The Chase Center crowd didn’t disappoint me when it was time to welcome back Kate Martin. The Valkyries showed a Martin highlight reel with her voiceover, but that couldn’t be heard over the crowd roar.
I rode the 9:15 a.m. train northbound this morning, and have boarded the 10:25 p.m. southbound to get home. That’s a long day in order to watch one basketball game, so of course I hoped for a better game than Golden State 78 Los Angeles 58.
I said at the post-game press conference: “In the days when I was the only person you had to talk to, I didn’t have to say anything. I could make a face, and you’d take your cue from that.”
Coach Roberts wanted to chuckle, but couldn’t quite muster that.
One of her Pacific teams had a practice before a game at Fullerton St. The gym wasn’t in a school, or an athletic facility, or even a community center. I’d swear the place looked like a hospice. Outside the windows of the gym, there was the kind of flora and greenery that you’d want your aged relatives to enjoy during their last days.
I cannot say if this unusual setup affected the Tigers, but practice was terrible. The team walked off the floor, and Roberts said about my face: “What? What is it you’re not saying?”.
I grimaced. Coach patted my arm. “They’ll figure it out”, she said.
With dozens of media on the Zoom channel post-game, with billions of possible viewers later, I could not just make a face about the Sparks’ play Monday night. But if I had, and Roberts said “What is it you’re not saying?”, I’d’ve said: “That was fucking miserable”.
I gave some thought to how I’d clean that up for print, but that was my impression if anyone cared. That was fucking miserable.
Golden State outplayed Los Angeles in every category, except both teams made 33 rebounds and 4 blocks (Burrell had 3 for Los Angeles, while Brink’s one was notable — when Cameron Brink rises to nine feet tall without fouling, she can be great) . Every other comparison favored the home team, who didn’t let the visitors closer than 8-6 early.
Broadcasters and coaches love to talk about the 50/50 balls that could land with either team, but I don’t believe every loose ball is an equal opportunity. Those broadcasters and coaches like to credit one side with “wanting the ball more”, but I think the key intangible is demonstrating a better “nose for the ball”. Some players cultivate great reputations for seeming to know better where the balls are headed — during this game, all the Valkyries showed a better sense for the future than the Sparks. When that favors an entire team, it can look embarrassing.
Coach Roberts’ dad knows I haven’t liked watching these Sparks, who have not yet become larger than the sum of their parts, mostly because the parts themselves have played inconsistently.
I did not want to write about Los Angeles’ over-reliance on Kelsey Plum, but it was shockingly evident Monday. Plum fouled out with nine points and one assist, and the whole team suffered for it.
Roberts had a kid Madison Parrish at Pacific. Parrish was the kind of glue player tha. every good team would love to have on their side, but Pacific’s problem that year was that they counted on Parrish to carry the team in every way every night.
I read some numbers to Roberts. When Parrish does this, we win. When she doesn’t do this, we lose. There was help on the horizon, but while “as goes Madison Parrish, so go the Pacific Tigers”, they were plain bad.
Parrish was a glue player, the kind of player that can’t carry the whole load. Kelsey Plum, on the other hand, is an MVP candidate. Even so, let me put another notch on my spreadsheet that says when Plum makes 7 assists or more, the Sparks win. When she makes one assist, the Sparks might get their butts kicked.
Jordan needed Pippen and Grant. Stockton and Malone needed someone — whether it was Jeff Hornacek, Bryon Russell, who knows; the Jazz needed that third guy, but they still weren’t up to the Bulls.
Which of the Sparks will rise to form a “big three” with Kelsey Plum? Clearly not Rickea Jackson and Azura Stevens, who are playing on other teams.
The Internet thinks the blame for the Sparks current underachievement should be pinned solely on Roberts, but the front office has to own some of that. Roberts has said a number of times that the organization is not interested in a slow rebuild, but I see a long-term reconstruction in store when starters are sent packing, and coaching staffs are turned over.