An amazing performance helped the Sparks defeat the league’s best Minnesota Lynx 89-82 on Thursday night.
A continued bright light for the team has been Cameron Brink, who once again was the highlight of LA’s bench, scoring in double figures and providing the defensive effort the team needs to stack more wins.
The Lynx started the game on fire from the field, scoring five points in a row. Dearica Hamby responded by scoring four straight for LA. Hamby was leading all scorers, with Erica Wheeler close
behind with three points. Napheesa Collier and Courtney Williams combined for 12 of Minnesota’s 22 points.
At the five-minute mark, the Sparks were down 10.
Luckily for Los Angeles, the Lynx started to get cold from the field, leading to a 15-4 run for LA. The Sparks were winning the battle in the paint 14-8. Minnesota was a brutal 1-10 from behind the arc.
At the end of the first, the purple and gold were down by one.
Hamby scored first for Los Angeles in the second period to give the team the lead by one. Olivia Miles responded on the other end with a layup. Hamby and Miles exchanged layups once more, being the only two players for either team to score early in the quarter.
At the 6:48 mark, LA was up by two.
The Sparks were shooting 46% from the field in this quarter. They had built a lead of five until back-to-back triples from Collier and Nia Coffey put the Lynx back in the lead by one. They ignited for an 11-0 scoring run.
At halftime, Minnesota was ahead by eight.
Nneka Ogwumike drained a triple to start the third period for Los Angeles. Miles responded with one of her own. Burrell then splashed a 3-pointer as well. Kayla McBride and Ariel Atkins joined the triple party, knocking down back-to-back triples.
The Sparks now had three players in double figures: Burrell with 14, Nneka with 12 and Hamby with 11.
McBride had two triples in the quarter and had 10 points overall for Minnesota. At the 4:31 mark, LA was down by seven. Collier pushed her point total to 19 after scoring another four points. Despite the Lynx playing well, Los Angeles was still hanging around.
At the end of the third, the Sparks were down by five. They won that quarter 26-23.
Williams started the final frame with a midrange jumper for the Lynx. Hamby scored five points to help shave off more of Minnesota’s lead. LA was able to cut the deficit to one after Erica Wheeler drained a triple.
Williams responded with two, and Burrell struck back with a three to tie the game with six minutes left.
Brink put the Sparks up by two with a jump shot. McBride answered with a 3-pointer to put the Lynx up by one with 4:52 left. LA called a timeout, and out of the break, Los Angeles couldn’t score.
Minnesota turned the ball over on the other end.
The Sparks now had a lead of three with 1:42 left thanks to buckets for Nneka and Wheeler. Brink picked up her third block of the night on a clutch defensive effort that led to Monique Akoa Makani scoring on a midrange jumper.
Now with 1:03 left, Los Angeles was up by five. Minnesota had a chance to cut into the deficit, but McBride missed a triple. Wheeler scored on the other end on a layup that sealed the win for the Sparks.
Key Player Stats:
Hamby finished with 16 points and seven rebounds. Burrell pitched in with 17 points and two rebounds. Nneka ended with 16 points and seven rebounds.
Brink scored 12 points with eight rebounds, five assists and three blocks. Wheeler dropped 12 points with nine assists.
The Sparks’ next game will be against the Golden State Valkyries on Sunday at 4:00 PM PT.
You can follow Karin on Twitter at @KarinAbcarians.
