Sparks can’t solve Sun in rematch, lose 5th straight

LOS ANGELES — When Stephanie White was considering taking the head coaching position for the Connecticut Sun, she reached out to Curt Miller. Miller was the head man in Connecticut from 2016-2022. White respected the foundation he had set on the defensive side of the ball, and she wanted to understand how to build off his bedrock.

“He always praised how hard (the players) worked, how competitive they were,” White said on Tuesday. “They carry that defensive tenacity over. It’s a big thing that we do, but he set the standard for that.”

He left his mark in other ways, too. He would tell Brionna Jones to play quick in short areas, to hit screens and roll hard, Jones said.

So, really, the Sparks (7-29) can thank Miller, now their head coach, for their 86-66 loss to the Connecticut Sun (26-10) on Tuesday. Miller, however, played no hand in developing Sun guard Marina Mabrey, who torched the Sparks for a career-high 26 points, going 6 for 8 from 3-point range (and 9 for 13 from the field).

Maybe if he had crossed paths with Mabrey, he would have known she would make the Sparks pay for throwing the same coverage at her two games in a row.

Miller has referred to this stretch of two games in three nights against the Sun as his last-place team’s playoff series. It was the Sparks’ chance to make adjustments and immediately apply them to the next game. On Sunday, they held Mabrey to 10 points (2 for 7 from deep) in a 79-67 loss. On Tuesday, they stuck with that plan and Mabrey buried them.

As the Sparks started to honor her hot hand, White said, it made everybody’s life a lot easier. Jones was afforded additional space inside as she scored 19 points, Alyssa Thomas (seven points, 11 rebounds and 12 assists) finding her time and again.

For an instant, the Sparks showed glimpses that they had learned from Sunday’s loss, in which they played a strong 30-plus minutes, before collapsing. They opened the rematch with five baskets in the paint. Rookie Rickea Jackson, who led the Sparks with 16 points, broke that streak when she banked home a 10-foot transition jump shot. On the next possession, though, Odyssey Sims got right back to it, finding space for an inside-hand scoop layup that gave the Sparks an 18-10 lead. Azura Stevens corralled nine rebounds in the first quarter, on her way to recording her third double-double this season (10 points, 17 rebounds).

Miller was so pleased he looked down the bench at his staff and said, “we really look connected.”

Adding: “We’re playing good basketball and I felt like we made some good adjustments.”

These were mere flashes, though, as the majority of Tuesday’s loss mirrored Sunday’s final minutes when the Sparks fell apart.

Moments after Miller’s cheerful glance, the Sun regained a stranglehold on the momentum and never released it. The Sparks have seen the Sun three times this season, dropping each game. All that experience has taught them the Connecticut’s tendencies, but it doesn’t mean they can stop it. The Sun want to create turnovers and score in transition and pound the ball into the paint in their halfcourt sets.

Toward the end of the first quarter, Connecticut began doing these things while the Sparks, who have lost five games in a row and 12 of their past 13, reverted to old habits. They committed four turnovers which led to seven points in transition as the Sun constructed a 15-0 run. By the end of the night, the Sparks had committed 15 turnovers, leading to 22 points for the visitors. Connecticut also had 48 points in the paint and 26 in transition.

The margin increased as Mabrey grew comfortable attacking the Sparks’ stale defensive agenda for her.

“We played the coverage that we had success in getting the ball out of her hands,” Miller said. “Tonight, I thought she played with a better tempo. She exploited some of our mistakes.”

Mabrey made consecutive 3-pointers in the second quarter. Then, in the fourth quarter, she hit a trio of 3-pointers, each from at least 5 feet behind the arc with a defender’s hand blocking her vision, to increase the advantage to 82-54.

When a player of Mabrey’s caliber is in that type of zone, there’s little any scheme will do.

“It’s hard to cool her down, and she starts to make the contested shots,” Miller said. “That’s what makes the elite players in our league so special.”

Miller would know. He’s been around quite a few. Many of whom remain significant contributors on his former team, who reminded him again on Tuesday, that while he might have knowledge of their tendencies, it doesn’t affect their performances much.