Sparks suffer worst loss of the season against the WNBA best New York Liberty

Thursday’s loss against the Liberty is a cruel reminder of how far the Sparks still have to go before they become contenders.

LOS ANGELES — What happens when the WNBA's best team, the New York Liberty, faces one of the league's worst, the Los Angeles Sparks? Turns out you get an utterly dominant win by the Liberty 103-68.

The Sparks had better chances of winning the actual lottery than they did of beating the Liberty on Thursday.

Sometimes, the box score doesn't give you the full story, but in this game, it did. You can look at every possible statistic you hold dear and the Sparks were dominated. From points in the paint to 3-point shooting, assists, steals and the list goes on.

New York came out on a 10-0 run to start things off and never looked back. They led by as many as 40 points in this contest and never trailed.

Such an egregious loss doesn't deserve any additional context or rationalization. Sure, the Sparks only had nine players suit up. Of course, the Liberty are pummeling everyone and have only lost four games.

Still, never putting up a fight, not even a fake comeback in garbage time, is unacceptable. You can't play this poorly after weeks of rest for the majority of the team.

"This is a franchise with a rich tradition,” Sparks coach Curt Miller said postgame. "This doesn't happen to the Sparks on the Sparks' home court. My hope is that it bothers them, but we gotta move on. Tomorrow, when we wake up this game is over and we start to prepare for Chicago which is also one of the more physical teams in the league."

Defeats throughout a long season are understandable and even expected. What made this game seem like Sisyphus rolling a boulder up a hill was the disparity between the two teams talent-wise.

New York's Breanna Stewart hit three after three, while Los Angeles' Li Yueru was getting dominated inside. Add to that the Sparks' limited guard options and not only did the offense stall for extended periods of time, but they had no answer for Sabrina Ionescu, who had 18 points on 6-13 shooting.

The Los Angeles crowd quickly developed an East Coast bias as the applause poured in for the Liberty while the Sparks called timeout after timeout, unable to get anything going.

"I think they showed tonight why they are in first place," Miller said after the defeat. "They can have games like this. It's disappointing now we've played them three times and I think they've had 45 threes (actually 44 3-pointers)."

Some games don't require deep thought or a closer look at the analytics into how and why things happened. Sometimes, the clearest answer is the correct one. The Liberty are just lightyears ahead of this iteration of the Sparks.

"That was a fun a-- whopping," Miller said after the loss.

Usually, the Sparks head coach gives a long-winded opening statement before taking questions from the press. On Thursday, this was all he said before answering whatever the media had to ask.

While this defeat was atrocious, it is done. The Sparks must continue on and while no team has a record as good as the Liberty's, they still have tough games ahead. Angel Reese and the Chicago Sky come to town on Saturday and the Sparks will face the Aces in Las Vegas on Sunday.

This season might be a rebuilding one, but the Sparks can and have put a better product on the floor throughout most of 2024.

Let's hope they do so the rest of the way. Or else the only thing sadder than the score displayed on the Sparks' new scoreboard will be the faces of the people watching this team in person.

You can follow Edwin on Twitter at @ECreates88.