Hot-shooting Sparks drop Sky to 0-3

LOS ANGELES — The Sky entered this rebuilding season with what coach Tyler Marsh called “a clean slate for everyone,” but three games in, the canvas looks as messy as a preschooler’s finger painting.

Caught in a hail of three-pointers in the third quarter, the Sky lost to the Sparks 91-78 at Crypto.com Arena on Sunday to fall to 0-3.

The Sparks (2-3) snapped a three-game losing streak by making 8 of 11 three-pointers in a 33-point third quarter. Five of the three-point baskets were from guard Kelsey Plum, who scored 15 of her game-high 28 points in the third.

Three other Sparks were in double figures, forward Azura Stevens scoring 24 points on 10-for-14 shooting and grabbing eight rebounds, guard Odyssey Sims scoring 12 points and forward Dearica Hamby adding 10 points, six rebounds and eight assists.

Four Sky players reached double figures. Forward Angel Reese had 13 points and 12 rebounds, center Kamilla Cardoso scored 12 points and guard Courtney Vandersloot and forward Maddy Westbeld each had 11 points. But the Sky went only 4-for-20 from three-point range and committed 17 turnovers.

“This is a league full of good shot-makers,” Marsh said. “We wanted to contest them a little more, and we did pretty well for most of the game, but they had a 33-point quarter in the third, and that’s tough to come back from, especially when the shots aren’t falling on our end.”

After trailing for most of the first quarter, the Sky took a six-point lead in the second quarter behind Rebecca Allen, who scored eight points off the bench in the first 3½ minutes of the quarter, including a three-pointer for a 31-25 lead seven minutes before halftime.

But that cushion vanished over the next 1½ minutes, Hamby stealing a pass by Reese as Reese was going out of bounds, then driving in for a layup and a 31-31 tie.

Los Angeles pushed the lead to 43-39 by halftime and pulled away with its three-point barrage in the third quarter.

The Sky closed to 76-71 on Reese’s basket with 7:06 left, but Sparks guard Sarah Ashlee Barker made a 21-foot jumper, Stevens made two shots and Plum hit a 16-foot jumper to push the lead back to 84-71 with 4:59 left.

“I think it was a step forward,” Reese said. “Obviously, there are some things we can get better at, and it’s tough losing three in a row, but if we stay together and work on the things we’re working on, we’ll be all right.”

Reese was coming off the worst game of her WNBA career. The former LSU star missed all eight of her field goals, turned the ball over five times and scored two points in the Sky’s 99-74 loss to the Liberty on Thursday.

Vandersloot wasn’t sure if Reese was still rattled by the incident in the season opener at Indiana on May 17, when a fan allegedly made racist comments toward her, but she wouldn’t rule it out.

“We can try to support her as much as we can, but at the end of the day, any player is gonna be greatly affected by that,” Vandersloot said.

“That’s something nobody should have to carry. We have to keep lifting her up and keep making sure she knows how important she is to us.”

On Sunday, it was Reese who lifted her teammates with her all-around play — just not high enough for the Sky to find the win column.

“I thought Angel played really well tonight on both ends,” Marsh said. “She was locked in, communicating, rebounding, pushing it up the floor.

‘‘It’s probably not up to her standards, but I thought she had some good stretches out there.”