Once again, Sparks can't hang on to early lead as they lose to Mercury

If you’ve watched the Sparks this season, their home finale went exactly as you might have expected.

The Sparks got off to a hot start Tuesday night, building an advantage on the boards that led to a noticeable 12-2 margin in second-chance points as they took an eight-point lead into halftime. Then, an absolutely horrid third-quarter stretch snowballed as the Phoenix Mercury came roaring back to defeat the Sparks 85-81, handing them their eighth consecutive loss, tying a franchise record to close out their home schedule.

“It was that snowball effect again that we’ve talked about,” Sparks coach Curt Miller said. “The offensive inefficiency, the offensive turnovers, a tough shooting night snowballed to where we lost some of our defensive focus and defensive intensity.”

After a back-and-forth first quarter, the Sparks opened the second quarter on a 10-2 run to take control thanks in large part to strong performances off the bench from Li Yueru and Zia Cooke, who both scored nine points and tied Dearica Hamby for the team lead at the half. Yueru finished with career highs in both points (19) and rebounds (12) for her first double-double.

“I’m really appreciative of my coaching staff and all my teammates. They try to help me every game and every practice,” Yueru said. “I feel I really grew up.”

The Sparks were in full control, with Brittney Griner the only Mercury player with more than five points (14) in the first half, and Rickea Jackson started to find her groove as well for the Sparks, getting to the line and making all four of her free throws. But the mood shifted in the final seconds before halftime when Griner threw an elbow at Jackson, who took exception. They got in each other’s faces and exchanged shoves. After a lengthy official review, double technical fouls were handed out and Jackson and Griner were ejected.

As if on cue, things began to unravel for the Sparks in the second half. The Mercury got off to a quick 10-2 run to erase the Sparks’ lead and finished the third quarter on a 9-4 run to push the Phoenix lead to double digits. In Griner’s absence, it was 20-year veteran Diana Taurasi (13 points, three rebounds, five assists), Sophie Cunningham (14 points, three rebounds, two assists) and Natasha Cloud (13 points, 12 assists) who stepped up to lead the Mercury.

Miller praised Taurasi as one of the greatest to play the game, referring to her as one of the torchbearers of the WNBA.

“I don’t know if that truly is Diana’s last regular-season road game, but she has meant so much to this league,” he said. “She continues to play at an extremely high level. … The G.O.A.T. gets tossed around a lot in sports these days, but truly one of the best to ever do it. And the longevity that she’s done it at is truly remarkable.”

Meanwhile, nothing went the Sparks’ way in the third quarter. They had eight turnovers, which matched their total in the first half. In total, they gave up 31 points off 20 turnovers, as both the ball and the game continued to slip away.

“To Phoenix’s credit, they made it ugly,” Miller said. “They played a lot of zone, they scrambled around and pressed without BG. I thought we were on our heels immediately in the third quarter, got a little tentative against the zone. I didn’t think that first unit shared the ball particularly well.”

After the final buzzer sounded, sealing an abysmal 5-15 home record and dropping the Sparks to a franchise-worst 7-32, Azurá Stevens took a minute to address the crowd at Crypto.com Arena.

“I can promise you that each and every one of us will be in the gym this offseason and we’re going to get better,” Stevens said. “Mark my words, next year is going to be different.”

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.