The quarter mark of a season isn’t necessarily a make-or-break point, but for the Sparks, it was starting to feel like it was close to it.
An 89-72 win over the expansion Portland Fire on Sunday to close a 1-2 homestand felt more necessary than the Sparks might have wanted to admit. But after struggling on the road before losing consecutive games at home against Las Vegas and Dallas amid a three-game losing streak, the Sparks needed something to go right.
Especially defensively, where the Sparks had seemingly been getting worse. They had their best defensive game of the season Sunday, holding Portland to 36% shooting — the second-lowest mark against them this season.
“One thing that we’ve really been adamant about is getting the schemes that the coaches put us in and adhering to those schemes,” Nneka Ogwumike said. “We bought into that, and that allowed us to make adjustments on the schemes without feeling like we need to change something, because we weren’t originally executing what they had in plan for us, so I appreciated that.”
Kelsey Plum finished with 16 points and six assists and Ogwumike had a double-double with 20 points and 17 rebounds. Dearica Hamby had 22 points with 12 rebounds, a solid response for the veteran forward following her struggles in recent games.
“The discipline to do things the way we’re supposed to do them allows you to then be a little more aggressive in different ways, and I thought we did a good job of that,” Sparks coach Lynne Roberts said. “You get rewarded from winning.”
Before the game, Roberts admitted that she would consider benching some players if things didn’t improve.
“That’s the stage we’re at,” she said. “So that’s where we’re at. So stay tuned.”
The Sparks (5-6) stuck with their usual rotation and held the Fire (6-7) to 72 points, the fewest they’ve allowed in a game this season.
Plum didn’t register a shot attempt until early in the third quarter when she hit a mid-range jumper to go ahead 45-43. The Fire defense smothered her, and while Erica Wheeler and Ogwumike made some shots early, the Sparks mostly didn’t make Portland pay for doubling up their star.
“Portland, they do some unique things, and so they were sending two [defenders at Plum] every time she touched it, whether she was coming off of a wall screen or not,” Roberts said. “In that first half she was facilitating and reading that and kicking it out. I did say to her at halftime, anytime you see one on one, you got to go, and I think we just simplified things for her.”
The Sparks went on an 8-0 run in the first quarter while the Fire struggled to make shots around the rim.
But the Sparks’ offense went cold in the second quarter, allowing Portland to come back to lead by two at halftime. Portland also dominated on the boards to get extra possessions.
The Sparks adjusted to open the third quarter with six consecutive points. Portland struggled to hold on to the ball and turned it over nine times in the third quarter, allowing the Sparks to outscore them 23-12.
“I feel like each game we’re still just kind of learning more and getting more comfortable with each other,” Hamby said. “But we [did well with] the spacing and just crashing and creating second opportunities.”
Portland couldn’t recover and the Sparks capitalized on turnovers to pull ahead by as much as 18.
“We were motivated, we were playing for each other,” Ogwumike said. “Offense is offense, but defense is really where it’s at. And today, I think we did a really good job of not leaving any gas in the tank on the defense end.”
The Sparks head to Seattle to face the Storm (3-9) on Wednesday. That will present another opportunity for the Sparks to work on their schemes and be rewarded if they can execute.
But like Roberts said, it’s a choice they have to make.
“It’s not going to be different playing Seattle in terms of we’re going to have a game plan that’s well thought out,” Roberts said. “It’s us choosing to do it for 40 minutes, and that’s how you build on it.”
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