Big third quarter run sends Dream past Sparks

Despite a strong push in the fourth, the Sparks couldn’t overcome a slow start to the third quarter as they fell to the Dream.

The tank rolled on at full steam ahead on Sunday as the Sparks were trounced by the Dream, trailing by as many as 27 in the third quarter in an 80-62 loss.

Rickea Jackson started slow, but eventually found her footing and scored 13 points. Li Yueru had 14 points off the bench to lead the team.

The Atlanta Dream struck first, scoring nine straight points to open the game. The Sparks were getting good shots but couldn’t convert on them. Jackson kept missing her shot attempts, an unusually slow start for her. Sims was the first Spark to connect on a shot with a layup.

Atlanta was on fire with Tina Charles already scoring in double digits. There wasn’t much good for Los Angeles throughout the quarter as they continued to struggle offensively. At the end of the first, the Dream were up 25-12.

The Sparks began the second period with much more energy and Sims scored first for Los Angeles. The Dream were missing shots, giving LA a burst of momentum. Nurse had a slow start offensively but began to cook with a fastbreak layup and a 3-pointer to give the Sparks a major spark off the bench.

A few missed shots and a costly turnover highlighted sloppy play from Los Angeles. It was a quick boost for the Dream to take their lead back up to 12. Charles was playing lights out for Atlanta, knocking down plenty of midrange shots. The Dream then extended their lead to 16, riding the energy Charles continued to create for them.

Although the Sparks had put in a better effort to start the quarter, they couldn’t do much else and Atlanta led 46-30 at the half.

Los Angeles struggled to score buckets to start the second half. Atlanta continued to have their way with a 21-6 run that included an insane 3-pointer by Allisha Gray to put them up 25.

LA’s first field goal of this half came with five minutes left in the quarter. As we’ve seen a few times this season, the Sparks still played hard and tried to mount a comeback while struggling heavily to produce offense.

They went on a 12-4 run with Jackson scoring four straight points to cut the deficit to 19 to end the third.

The Sparks were knocking down their shots to start the final frame. There was still quite a lot of work to do if they wanted to mount a special comeback. The deficit was cut to 15 and LA’s energy was high.

Rae Burrell’s scoring helped the deficit reach 13 and the Dream had to take a timeout to stop the momentum. Rhyne Howard knocked down a timely 3-pointer to try to pump the brakes on LA’s run.

The Dream struggled quite a lot in this second half after building their big lead, but they did enough to keep the Sparks at more than arm’s length.

Key Takeaways:

It was a classic Sparks game where they couldn’t produce enough offense. The second-half effort was great, especially towards the end of the third going into the fourth, but they needed more and couldn’t find it.

An excellent game for Yueru off the bench is worth noting because her improvement throughout this season has been fun to witness.

The Sparks’ next game will be against the Indiana Fever on Wednesday at 4:00 PM PT.

You can follow Karin on Twitter at @KarinAbcarians.