The Washington Mystics have a chance to sweep a weekend series and put more distance between themselves and a desperate opponent that needs wins.
As for the Los Angeles Sparks, they need something good to happen and fast if they have any hopes of mounting a playoff run with just a third of the season remaining.
The teams meet for the second time in three days on Sunday in Washington, D.C., with the Mystics aiming to climb over the .500 mark while keeping Los Angeles out of the playoff picture.
Washington (13-13) edged the Sparks 79-77 on Friday night while missing three starters – leading scorer Elena Delle Donne (ankle), Ariel Atkins (ankle) and Shakira Austin (hip) – for the seventh straight game. Delle Donne has missed eight straight games and Austin has been out since last playing June 25.
The Mystics didn’t get much from their two healthy starters, Brittney Sykes and Natasha Cloud. Others took up slack as Tianna Hawkins scored 17 points and recent acquisition Queen Egbo came within one rebound of a double-double. Shatori Walker-Kimbrough chipped in 11 points.
“We played hard, we shared the ball well, we just had a lot of things going for us on both sides of the ball,” Hawkins said. “It’s just one of those things where we got to keep this feeling and just keep it going.”
Los Angeles (9-18) lost for the 11th time in 13 games despite getting 19 points from Azura Stevens, plus 18 points and eight rebounds from Nneka Ogwumike. The Sparks wasted a 43-32 rebounding advantage by hitting 41.8 percent of their shots and committing 17 turnovers.
Ogwumike is the second-leading scorer in team history with 5,709 points, trailing only Lisa Leslie and her 6,263 points. Ogwumike recently moved past Candace Parker (5,684) on the franchise’s all-time list
“I feel very blessed,” Ogwumike said. “I don’t want people to think I’m not appreciative. It’s just I’m not aware of a lot of these things but I’m very grateful and very blessed, especially to be in a Sparks uniform 12 years doing this.”
Ogwumike is averaging a team-high 19.8 points and 9.0 rebounds per game, making 51.2 percent of her field goal tries.
–Field Level Media
