lead after the first quarter and didn’t look back.