Everything is coming up roses for the Sparks.
They’ve won seven of their past eight games and are now legitimately in the hunt for a playoff spot. Winning that much is not a mere coincidence or a lucky streak; it’s the result of several factors that needed to come into play for Los Angeles to become the best version of themselves.
Let’s take a closer look at how they’ve gotten here.
Health is wealth
Fans might roll their eyes when coaches or players mention a need to have everyone healthy as a key factor, but it is true. To win it all, you have to be good and lucky. Having players available falls into the latter category.
Throughout this season, the Sparks have been unlucky. Cameron Brink missed the first 25 games healing from an ACL tear, Rae Burrell got injured during her first minute of 2025 WNBA action and players like Kelsey Plum and Rickea Jackson also have missed games.
With a young, developing team, the unavailability of key rotation players made an uphill battle an impossible task. Los Angeles struggled and were sitting at 6-14 midway through July. Then, Burrell returned, Brink came back and they now have a clean injury report and wins to go along with that.
Sometimes, you never get to see your full roster healthy, and parts of the season become a “what if” scenario. The Sparks no longer have that problem. They are healthy and have, in turn, beaten elite teams like the Seattle Storm, Indiana Fever and New York Liberty, putting them in position to reach their stated goal of making the postseason.
Learning to win
Good teams find ways to win, bad teams find ways to lose. Lately, when the results of a game are hanging in the balance, the Sparks have tipped the scales in their favor.
Their win against Seattle was a prime example. They were trailing by seven entering the fourth on the road, and they didn’t cave. Instead, they went on a run, evened up the game and eventually won the first double-overtime game of the WNBA season.
Head coach Lynne Roberts kept her starters out there for the entirety of overtime, and they delivered. Jackson made clutch basket after clutch basket, Azurá Stevens knocked down her 3-pointers and the defense was good enough to snatch a victory from the jaws of defeat.
During this streak, LA also beat the Washington Mystics in back-to-back games, defeated New York on the road thanks to a game-winner by Jackson and held on against Indiana at home.
Momentum is hard to quantify, but once it starts, it’s hard to stop. LA is rolling, and now it’s not them with a tough schedule ahead, but other teams that will have to consider a stop in Los Angeles as a business trip, not just an easy win in a nice environment.
Coaching matters
So far, first-year Sparks head coach Lynee Roberts hasn’t had any noise for Coach of the Year, but she’s done a great job of getting the most out of her group.
Kelsey Plum is their superstar, living up to the vision of what she could be in a Sparks uniform when the organization traded for her. Stevens is having a career year, Jackson is blossoming and even with so many players improving, Dearica Hamby remains excellent. Getting Brink back is also a good thing, but it could’ve been a problem rotation-wise, messing up the chemistry the team has begun to develop.
Instead, Roberts has given the minutes she used to provide to Sania Feagin to Brink, and the team hasn’t blinked. Brink is more than holding her own as a rim protector and scorer off the bench for the Sparks, averaging four points and three blocks per game. All signs point to Brink only getting better as she plays the rest of the year.
The players deserve most of the credit for this turnaround, but Roberts has played a big role as well. She is in charge of a very young team, and as a rookie WNBA head coach, there was a mystery about how this would work. Well, the jury can end the deliberation. Roberts has done a lot with a little, and with so many players performing better than ever, she can bask in some of the fruits of their labor, along with the Sparks front office.
The job is not finished. The Sparks had a clear goal of ending their playoff drought this year, and if the season ended today, they would fall short of that goal. Still, they’ve made tremendous strides in achieving their desired result, and with the rest of August and September basketball to go, they’ll be able to control their own destiny.
It’s an exciting proposition. The Sparks are back, and with this current win streak, the rest of the WNBA has been put on notice.
Leave a Reply