The Sparks were soundly defeated in their season opener on Sunday, losing to the Aces, 105-78.
Las Vegas dominated three of the four quarters. LA won the second quarter 27-13 and lost the other three quarters 92-51. LA turned the ball over 19 times, leading to 26 points for Vegas. The Aces also scored 30 points off the bench to LA’s seven.
A quick four points from Stephanie Talbot started the game off. Ariel Atkins responded with a little razzle-dazzle, leading to a layup for LA. The game had a great
back-and-forth pace despite a few missed shots. Kelsey Plum started to erupt for Los Angeles, scoring four points.
The Sparks were down by two at the 4:25 mark. A’ja Wilson was leading the Aces with eight points.
Nneka Ogwumike and Kelsey Plum both drained triples for the Sparks.
Las Vegas jumped ahead by double figures on a 10-0 scoring run as Los Angeles’ offense went completely cold. Jackie Young converted on a buzzer-beating layup to give the Aces a 15-point lead.
Nneka opened the second with a much-needed 3-pointer for LA. The Sparks started to pick up steam with their offense. Dearica Hamby scored on back-to-back layups before Atkins also converted at the rim. Los Angeles was shooting 42% from the field in the quarter.
Plum and Hamby had 11 and seven points, respectively.
The Sparks cut the deficit to nine with 2:45 left until halftime, then had another four-point surge to further close the gap.
Wilson tried to stop some of the bleeding for Las Vegas, converting on a layup. LA did well in containing her to just 11 points.
Los Angeles’s 17-5 scoring run completely took the Aces out of the game. Going into halftime, the purple and gold were only down by one. Nneka was now leading the team with 15 points and Plum was close behind with 13.
NaLyssa Smith scored on a layup to start the third period. The Sparks played tight defense and got three jump-ball calls, but lost all three. Jackie Young logged four points that helped extend Las Vegas’ lead to nine.
Smith, Wilson, and Young were all in double figures now for the Aces.
Out of a break, Rae Burrell got her first points of the game on a triple. Chelsea Gray responded with a quick five points. The lead jumped to 12 for Las Vegas as they were shooting a red-hot 76% in the quarter.
The Aces had retaken all the momentum back. Young and Chennedy Carter splashed back-to-back 3-pointers for Las Vegas. At the end of the third, LA was down by 16.
Carter opened the final frame with a jumper in the paint. She had 15 points off the bench for the Aces. Plum responded with a 3-pointer on the other end for Los Angeles.
The game seemed to slip away from the Sparks as they couldn’t find any rhythm offensively or defensively.
At the 6:34 mark, LA was down by 21.
Plum drained a much-needed 3-pointer to give the team some life. Young scored four in a row, continuing Vegas’ offensive onslaught. Plum was the only Spark able to create consistency, scoring five more in a row to push her total to 27 for the game.
Los Angeles was still down too much, despite Plum’s efforts. With 1:52 left, LA officially waved the white flag and brought their bench in.
Key Player Stats
Nneka finished with 19 points and 10 rebounds. Plum ended with 27 points on 10-18 shooting. Hamby pitched in with 12 points and five rebounds. Atkins scored eight points with four rebounds, three assists and three steals.
Cam Brink played just eight minutes, finishing with three rebounds, three turnovers and three fouls.
The Sparks’ next game will be against the Indiana Fever on Wednesday at 7:30 PM PT.
You can follow Karin on Twitter at @KarinAbcarians.
