One of the most storied players in Los Angeles Sparks’ history makes her return to Crypto.com Arena on Tuesday when the Sparks take on the Seattle Storm.
After playing for the Sparks for 12 years, Nneka Ogwumike leads a Storm team coming off a strong stretch at home, where Seattle won seven of nine games.
The Storm (16-8) topped the Sparks (6-17) in the first meeting this season between the two teams in Seattle.
The ex-WNBA MVP had a dominant performance with 26 points, eight rebounds, one assist and two blocks on 11 of 15 shooting in the Storm’s 96-79 win over the Sparks on June 11.
The Sparks have struggled throughout the season, while the Storm has been one of the best teams in the WNBA. Ogwumike, acquired in free agency, has averaged 17.1 points and 7.6 rebounds per game.
The Sparks managed to get a win on the road against the Dallas Wings 87-81 on Saturday, while Seattle is tied for second in the Western Conference with the Minnesota Lynx.
Sparks’ rookie Rickea Jackson scored a career-high 23 points versus the Wings two games after setting a career-high of 22 points against the Mercury. She also had a game-high 17 plus-minus in Dallas. She’s shown aggressiveness in attacking the basket and uses her length to finish around defenders.
In the past week, the Sparks have welcomed back veteran forward Azura Stevens from injury. Stevens has played 25 minutes every game so far and recorded a season-high 37 minutes in the win over the Wings.
Against the Wings, Stevens had her best game of the season, scoring 16 points on four of four shooting from 3-point range with eight rebounds and four assists. Stevens impacted the defensive end, accumulating four steals and three blocks.
With her fellow frontcourt mate, Stevens, back in the lineup, WNBA All-Star Dearica Hamby has continued a strong stretch of games. She scored 27 points while grabbing four rebounds and dishing five assists against Dallas.
The Sparks got a much-needed win after suffering a lopsided loss against the Minnesota Lynx in a game where head coach Curt Miller said the team was “outplayed and outcoached.”
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“Our turnovers crept up tonight,” Miller said. “Some were self-inflicted, some were disappointing reads because this is the third time we’ve played (the Lynx), and we knew some of the things we were looking for, and we couldn’t execute to what we planned trying to go into this game.”
Another thing to track for the Sparks is their shooting woes. The Sparks made 43% of their threes against the Wings but only took 14 attempts. However, the team shot 15% and 21% in losses to the Wings and Mercury in the two games before.
“We missed a lot of uncontested shots again,” Miller said after the Lynx loss. “These guys got to stay confident and you can tell it’s in their head.”
The Sparks will need to find their shooting rhythm and execute better on both ends of the floor to compete against the veteran Storm squad.
