WNBA - Phoenix Defeat the Sparks in Hands of Taurasi and Pondexter
By Ally White
The current fifth place of the Western Conference, Los Angeles Sparks, lost against the Phoenix Mercury 104-89 this past Sunday. In spite of having back their MVP of last year’s Candace Parker, the Sparks couldn’t hold the good shooting of Diana Taurasi and Cappie Pondexter and they were outrebounded by the Mercury with 40 rebounds compared to 31. As well, Phoenix averaged a higher field goal percentage with 47.1% and Los Angeles Sparks averaged 43.8%. All these stats demonstrate without a doubt the superiority of the Mercury in this game.
At the beginning of the match, the Sparks started really excited and motivated scoring the first 5 points whereas Mercury recovered quickly by equalizing the score and then responding with a run of 9-0 with 7:26 remaining. However, Los Angeles recovered again in the final minutes of the first quarter and tied the game once again with a score of 28-28. In the second quarter, Phoenix started really strong by having a run of 8 points, but then the Sparks responded again by playing as a team and ended losing by 6 points at half time.
Later entering to the third quarter, Phoenix played more consistently than the Sparks, who failed in some occasions to boxing out and gave an advantage to the Mercury. At the end of that quarter Cappie Pondexter, Diana Taurasi and DeWanna Bonner gave the Mercury some good baskets and extended their lead to 11 points. Moreover during the first minutes of the last quarter, Mercury shot in an incredible fashion and extended the lead up to 22 points with 6:41 left for the game. For their part, the Sparks fought to cut the lead but a more determined Mercury team won the battle at the end with a score of 104-89. This was the first loss for the Sparks at home in the season.
At the end of the game, the Sparks coach Michael Cooper expressed that his team played good but understood that his players let Phoenix to dictate the game in rebounds; a mistake that lead them to their loss.
"I thought we did extremely well, but when you give up that many rebounds, including 15 team rebounds against a team that shoots this well, you are not going to win that many games," stated coach Michael Cooper.
At the conclusion of the game, the best scorers for Los Angeles Sparks were Betty Lennox with 17 points and 5 rebounds, Tina Thompson with 17 points and 6 rebounds, Delisha Milton-Jones with 15 points, 7 rebounds and 2 assists and lastly Marie Ferdinand-Harris with 13 points, 4 assists and three rebounds. For the Phoenix Mercury the best scorers were Cappie Pondexter with 21 points, 4 rebounds and 4 assists, Diana Taurasi with 20 points, 6 assists and 5 rebounds, DeWanna Bonner with 17 points and 10 rebounds and finally Temeka Johnson with 12 points, 4 assists and 2 rebounds.
The next game for the Sparks will be on Thursday, July 9th against the New York Liberty whereas for Phoenix their following meeting will be against the Chicago Sky on Wednesday July 8th.
About the Author
Ally White is a top senior copy writer on sports action for the online sports betting: http://www.instantactionsports.com. Feel free to reprint this article in its entirety on your site, make sure to leave all links in place and do not modify any of the content.