Sun Advance To WNBA Finals With 22-Point Win Over Sparks

The Connecticut Sun celebrate their 78-56 victory over the LA Sparks
on Sunday.

By Bob Phillips

LONG BEACH, Calif.—The Connecticut Sun traveled 3,000 miles to sunny Southern California where they broke out the brooms, defeating the Los Angeles Sparks, 78-56, before 4,000 fans at the Walter Pyramid on the campus of Long Beach State University on Sunday. The victory completed a three-game sweep by Connecticut in the WNBA semifinal series. The game was played at Long Beach State because the Sparks' home, Staples Center, was unavailable due to a preseason NHL game involving the Los Angeles Kings at Staples.

Jasmine Thomas led all scorers with 29 points for the Sun—a personal career playoff best. She was 11-of-14 from the field , including 5-for-8 from behind the three-point arc. Thomas was joined in double digits by teammate Courtney Williams, who had a double-double (17 points, 13 rebounds).

“I feel like we were just doing what we do,” Williams said. “There’s not really a magic potion to it. I walk up to [Thomas] and I say, `You're a dog. Do what you do.”

Nneka Ogwumike was the lone member of the Sparks to break the double-digit barrier with a 17-point effort. The Connecticut defense was on full display yesterday. They limited Candace Parker, the former All-American out of Tennessee and the WNBA’s MVP in 2008 and 2013, to four points in just 11 minutes on the floor. Parker, who sat out the entire second period, left the game with 5:54 remaining in the third period—never to return.

Parker insisted after the game that she was not hurt.

“Physically, mentally, everything’s fine,” she said.” There’s nothing wrong with me.”

When asked why her minutes were so limited she responded, “You’ve got to ask Fish [LA head coach Derek Fisher] that. Obviously, every player wants to be out there.”

“Just trying to find energy, find spark, find physicality and things that we were continuing to search for,” said Fisher, who completed his first year on the pines with the Sparks. “I know it’s Candace Parker and we’re going to try to make it about her 11 minutes, but it was just about trying to do something different that would try and help us win.”

That didn’t go very far in explaining why he kept one of his tars on the pines for much of the second half with the game, series and season on the line.

''Just trying to do as much as I could in the moment to help the team,'' continued Fisher, who starred in the NBA for the Lakers and is well-loved in Southern California. ''We talked before the game. It wasn't an injury or anything specific like `This is why I'm not going to play Candace.' But just trying to find energy, find spark, find physicality and things we were continuing to try to search for throughout the course of the game.”

This was Fisher's rookie season on the pines for the Sparks. One might reasonably wonder if alienating one of the greatest players in WNBA history is the right way to punch himself a ticket for a second season.

“We've had an issue sustaining energy for 40 minutes against this team in this series,” Fisher explained. “Also, just trying to get fresh bodies in so we could continue to bang and rebound and run the floor and communicate defensively. It wasn’t a way to single her out. Riquna [Williams] played 17 minutes. TRP [Tierra Ruffin-Pratt] played 12 minutes. I know it's Candace Parker and we're going to try to make it about her 11 minutes but it was just about trying to do something different that would try to help us win.”

Didn’t work out that way.

The Sun led by just three points, 14-11, rounding the first turn, led by Williams, who scored Connecticut’s first seven. Meanwhile, the Sparks starters combined for just seven points in the first period on abysmal 20 percent shooting (3-for-15 from the field). The Sun, who took a seven-point lead, 40-33, into the locker room at intermission, shot 43.8 percent in the first half while the Sparks were limited to 34.9 percent shooting , including a wretched 1-for-13 from downtown.

The Sun defeated the Sparks in each period, and now move on to the
WNBA Finals where they will face Washington or Las Vegas.

Then, as has been the case all season long, the Sun turned up the heat in the third period, and extended their lead to 19 points, 63-44, entering the fourth and final quarter of the Sparks’ season. The Sun did not let up at the end, either, winning the fourth quarter by a 15-12 measure to emerge with the win and earn a ticket to the WNBA Finals for the first time since 2005.

Thomas, who led the Sun in scoring in the first half with 11 points, going 3-for-4 from the field (all from beyond the three-point arc), was simply en fuego in the third period, scoring 14 points on 6-for-7 shooting from the floor.

Connecticut now advances to the WNBA Finals for the first time in 14 seasons.

“It feels really good,” Thomas said. “You play all season for this moment here. To know all we've been though and we're still going to the finals. This group has been together so long, and we deserve to be here.”

“We just had a swagger in this series,” added Sun coach Curt Miller, who was an assistant coach for the Sparks in 2015, the year before becoming the Sun’s head coach and general manager. In LA, Miller served as an assistant on head coach Brian Alger’s staff. Alger is the current head coach of the Dallas Wings.

“As physical and intense as it got, I thought we were more aggressive,” continued Miller. “Ultimately, we continued to keep moving them. We looked like the energy team. We didn't want to get back to Staples.”

The Sun now now advance to the WNBA Finals where they will seek their first-ever WNBA Championship. Connecticut will face the winner of the best of five series between the No. 1-seeded Washington Mystics and No. 4 Las Vegas Aces. The Mystics currently hold a 2-1 lead over the Aces after dropping a 92-75 decision last night in Vegas.

The Finals will be played Sept. 29-Oct. 10. Like the semis, the Finals will be a best-of-five game series (2-2-1). All games will be televised nationally on ESPN, ESPN2 or ABC.

Sun Spots

• Among the celebrities spotted were Billie Jean King and actress Vivica A. Fox.
• Each team had just one offensive rebound in the first quarter. The Sparks had four in the second quarter with the Sun grabbing two in the second. By the time the end of the third quarter, the Sun held a 35-23 advantage on the boards.
• Connecticut reaches the WNBA Finals for the first time since 2005 when they faced the Sacramento Monarchs.
• Jasmine Thomas’s 29 points represents a new playoff career high.
• Courtney Williams scored 17 points and led the team with 13 rebounds. This marks her fifth game in theplayoffs with double figures and her first playoff double-double.
• Alyssa Thomas led the Sun with six assists for a new playoff career-high. She also added five rebounds.
• Natisha Hiedeman scored the first points of her playoff career, recording eight for the game. She was 2-of-3 from behind the arc, 2-of-2 from the free throw line and added two rebounds and one assist.
• The Sun out-rebounded the Sparks in all three games of the series.
• On the Sunday, Connecticut out-rebounded Los Angeles 44-34, led 24-11 in assists and shot 43.7 percent to the Sparks 30.7 percent.
• Connecticut’s bench added 24 combined points.
• Los Angeles was led by Nneka Ogwumike with 17 points and six rebounds. The Sparks next leading scorer was Alexis Jones, who scored eight points of the off the bench.

—with staff reports

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