Even before the season officially tipped off, head coach Lynne Roberts established that the Sparks’ goal this year was to make the playoffs and end their franchise-long four-year postseason drought.
Entering Tuesday’s contest in Phoenix with two regular-season games remaining, L.A.‘s playoff hopes were still alive, but just barely. The scenario was simple: the Sparks needed to win their final two games and the Storm needed to lose their final game — played simultaneously with LA’s contest — for Los Angeles to secure the No. 8 seed.
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The Sparks held up their end of the bargain, beating the Mercury 87-83. But Seattle ended L.A.’s postseason aspirations, defeating the Valkyries 83-82.
It was bad enough to be eliminated, but for Sparks fans, the way things transpired on Tuesday was a particularly sinister storyline.
As the two games ticked away side by side, for the majority of both contests, the results were leaning in Los Angeles’ favor.
However, the Storm rallied in the fourth, erasing a double-digit deficit and as the Sparks iced away their win at the free throw line, the Storm were surviving frantic final seconds to come away victorious.
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With so much of the second half of the season looking bright in Los Angeles, it’s a bitter pill to swallow that they will once again only play the minimum number of games in a season.
However, while interest is turned up by fans at season’s end, all games are equal and losses at the start of the season came back to haunt the Sparks in the end.
“There’s some games I’d love to have back,” Roberts said. “But that’s the way it works and what you learn from that is you can’t just think, ‘Oh, it’ll be fine. It’s no big deal. It’s June.’ Those games matter. We will learn from that and that will be put in our pocket for next season. When we’re feeling a little whatever, we’ve got to find a way to win those games we are supposed to win.”
It’s hard to find silver linings on a night when the Sparks have extended their playoff drought to five years and counting, but they’re still there. Los Angeles began the season with a 6-14 record and turned things around, going 15-8 since, which is the fourth-best record in the WNBA during that span.
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Players like Cameron Brink shined in her return from injury and Julie Allemand blossomed into a starting guard who helped shape the culture of the Sparks the rest of the way.
“We had a tough start,” Roberts said, “and I give the players all the credit. They hung in there and they didn’t divide and chip away or splinter. As we started to get healthy, their buy-in was there. And when I say buy-in, it’s just their commitment to playing the way we’re trying to play.”
The Sparks’ star players also stepped up this season. Kelsey Plum was the All-Star guard they needed and Dearica Hamby is a contender to make an All-WNBA team as well. While this is Plum’s first season in Los Angeles, Hamby has a better sense of how far the Sparks have come.
“I came here two years ago, and the plan was a long-term build,” Hamby said. “And to be a part of it, I want to be here. I feel like we took steps in the right direction. I think it’s a little frustrating cause you look at some of the games and we were two games away, but I can count on two hands how many games that we kind of gave up, so still positive though. And good momentum for the future.”
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As bright as the future may be for the Sparks, though, the pain of victory on Tuesday is one that will linger for some time heading into another long offseason.
You can follow Edwin on Twitter at @ECreates88 or on Bluesky at @ecreates88.bsky.social.
