Sparks Drop Fifth In A Row After Entering Fourth Quarter Tied With Mercury

The Sparks and Mercury teetered and tottered, but Phoenix pulled distant precocious to manus Los Angeles an 86-82 nonaccomplishment connected Wednesday day astatine Crypto.com Arena successful nan 2 teams’ last crippled earlier a much-needed All-Star break.

With nan crippled tied astatine 60 entering nan 4th quarter, Phoenix scored consecutive baskets and ne'er trailed again. Forward Alyssa Thomas dominated pinch 19 points, 11 rebounds and 15 assists, while defender Kahleah Copper poured successful 21 points to lead nan Mercury precisely arsenic Sparks coach Lynne Roberts expected pregame.

“Players for illustration [Thomas] and [Copper] … tin some return complete games,” Roberts said earlier nan game. “Last clip we played them, Copper had 41 … she is an absolute talent. I deliberation they tally bully stuff. I for illustration what [Mercury coach Nate Tibbetts] does.”

Forward Dearica Hamby anchored nan Sparks pinch 18, scoring her team’s first 7 points, and guardant Rae Burrell — aft starting 0-for-5 shooting vanished pinch 20.

Both nan Sparks and Mercury needed this triumph badly. The Sparks, who are still without Kelsey Plum (lower leg), entered having mislaid 4 consecutive roadworthy games by azygous digits. Phoenix entered having mislaid 5 of its past six.

“We conscionable sewage to decorativeness games,” Roberts said pregame, adding, “[The Mercury] conscionable person had a difficult clip getting those wins … for illustration us.”

Sparks defender Kiana Williams played 7 minutes pinch what Roberts called “a really bad thumb wounded that she’s conscionable benignant of toughing through.”

Cameron Brink scored 5 points complete 19 minutes successful her 4th crippled backmost from an ankle wounded suffered connected June 15 that sidelined nan Sparks guardant for a month.

“Yeah, she still is connected a minutes restriction, but we’re getting adjacent nan extremity of that, which is great,” Roberts said pregame. “She’s conscionable going to proceed to get stronger connected that ankle and her minutes will increase, and her domiciled will proceed to grow.”