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LA Sparks Play with GRIT Despite Opening Losses
32 Plays7 months ago
The Sparks are in a FULL rebuild but continue to compete hard and build their team chemistry, I'm not sweating the two opening season losses because all signs point to the Sparks returning to a winning West Conference contenders.
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sportspodcast , reaction , commentary , basketballb , wnba , lasparks , basketballcommentary , losangelessparks , womenssbasketball , wnbahighlights , espn , wnbanews, wnbapodcast
sportspodcast , reaction , commentary , basketballb , wnba , lasparks , basketballcommentary , losangelessparks , womenssbasketball , wnbahighlights , espn , wnbanews
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Transcript
Welcome and Season Kickoff
00:00:01
Speaker
What's going on sparks fans and welcome back to another episode of the spark. My personal fan commentary podcast for the LA sparks. And when I say my, I mean, it's me, you already know me as DJ tricksy trees. Thank y'all for hanging around on my channel. We got some great basketball. The season just opened up for the sparks. We had a couple of preseason games last week, but it's for real, for real now.
00:00:25
Speaker
And I'm excited to see this team grow. Um, as many of you know, I cover the spark. So I'm actually in the press conferences and stuff. It's the only team I cover.
Sparks Exclusive Coverage
00:00:34
Speaker
Okay. The rest of the sports commentary that you see is just for internet only, but I'm actually invested in the sparks. I'm a season ticket holder. I go to the press conferences. I mean, when these games happen, I'm it's like a seven hour shift for me. All right. But I love it. I love every moment of it. And I love the OG.
00:00:51
Speaker
franchise of the LA Sparks. Let's talk about what happened this week, y'all. It's a big week for the Sparks. We are rebuilding.
Nneka Ogwumike's Departure and Roster Rebuild
00:00:58
Speaker
We lost Neko Ogumike to the longtime Sparks player to the Seattle Storm. So we got those two lottery picks. We narrowed down the roster and we are finally underway this season.
Atlanta Dream Game Recap
00:01:12
Speaker
On Wednesday, May 15th, we played the Atlanta dream. Okay. That game was played at the Walter pyramid at CSU long beach. My first time being there. Okay. First of all,
00:01:24
Speaker
I didn't even know it was a, it was a literal pyramid y'all and I kid you not. It surprised the heck out of me, but evidently it's one of the, um, only, not only one of the select few pyramids that are actually around just on the planet earth. So that was cool. That is a, it's a beautiful facility that they hoop in. Um, the food was amazing too. They got this real tip place up in there, had a little chicken, chicken sandwich on some, some shredded chicken.
00:01:49
Speaker
And you know I'm gonna tell you the fan experience on this podcast. You can always guarantee that I'm gonna give you the behind the scenes access to things you can look out for, okay? Big parking lot, great place to park. We'll be there again tomorrow, this coming Tuesday for the Washington Mystics versus the Sparks. But anyway, we played the Atlanta Dream and it was a very competitive basketball game. I wasn't sure what to expect there because the Atlanta Dream have Ryan Howard, Alicia Gray,
00:02:16
Speaker
What's that girl name? She days center. But anyway, she ain't, she ain't really have a Cheyenne Parker. I don't just remember. She ain't had that big of a game anyway. But what I'm saying is we competed y'all. The score ended up being LA sparks 81 Atlanta dream 92. And that really just happened in the fourth quarter because first second and third quarter it was tied.
00:02:37
Speaker
That is correct. Are you hearing what I'm saying? Are you hearing what I'm saying? That's crazy that we're able to compete this quickly with a team that has had winners. You know what I mean? Jordan, Canada left. She didn't play this, this game, but Jordan, Canada left the sparks and is now playing with the Atlanta dream. So it's like, they've got a stacked roster. They've, they've, um, got a team that's returned. So, you know, I was expecting
00:03:01
Speaker
Not to say a blowout because you don't expect your team to lose that bad, but we've gotten new players. Lee Uru is new. De'Erika Hamby is playing like now she's the team leader. She's not missed a beat picking up where NECA left off. So that game surprised me. We competed really well. That was a loss, but there are no moral victories. I understand there are no moral victories in basketball, but I would count that as a win because keeping up with this kind of pace of a team
00:03:28
Speaker
and playing to the level that the Sparks played at. Imma get him, Imma get him kudos there young Sparks. We are doing the thing and finding our flow.
Team Challenges and Player Highlights
00:03:40
Speaker
Little bit of turnover problem there, but I talked to coach about that and they're working on it. They're finding their rhythm and I think they'll be good. This last game, think about this. Okay. You start with the Atlanta dream, which is a great team, right?
00:03:53
Speaker
The next game that you play on that Saturday is in Vegas with the returning champs. They play at the Las Vegas aces and they actually held up Asia Wilson. I'm not kidding. The De'erica Hamby was doing a great job on defense and what Cameron Brink was doing was just coming back on the, you know, behind the block. So basically De'erica will go up and face her up with defense and then cam.
00:04:17
Speaker
Swatted to the second row. Brink would come back and try to get the block there. She was credited with five blocks that game. That's more than the entire Las Vegas Aces team win. You hear me? De'Erika Hamby did a great job that game as well. I think she was player of the game. Let's check into that. I want to look at the actual box score, which I'm looking at on the WNBA app. If you don't have it, you better get it. It's your time. It's super easy.
00:04:45
Speaker
I like the interface. Kia Nurse also, let's just shout out to Kia. She's the mid-range queen, okay? Mid-range queen. There's so many shots that she just hitting from the mid-range that's just surprising every time that I see him. So big shout out to Kia Nurse. She played 32 minutes in that last game. De'Erica Hamby, yep, player of the game. Leisha Clarendon didn't really score that much in this second game. Yeah, she had like two points. But De'Erica Hamby had a career high of 29 points.
00:05:15
Speaker
I'm so excited that she is on her revenge shore, especially playing against the Las Vegas Aces. And you all know how that shook out if you are fans of WNBA basketball. Lexi Brown has 16 points as well. She's coming back. The tough part about Lexi Brown and what Coach Miller talked about in the press conference is that she is an elite shooter. She's played AU. They now respect her as an elite guard in the league. And that comes with a whole other level of defense that
00:05:43
Speaker
Now they doubling her, she's not getting as many shots. So major kudos to Lexi Brown for being an opportunity maker for herself and getting 16 points out of that. Kia Nurse finished the game with 13 and Rakia Jackson, big Kia as I've been calling her on my Instagram. I'm so proud of Kia. I admittedly wasn't put up, put on game immediately. One of my homies, Melanie who watches basketball religiously told me about Kia before the draft even.
00:06:10
Speaker
And as Kia continues to play in LA, I am just falling in love with her game. She is going into more of a three position coach Miller said, but she's so versatile. She's tall so she can play an undersized four or an oversized three. She can ball handle. She has steals. Let me see what eight.
00:06:29
Speaker
She had rebounds, steals. I mean, Kia, big Kia is all over the course. She did have three turnovers, but we going to give her some grace on that because, um, what did she shoot? 83%. She shot 83% off field goals. What other rookie.
00:06:46
Speaker
can come in and impact the team that quickly. Just her and Cam not being afraid at all, not feeling like they didn't belong because they absolutely do, y'all. They absolutely do.
Upcoming Games Preview
00:06:59
Speaker
So let's go back to the schedule here so we can see what's up for next week with the Sparks. Two big games. Tomorrow, which is Wednesday the 21st, will be at the pyramid, playing the Washington Mystics.
00:07:15
Speaker
Friday the 24th. Kaitlyn Clark is coming to town. We are back in our home arena. The crypto.com arena. I won't be sitting at the media tables cause I got seats. Okay. Again, I'm a season ticket holder. I got seats. We invited a couple of friends. My wife will be in the building. We'll be hanging out. I'll be eating my snacks and I will be able to give y'all the report of what it was like to be sitting in
00:07:36
Speaker
The fan section, I got row H seats, y'all, I'ma be lit. I am so excited for this. I'm from Indiana, but I'm not an Indiana sports fan in any way, shape, form, or fashion. But I'm just excited that Kaitlyn Clark is coming into town and bringing all of these extra eyes around women's basketball. And it's really showing other people who have never seen the W Games just how competitive it is. I already knew. I already know what the vibe is gonna be. So I'm excited, I will report back to y'all
00:08:04
Speaker
After that, which is next Monday, we're going to do this every Monday. So just make sure you earmark your calendar because the way that the basketball season shakes out Monday is a good day for me to report out on what happened during the week. So thank you all so much for tuning in and I will see y'all next week as always go Sparks.