Sunday 309 American Women s Basketball Team Chicago Sky VS Los Angeles Sparks

Match time: 2025-05-26 06:00

Chicago Sky will challenge the Los Angeles Sparks away on Sunday, and both teams hope to get rid of the sluggish state at the beginning of the season.

Sparks (1 win and 3 losses) suffered three consecutive losses in their first game on Friday Memorial Day weekend, losing 73-82 to the new team Golden State Valkyrie. Star player Kelsey Plum, the Sparks' offseason, scored just 16 points in the game, her lowest score in the team's first four games.

Plum scored 37 points in his debut in Los Angeles, helping the team achieve its only victory - a 84-67 victory over the Golden State Valkyrie. In the following three games, Los Angeles were scored 89 points by the Minnesota Timberwolves and Phoenix Suns, respectively, and finally scored 82 points by the Valkyrie.

"We missed some goals we expected to score, which affected our defense and made it impossible for us to execute the game plan," said Sparks' new head coach Lynn Roberts. "We have to play for 40 minutes. But we haven't done it yet."

Although Los Angeles has not yet played 40 minutes of quality game time as assessed by the new coach, Plum has played for 40 minutes twice in the early stages of the season. The most recent time was in a 86-89 loss to the Phoenix Suns on Wednesday.

Plum averages nearly 38 minutes of playing time, while Dilka Hanby is 34.5 minutes of playing time. Hanby averaged 18.5 points and 8.3 rebounds per game, and she controls the inside, while the Sparks are waiting for last year's second-place pick Cameron Brink to make her debut in 2025.

Brink suffered a torn ACL last June, when she averaged more than two blocks per game. Brink was one of that productive draft, including Chicago’s inside star Angel Rees.

Rees struggled in the first two games of her second WNBA season, with the Sky (0-2) coming to Los Angeles to seek its first 2025 victory. Chicago lost to Indiana 93-58 on May 17 before defending WNBA champion New York on Thursday with a 99-74 home win.

Although Reese grabbed 12 rebounds against the Free team, she made 0 of 8 shots and 2 of 6 free throws, and ended up only having a career-low 2 points. The Sky made 40 turnovers in the first two games.

"Offensively, we haven't found the rhythm yet," Chicago veteran guard Courtney van der Slott said after losing on Thursday. "We're a little lost. We're trying to play some offenses, but we're always going to make mistakes."