Both California teams were in play Tuesday, and they weren’t playing each other for once.
Golden State did well to lose by just 28 in New York, and Los Angeles did well to lose by 6 to visiting Atlanta (after trailing by 15 with 11:15 left, and getting as close as 1).
I said yesterday that the first things I’d look for in a Sparks boxscore were the differentials in turnovers (-3!) and points resulting therefrom (0). Los Angeles scored 15 points following 16 Dream turnovers, which is insufficient. Two steals caught Atlanta leaning the other way — textbook opportunities for fast break baskets — but fetched two uncomfortable shots on goal.
How can one not like Atlanta? They run fast and shoot long, stoutly defend the interior. Atlanta and Los Angeles are alleged to be like-minded teams — the Los Angeles broadcast man said their “parallels are similar”, whatever that means — but I can’t vouch for the notion until Los Angeles improves some. (It’s probably a good sign that Los Angeles’ two rookies, and Allemand — active for merely days — each had a plus-minus of 0 or 1.)
I agree with Coach Roberts that she’s in the right place, considering that the Sparks and Valkyries are on different trajectories.
Los Angeles hired Roberts to do the same reclamation project she did at the universities of the Pacific and of Utah. It took four or five years to rebuild both those programs — WNBA Los Angeles figures to be more conservative in their approach than was the University of the Pacific, where Coach made moves that others wouldn’t’ve dared — and it might take all of 2025 for the Sparks to figure out which pieces to keep on the board.
The Los Angeles brass will also be more patient. They’re fortunate to have a basketball player at the top of their pyramid — Earvin Somethingorother — and in the GM spot (Coach Pebley also escaped the state of Utah).
Golden State’s owners, on the other hand, guaranteed a championship in five years. The Valkyries’ expansion draft included a couple of battle-scarred veterans, suggesting they want to win some games immediately. Winning now is designed to convince top free agents that Golden State is serious about, well, winning now.
Which sorta makes Coach Nakase a lame duck already. Look toward the end of ownership’s five-year promise, and they’ll ask if a first-time head coach is the one who’ll get them to the finish line (it’ll look like Indiana’s treatment of Christie Sides).
Against the league champion New York Liberty in New York, Golden State played an energetic third quarter to cut a 51-29 deficit at 8:23 to 60-49 at 2:08. What more can an expansion team ask? Valkyries boosters should be pleased that they didn’t lose by 40.