Against the Chicago Sky, the Sparks found themselves in a must-win situation, not in the grand scheme of the standings, but for peace of mind. A win to help with confidence and morale.
After a week riddled with injuries and a three-game skid, Sunday’s matchup carried weight beyond the court — it mattered in the locker room. The pressure was starting to show, with visible signs of frustration from head coach Lynne Roberts down to the end of the bench.
The Sparks were a team searching for anything to swing the momentum back in their favor.
That shift came in the form of their superstar, Kelsey Plum, who took it upon herself to ignite the turnaround with a shooting clinic in the third quarter. Her flurry helped lift L.A. to a much-needed 91-78 win over the Sky at Crypto.com Arena.
Despite a back-and-forth start and a 43-39 halftime lead, the question remained: Which version of the Sparks would emerge after the break — the lethargic, disconnected squad or a group finally ready to deliver the full 40-minute effort Roberts has pleaded for?
Out of the locker room, the Sparks found a renewed energy. What followed was a shooting barrage from beyond the arc.
Plum sparked the run, and fittingly, she helped seal it too.
As she let her first left-handed three fly, the confidence in her stroke started to build. The second, from the top of the key, came with a signature gesture — Plum pointing to her veins, signaling the ice running through them. Then came the heat check: back-to-back threes that only added to her fire. A final three dropped cleanly through the net, punctuating the outburst.
Plum went five for six in the quarter, scoring 15 of her 28 total points, helping L.A. stretch the lead to 76-64 by the end of the third. The Sparks finished eight of 11 from the field in the quarter as a team.
Plum left it all on the floor for the Sparks. At one point, she took a shot to the nose and stayed down for a couple of minutes. But after brushing off the injury, Plum returned to the lineup and finished the game, embodying the grit the Sparks desperately needed.
But even against the league’s worst scoring offense (66.0 points per game) and defense (96.0), in what seemed like the perfect opportunity to exploit a team with even worse early-season woes, the game unfolded as two physical squads refusing to back down.
Coming in, there was no doubt that low-post anchors Dearica Hamby and Azurá Stevens would face a tough challenge, tasked with matching up against Chicago’s frontcourt duo of Kamilla Cardoso and Angel Reese — both boasting a clear advantage in size and length.
In the first half, however, Hamby and Stevens limited Cardoso and Reese to a combined 12 points and nine rebounds — a small but important victory against a Sky team ranked third in the WNBA in rebounding (39.0 per game).
Reese finished with 13 points and 11 rebounds — her third double-double of the season — while Cardoso added 12 points but was limited to just six boards. The Sparks’ frontcourt tandem managed to keep the damage manageable, preventing the kind of interior dominance Chicago has leaned on throughout the early season.