Los Angeles – The Los Angeles Sparks upped their defense Wednesday to roll past the Indiana Fever, 106-92, and shake off a lackluster drubbing two nights earlier.
Nneka Ogwumike lead all five LA starters in double figures with 24 points, while Rae Burrell added 22. The team shot 51 percent on the night and 45 percent from the three-point line, which was a far cry from the previous game numbers of 34 and 17 percent, respectively.
“We wanted to play hard, we wanted to own each possession ….for the full 40 minutes of play,” Ogwumike said. “It felt good emptying the tank…..ensuring that everybody on the court was doing everything they could to win the possession.”
The Sparks, who are without top scorer Kelsey Plum for a few more weeks while she recovers from injury, trailed by four after one quarter, but ignited in the second to outscore Indiana, 27-16. They kept up the defensive pressure in the second half, quelling several Fever attempts at a run.
“I’m happy we won, but I’m more happy with how we played,” LA coach Lynne Roberts said. “We talked about playing more connected, having more smarts out there and emptying the tank. We were rebounding and running tonight, and that’s what we wanted to do.”
Kelsey Mitchell lead the Fever with 29 points, while Lexie Hull had 14. Caitlin Clark had 9 points in her return to the court for the first time in two weeks, after sustaining a back injury. The team was missing center Aliyah Boston, who sat out to rest.
Indiana coach Stephanie White said not having Boston was a factor in the loss, but even more so was team performance.
“We didn’t match their energy, their toughness, their effort,” she said. “Some of our rotations weren’t there.”
Mitchell said the team’s problems stemmed from both sides of the court.
“We shot ourselves in the foot because we couldn’t find a decent flow offensively, but I think that’s a testament to how bad our defense was,” she said. “I think we had some good moments….that made it seem like we were getting back into the game. But you’ve got to have those moments in every single possession.”
The Sparks host the Chicago Sky Friday, while the Fever head to Phoenix for a showdown with the Mercury tomorrow night.
