LOS ANGELES — Sparks coach and general manager Derek Fisher knows you needn’t only build an impressive roster to build excitement in a crowded L.A. sports landscape.
Those players have to come through.
“We wanted to be in a position where we’re expected to be successful,” Fisher said before tipoff. “In L.A., when we’re in direct competition with 11 other professional sports teams, you have to be relevant, you have to have players that people want to come and see, otherwise people aren’t going to fight the traffic and come watch you play.”
A crowd of 4,701 got there Tuesday to see the team’s home opener at Crypto.com Arena, including basketball greats Magic Johnson, Lisa Leslie, Carmelo Anthony and Baron Davis, as well as comic actress Leslie Johnson, who played the part of an enthused fan from her front-row seat.
They saw Fisher’s revamped roster lose their third consecutive game, dropping their home opener in an increasingly taught game against the Minnesota Lynx, their old rivals from championship tussles in the previous decade. The Sparks fell to 2-3, while Minnesota improved to 1-4.
“We were the home opener for four other teams so we were really feening to get this one,” Sparks forward Nneka Ogwumike said. “L.A. showed out as usual, I know they’ll continue to despite tonight’s result, but I guess you could say it’s kind of like growing pains.
“But after you have growing pains, you’re taller, so I’m looking forward to seeing how this works out.”
The game came featured eight ties and five lead changes in the fourth quarter and came down to the final moments, when Kayla McBride capped a remarkable 24-point outing – the day after she arrived back in the United States after her season in Turkey – by getting free for a reverse layup and a free throw that put the Lynx ahead 87-84 with 2.1 seconds left.
The play – combined with the Sparks’ subsequent whiff on creating a good 3-point look with time running out – spoiled the hosts’ own late-game heroics.
Lexie Brown buried her fourth 3-pointer to tie the score at 82-82 with 53 seconds left and Liz Cambage’s tying turnaround shot over Minnesota’s Sylvia Fowles, who committed her sixth and final foul defending the attempt, tied it again 84-84.
Brown and Cambage finished with 12 points apiece, in 31 and 24 minutes, respectively.
Brown shot 4 for 6 and improved to 11 for 18 from deep this season, crediting her experience in the fledging Athletes Unlimited league for helping boost her confidence coming into this season.
“I’m just finally having an opportunity to show what I’m capable off,” she said.
Cambage was again hampered by foul trouble, finishing with a frustrating five of them.
“We have to figure out a way to help with just Liz being able to stay on the court longer,” Fisher said of the Sparks’ dynamic new 6-foot-8 center. “We have to figure out a way to help with just Liz being able to stay on the court longer.
“That’s kept her minutes around the mid-20s, and she’s a player that impacts the game for us on oth sides, so if you think about the rebounding aspect; if she plays 32 minutes instead of 24, maybe a few more of those rebounds are ours.”
Former Mater Dei High standout Katie Lou Samuelson scored nine points in her Sparks debut on 3-for-5 3-point shooting in 23 minutes – four days after returning from Spain, where she’d won a second consecutive championship with Perfumerias Avenida.
“It just shows the commitment really,” said Nneka Ogwumike of Samuelson and McBride’s recent itineraries. “It’s kind of amazing too, because they get to go over there and make some money, win championships, and then come over here and play in the W. There’s only 144 spots over here, so for them to make that commitment and play off a plane, is remarkable. Not just play — but show out. They both hooped tonight.”
For the new-look Sparks it was Nneka, their mainstay, the six-time All-Star and former league MVP who also heads the players union, who was the most incandescent contributor, finishing with 22 points and eight of the Sparks’ 26 rebounds – 14 fewer than Minnesota’s tally.
The Sparks got the good start they’d been missing in their first four games, bolting ahead 12-4 on Chiney Ogwumike’s layup through contact with 5:33 left in the opening frame – a play that drew a full-body shiver of a celebration from big sister Nneka, who’d delivered the pass to her in the post.
But thanks to an alert 12 first-quarter points from McBride – who stepped off a plane in L.A. Monday afternoon and proceeded to pour in 12 first-quarter points and 17 in her first 11 minutes of action.
Her deep 3-pointer with 2:26 left in the first quarter erased all of the Sparks’ advantage, tying it, 14-14.
The Lynx went into halftime leading 46-40, enough to hold off the Sparks in the second half, when they outscored their guests 44-41 – not quite enough to come through with a win.