The Los Angeles Sparks beat the visiting Chicago Sky 91-78 on Sunday, winning all four quarters.
Los Angeles made a +7 differential in points off turnovers. The Sparks are 2-0 when they score more points off turnovers, 0-3 when they do not.
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The feeling I got from Los Angeles during the first half was a disconnectedness that’s dogged the Sparks all season.
I hazard a guess: Sparks ballhandlers are still cultivating instinct for teammates’ whereabouts, and prefer to troll for free throws instead of the open man.
Coach Roberts said after the loss Friday to Golden State that the team played too much one-on-one during the blown-out second quarter. The Sparks were better-unified in the second half Sunday, and then Kelsey Plum lit up (14 of game-high 28 in the 3rd).
I don’t think it’s a chicken-or-egg question. The team came together, enabling Plum to orchestrate, which improved the team, and so on.
If not for Dearica Hamby’s outstanding all-around performance (10 pt 6 rb 8 as 6 st), I might’ve fretted more over the thought “as goes Kelsey Plum, so go the Los Angeles Sparks”. (As long as points-off-turnovers favors the winner in an LAS game, 5-for-5 so far, let’s look at that as a the most convenient indicator.)
In 2013-14, Coach Roberts’ Pacific Tigers had a guard named Madison Parrish. Pacific had a stretch about which I said: “As goes Madison Parrish, so go the Pacific Tigers”.
For cherry-picked two-games-in-three-days example:
Jan. 2 at BYU 62 Pacific 75
Parrish 15 PT 5 AS 9 RB
Jan. 4 at San Diego 75 Pacific 70 OT
Parrish 2/10 FG 1 RB 5 PF
During that stretch when the Tigers were tethered to Parrish’s performance, I compiled some numbers. National media is fascinated with Roberts’ embrace of statistical analysis at Utah, but she began listening to it while at Pacific.