Sparks rout Seattle, keep playoff hopes flickering

LOS ANGELES — The Sparks’ playoff prospects mightiness person been connected beingness enactment Sunday nighttime erstwhile they faced the defending WNBA champion Seattle Storm successful a must-win crippled astatine Staples Center.

But successful stunning manner they kept anticipation precise overmuch alive.

With a compelling, convincing 81-53 victory, Derek Fisher’s squad blew past the third-place Storm (20-11) to debar being eliminated from the playoff speech for conscionable the 5th clip successful the franchise’s 25-year history.

The Sparks (11-19) could sneak successful to the postseason inactive if they triumph their last 2 regular-season games — connected Thursday astatine Atlanta and Sunday successful Dallas — and get an assistance from the Washington Mystics, who, astatine 12-18, volition person to suffer their past 2 games aft beating Chicago 79-71 connected Sunday day to backmost the Sparks into a corner.

In their last regular-season location game, the Sparks snapped a six-game losing streak with their typically stingy defence and an atypically stout violative showing to complement it.

L.A. did it without Chiney Owgwumike, who was retired again with close genu soreness (as good arsenic Kristi Toliver and rookie Jasmine Walker, who are sidelined with a breached pinky and torn ACl, respectively).

The Storm were notably short-handed too, taking the tribunal without 2018 MVP Breanna Stewart (left foot) and erstwhile UCLA prima Jordin Canada (right knee).

Seattle missed them. The Storm established a caller season-low successful points (by 14) and changeable a season-worst 32.1% from the field.

Conversely, L.A. eclipsed 80 points for conscionable the seventh clip this season.

Two nights aft falling down 17-0 successful their nonaccomplishment to Connecticut, the Sparks bolted up Sunday arsenic if they had thing to prove, arriving with the benignant of vigor Fisher expected they might.

“Hopefully,” the team’s manager and wide manager said earlier the game, “many of our players volition person had the accidental implicit the past mates nights to say, ‘OK, Thursday was, we didn’t play that crippled the mode we’re susceptible of. How did I feel? What was it that went into that crippled that created definite feelings successful me, successful us?

“‘And however bash we travel retired contiguous successful a antithetic mode that allows america to person a accidental to vie from the opening arsenic opposed to playing from down for 40 minutes successful a hoops game?’”

Sykes (who finished with 15 points and 9 rebounds) went charging into the bosom of the Seattle defence for layups astatine the rim. Nneka Ogwumike (17 points, which included making each 5 of her escaped throws, much than successful immoderate different crippled this season) and Nia Coffey (nine points, 2 blocks) confidently connected connected jumpers.

And Erica Wheeler’s nasty, tone-setting crossover dropped Storm prima Sue Bird, who crumpled onto the tribunal a contorted heap of limbs arsenic the Sparks’ defender (17 points) sank the unfastened changeable to marque it 6-4.

The result: L.A. built a 24-13 pb aft the archetypal 4th and didn’t look back, taking a 45-27 vantage into halftime and turning that into a 66-40 vantage entering the last 10 minutes.

Te’a Cooper besides came up large disconnected the bench, with 19 points successful 22 minutes disconnected the bench.

More to travel connected this story.