Sparks take on Fever before going on long break

INDIANAPOLIS — The Sparks were on the other side of a record-tying performance on Thursday.

Los Angeles ran into a buzzsaw known as Marina Mabrey, who scored 53 points to tie the single-game record for most points in a WNBA game. The Sparks lost big and it was hard to find any positive in a game that they never led in.

But the fact of the matter is that the WNBA keeps going. And whether the margin was by a single point or 30, it still counts as one loss.

And the Sparks (8-9) will move on to Indiana to take on the Fever (10-8). The Fever defeated the Sparks in Los Angeles last month in their first match-up.

Yes, the Fever's star has been a lightning rod for controversy. Even mainstream media that have no clue about the league are making comments. But what matters the most for the Fever is that Caitlin Clark won't be available for them on Saturday due to a back ailment.

The Sparks won't have Cameron Brink and Kelsey Plum themselves so a lot of star power will be missing for this game. But L.A., who have lost three of four games, needs a win badly. And to do that, they have to play to their fullest capabilities.

Sparks forward Nneka Ogwumike talked about this after their loss to the Tempo on Thursday.

"You can have all the schemes that you come into the game with but in my time playing, it's about just wanting to do it and activating the want-to to do it," Ogwumike said matter-of-factly. "That's not something that we did well, if at all, (against the Tempo) as a group."

When asked further, Ogwumike continued.

"I think it's inconsistent. I think that we see it in spurts, as we did on Sunday, and then we don't see it at times. Just sustaining that want-to is really what it's about, at least from my perspective."

And Ogwumike isn't wrong at all; the Sparks have been very on-and-off on either side of the ball. The pendulum has been mentioned in many articles in the past this season. In one game, they'll have great offense but bad defense. In another, they'll have great defense but bad offense. If they could put it together like they did against the Fire at home then they can make an earnest run this season.

"I think we just got to play to our strengths with the group that we have," Sparks forward Dearica Hamby said on Thursday. "We definitely have enough talent on paper. We've seen that we lead in transition so we got to get stops and play in transition more. We just got to (have) next man up mentality."

While they are missing Plum and Brink, Hamby is correct that they do have enough talent and veterans to get them some wins. Ogwumike and Hamby are going to continue to lead them while Sparks wing Rae Burrell will provide the scoring they need from the perimeter and drives. Vets like Ariel Atkins, Erica Wheeler, and Kiana Williams hope to get it going while youngsters like Chance Gray, Laura Ziegler, and even Ta'Niya Latson will provide support from the bench. 

With no Clark, the Fever still have two all-stars from their three-headed monster in Aliyah Boston and Kelsey Mitchell. Boston will, for sure, take advantage of the Sparks' lack of size while Indiana's left-handed Kelsey will definitely try to shoot the lights out (23 points in their first match-up). And the Fever have a lot of firepower outside of those all-stars. Sophie Cunningham is an elite irritant. Monique Billings provides additional size. Myisha Hines-Allen has the experience. Lexie Hull has the hustle. And rookie Raven Johnson is a proven winner. 

This group of Sparks want to get to that level as proven winners. Beating one of the teams that went to the semis last year would be a good start. Then they can get to .500 before going on their 8-day break. 

That would be a nice place to be while they recover physically and mentally.