Until exactly a month ago, the LA Sparks was a team slipping into the fates of its last four seasons. Lynne Roberts’ “I want to compete, I want to win now” pre-season assurance? Yeah, it had seemed to fade away just as swiftly as the confidence had seeped in. But the team held on. They started with Indiana in early July, and 10 games in, Stephanie White’s side was yet again a proving ground for Sparks’ resurgence. This time, though, the HC had a stronger weapon on her side.

The game on Tuesday night could have gone either way. The Indiana Fever was riding a 5-game winning streak without Caitlin Clark. Their offense, comprising Aari McDonald, Kelsey Mitchell, Natasha Howard, and Aliyah Boston, ranked 4th in the WNBA. And their defense wasn’t far behind, at 7. Kelsey Plum & Co., on the other hand, had won 5 of their last 6 games, and since the All-Star break, they’d risen to the top offensively, posting a league-best rating of 116 in a 5-game stretch. Their only lapse that had the favor tilting ever so slightly towards the Fever?

With a defensive rating of 107.9, the team ranked 11th in the league. It was one sector that the Sparks did not see much of an uptick in since the All-Star weekend, at least until Tuesday. Come game 3 of Fever vs Sparks, Roberts’ squad was able to outshine 100-91, thanks to a gritty defense. If we are taking names, the credit largely goes to their returning sophomore, Cameron Brink. Hear it from the HC.

“Cam’s defense, as I mentioned, is a game-changer. Literally,” she revealed in the post-game presser. And it’s true! Even though Brink only played 16 minutes and didn’t log a single point, her hustle on the defensive end was worth noting.

The six-foot-four center registered 5 blocks in less than two quarters of play. Yes, you read that right! Just when you forgot how good an interior defender Brink actually was before her injury, she showed up. Her third-quarter block against Damiris Dantas had the announcers exclaiming, “You look like a middle blocker!” Yeah, they were reminded of Cameron the volleyball player. The young forward, however, credits her headspace back to the coach herself. 

“She told me to focus on defense, focus on rebounding, run the floor, the shots will find me in the offense, and the rest will come. It just feels good that your coach just gives you that confidence,” Brink admitted before her return, and it has been a whole treat. But it wasn’t just the Stanford alumna that guided Los Angeles to victory on Tuesday night.

Head coach Roberts praised Kelsey Plum, their lead scorer, and had some special words for Rickea Jackson, too! “And then Rickea, who I was talking about earlier, she’s a tough matchup,” the Sparks HC said, referencing Jackson’s absolute clinic from deep. Standing tall at six-foot-two, the LA forward managed to hit 3 out of 5 of her three-point attempts. “That means that a forward’s gonna be guarding her and that’s the odds in our favour.”

It was a sweet victory for the slowly recovering Sparks squad. With their roster back to full health, they’ll be looking to make a late playoff run. On the other hand, Indiana’s in a spot of bother, and they know it! Until Caitlin Clark is back, the team will have to figure out how to stay afloat. But what did head coach Stephanie White say about the loss? And where exactly did the team lack? Let’s find out!

Indiana Fever HC Stephanie White gets candid about 9-point loss to LA

Every game that Indiana wins or loses without Caitlin Clark is just a headline waiting to happen. Case in point? Their most recent loss against the LA Sparks. Rickea Jackson was lights out from three, and Kelsey Plum dropped an incredibly efficient 25 piece, and it just seemed like the home team could do no wrong! Every shot they took looked green, and every contest somehow turned into a stop.

Head coach Stephanie White is big on accountability for herself and her squad. So, after the nine-point loss against LA, the Indiana Fever head coach held nothing back in the post-game presser. “I felt like we got good shots. Sometimes they don’t fall,” White said, acknowledging the luck behind their loss.

However, she addressed the elephant in the room–their defense. “Oftentimes, we can get people going in transition. We couldn’t do it because we couldn’t get stops. You can’t get out on transition when you’re consistently taking the ball in the net.” The Fever was loose on the perimeter, and allowed the Sparks to go 50% from beyond the arc.

On top of that, they didn’t grab boards and hustle the way that we’re used to seeing. Basically, the pace-and-space system, which relies on running the fast break quickly and efficiently, was nowhere to be seen! But offense wasn’t the issue, not according to coach White. “For us, we felt like we had enough, offensively. But we didn’t get it done on the defensive end of the floor.” 

It will be interesting to see whether the Indiana Fever learn from this loss and tighten up on defense ahead of the Phoenix Mercury game. Because, let’s face it, there’s no set timeline for when Caitlin Clark and her offensive brilliance will be back again. The Fever need to stick together, and drill in the basics if they want to continue their playoff push until then.