What a week of practice can do for a player. Just ask Los Angeles Sparks star
Candace Parker. Or maybe get the perspective from the Minnesota Lynx.
After missing the first three games of the season and coming off the bench in
the fourth game, Parker started Sunday’s contest against the struggling
defending WNBA champions.
With a full week of practice behind her, Parker recorded a double-double — 19
points and 10 rebounds — to lead the Sparks (4-1) over the Lynx 77-69.
Minnesota fell to 2-5 and is in 10th place only ahead of the Las Vegas Aces and
Indiana Fever.
“I felt like I wasn’t limited in any movement, Parker told the Los Angeles
Times, adding that she still doesn’t think she is 100 percent.
The Seattle Storm (5-2) are about to discover just how good Parker is feeling.
The two teams square off Thursday night at Staples Center in Los Angeles, with
the Storm coming off a tough loss to the Dallas Wings. The Sparks have won two
straight since suffering their only loss — to the first-place Connecticut Sun.
Seattle erased a 26-point deficit on Saturday on the road in Dallas only to lose
94-90. The second quarter doomed the Storm as the Wings shot 78.6 percent from
the field to blow the game open.
The Storm had set a WNBA record against the New York Liberty on May 30 by
connecting on 17 3-point attempts. Against Dallas, Seattle went 6-for-23 behind
the arc.
It was their defense in the third period that allowed the Storm to climb back
into the game and eventually tie it in the fourth before they ran out of gas.
Point guard Sue Bird sat out the game to rest as the Storm were playing their
fifth game in 10 days. Jordin Canada started in her place and recorded nine
points, nine assists and five steals.
“She’s obviously our leader,” Seattle head coach Dan Hughes said of Bird. “I
think we evolved into kind of dealing with it, but initially, you know, it’s not
really something we would have practiced to or planned to at that point. But I
did think we finally adjusted, finally understood who we were without Sue and
made some headways.”
Hughes does have Breanna Stewart and Jewell Loyd to carry the offense with Bird
out. Stewart and Loyd are second and third in the league at 22.3 and 21.6 points
per game, respectively.
As they prepare for the Sparks, the Storm know they’re never out of a game.
“We can be down 20 and come right back like it’s nothing, and that’s just the
fight of our team,” Loyd said. “We’re never out of games, we never think the
game’s over, we fight to the end.”
While Seattle is second in the league with an average of 91.6 points a game, the
Sparks are allowing 77.8 points per contest, the second lowest in the league.
And as usual, guard Alana Beard is the defensive catalyst for Los Angeles.
Against the Lynx, she held Maya Moore scoreless in the first quarter and allowed
the future Hall of Famer only three fourth-quarter points.
“She’s as good a defender as I’ve been around,” Sparks head coach Brian Agler
told the Times. “She just makes it difficult on whoever she’s guarding.”
