LOS ANGELES — For most of the first half of the 2025 WNBA season, the Sparks have been meandering in mediocrity. There have been a handful of solid individual performances, but as a team, it’s been a lot more failures than successes.
July, however, is beginning to look like a turning point in Los Angeles.
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Rae Burrell has returned after suffering a right leg injury. The Sparks have won three of their last five games, including their best victory of the season, blowing out the Mystics 99-80 to enter the All-Star break on a two-game winning streak.
That might not seem like a tremendous accomplishment, but it’s the first winning streak Los Angeles has had since they won a pair of games back in early June of last year.
“I’m proud of us,” head coach Lynne Roberts said after the win. “I’m proud of these guys for sticking with the process because it’s hard. Adversity is hard, it challenges you, and it shows you what you’re really made of. We’re not done, but I do feel like things are starting to click.”
Not every victory is a blueprint for long-term success, but the Sparks’ current win streak has demonstrated actions that are sustainable and achievable given the roster construction.
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With Burrell back, she provides an offensive boost that the team was severely lacking in her absence. In the Sparks’ win over the Sun, she scored all seven bench points for the team and against the Mystics, she chipped in five points on 50% shooting.
“Rae [Burrell] is just a firecracker,” Roberts said. She just comes in and brings life and plays with speed and all the things. It’s nice to bring that off the bench.”
Bench production is good, but it’s only beneficial if the starters are holding up their end of the bargain. Julie Allemand has been slotted into the starting lineup this month, and she’s been magnificent.
Allemand is a magician with the basketball. She consistently sets up her teammates for success. Allemand gets them easy looks and rarely turns the ball over. As a starter in July, she is averaging 6.3 points, 5.6 assists and only one turnover per game. She also has the best plus-minus on the team during this month at +31.
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“Julie [Allemand] has been unbelievable,” Roberts said. “She had tonight ten assists and one turnover. I think that’s 25 assists and two turnovers in the last three or four games. That’s just ridiculous. And like I’ve said, she just calms us down. She was +22 today and scored three points. That’s hard to do. Her value cannot be understated.”
To be successful in the WNBA, you have to be two things: good and lucky. The Sparks have been neither, dealing with far too many injuries and having a rough schedule, which included four contests against the top-seeded Minnesota Lynx.
Now, Los Angeles is winning games, taking care of the ball and getting bench production. Once Cameron Brink returns, they’ll have an empty injury report.
Brink continues to make progress while rehabbing her left knee injury. She has recently done individual on-court work during Sparks practice, and coach Roberts is hopeful Brink will return by the end of July.
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Through the highs and the lows, the Sparks’ lone All-Star Kelsey Plum has remained the same. She has been the engine that keeps Los Angeles going, averaging 20.1 points, 5.8 assists and starting in every game.
Plum has seen it all from WNBA titles and All-Star MVP awards to sub .500 records and disappointing playoff exits. If anyone knows about staying even-keeled regardless of the situation, it would be the team’s eight-year veteran.
As they enter the All-Star break, with as many games in front of them as there are behind, Plum’s focus is on the team resting and resetting so they can finish 2025 as strongly as possible.
“I think it’s really good to just get mentally, physically, emotionally away,” Plum said. “To be able to reset and come back. And just remembering how these feelings feel, winning, building off of that, playing super collectively.”
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The Sparks won’t play again until July 22, when they have a rematch against the Mystics, but this time in Washington.
With L.A. sitting at 8-14, they are a ways away from the postseason aspirations coach Roberts indicated during Media Day, but they’ve already matched their 2024 win total.
If they continue to build off these victories and Brink can be implemented into the rotation, then the best is yet to come for the 2025 Sparks.
You can follow Edwin on Twitter at @ECreates88 or on Bluesky at @ecreates88.bsky.social.
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