DALLAS – They fought to the bitter end. Some losses from other squads opened up a golden opportunity for them to control their own playoff destiny by needing just one more win to clinch the eighth and final seed. They rallied from one deficit after another on the road in their final regular season game.
(Courtesy of WNBA)
Despite all the injuries to key players throughout the season, they persevered showing a tremendous amount of heart and grit. In the end, however, those hurdles were too much to overcome and the Los Angeles Sparks’ season and hopes to qualify for the WNBA playoffs came to an end.
For the first time since 2011, the Sparks (12-20) will be missing the postseason after an 87-84 loss to the Dallas Wings (14-18) on Sunday afternoon. The Wings, who clinched the seventh seed, didn’t have much to play for as far as seeding was concerned, but wanted to ensure the Sparks got an early jump on their offseason vacation plans.
LA got some noteworthy performances from second-year guard Te’a Cooper who scored a game-high 24 points while dishing out six assists. Erica Wheeler scored 22 points with seven assists, doing most of her damage in the second half, but missed a potential game-tying three-pointer as time expired. The always-efficient Nneka Ogwumike scored 18 points making four of her five attempts from three-point range while grabbing 10 rebounds.
Ogwumike was proud of the team’s grit and determination and believes that will help them moving forward.
“I’m proud of how we played obviously, but I think it’s more about understanding the opportunity that we had,” Ogwumike said. “Given all things, we still had a chance and for us to fight in that way, I think it’s definitely a mark of the team want to have, the organization we want to have. Staying together, and understanding everything we do in the season and in the offseason is for the team.”
Cooper, Wheeler, and Ogwumike single-handedly kept the Sparks in the game especially in the second half but the team’s lack of depth was exposed. The younger Wings got more contributions throughout their squad including their bench which scored 40 points compared to just three for LA.
It’s also a disappointing end to a difficult season for Derek Fisher, the head coach and first-year GM, who has seen the team regress these past three years. His first year in 2019, they were swept by the Connecticut Sun in the semifinals. Last season in the Wubble, they were beat again by the Sun in the second round, single-elimination game.
After parting ways with longtime All-Stars and strong role players like Candace Parker, Chelsea Gray, Riquana Williams, and Sydney Wiese, this season was considered a transitional year where Fisher was trying to shift the identity of the team and leave his imprint. He wanted a squad that was younger, faster, and more versatile.
However, even with the injuries, there were issues with certain rotations, lack of size and rebounding, and poor offensive execution that will have to be addressed.
Coach Fisher understands there will be things that need to be evaluated before next season, but wouldn’t exactly give a rating for his coaching performance this year.
“I don’t know…when there’s some time to review this season, have some appropriate conversations as a staff and go from there,” Fisher said. “I don’t know if rating anything or anybody really matters.”
“We all just recognize that we have to come back and be better individually and collectively. That’s where our focus is going to be. I appreciate our players’ effort. The rating thing I guess is (media’s) thing,” Fisher continued. “I don’t really approach what I do from that perspective…but we’ll learn from this and we’ll be better moving forward.”
Just like Coach Fisher, Fisher the GM will also have to go back to the drawing board this offseason and figure out how to make this squad deeper so they can withstand some of those injuries and remain competitive.
The 2021 Sparks were very good defensively, forcing turnovers, and played with energy and heart every game, but if they’re going to compete with the elites of this league, they will simply need more depth and talent.
