the Sparks (13-15)<\/a> seized on her absence to wrestle control away from one of the league\u2019s hottest teams and move closer to a playoff berth.<\/p>\n\u201cWe\u2019ve got enough pieces and talents to make a playoff run,\u201d Sparks coach Lynne Roberts said. \u201cWe just got to keep our foot on the gas. As I always say, we didn\u2019t come into the season saying we wanted to beat Indiana at home. We came in the season saying we want to make the playoffs.\u201d<\/p>\n
Roberts, who has spent much of the season juggling lineups amid injuries and roster turnover, can finally exhale, with a healthy starting five, Cameron Brink back in uniform and a bench ready to contribute.<\/p>\n
With stable rotations came steady results. Plum set the night\u2019s tempo, piling up 25 points and 11 assists. Around her, the Sparks\u2019 scoring core \u2014 Rickea Jackson matching with 25, Dearica Hamby dropping 16 and Azur\u00e1 Stevens racking up 19 \u2014 kept the scoreboard humming. Julie Allemand steered the offense in sync, dishing out seven assists to go with five points and eight rebounds.<\/p>\n
We all in this room know she [Plum] can go for 40,\u201d Roberts said, \u201cbut she wants to win more than go for 30. And if going for 40 is what it takes to win, then she\u2019ll do it. But tonight, she gained so much attention from the other team\u2019s scouting report \u2014 as she should \u2014 but she\u2019s \u2026 trying to win.\u201d<\/p>\n
Midway through the first quarter, Brink checked in, snagged a couple of boards, and promptly stuffed a shot by 6\u2011foot\u20112 Natasha Howard for the first of five rejections on the night.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re just getting that chemistry on and off the court,\u201d Jackson said. \u201cBut when we\u2019re playing like that and feeding off each other\u2019s energy, that\u2019s fine, and that\u2019s when we\u2019re going on our runs, and that\u2019s when we\u2019re not flinching because we trust each other that much.\u201d<\/p>\n
After Rae Burrell spun in an acrobatic layup to put the Sparks ahead 32\u201130, they never loosened their grip, stretching the lead to 90\u201168 midway through the third quarter. But Aari McDonald and Kelsey Mitchell sparked a 21\u20115 run that, suddenly, had the game uncomfortably tight with under two minutes remaining.<\/p>\n
But in a building where wins have been scarce, the Sparks clutched this one tight and handed it back to the L.A. faithful.<\/p>\n
Sex toy tossed on court<\/b><\/p>\n
A sex toy landed near Indiana\u2019s Sophie Cunningham after it was thrown from the stands.<\/p>\n
The incident occurred with 2:05 left in the second quarter, with the object landing in the lane near Cunningham, who had been vocal on social media admonishing fans for throwing sex toys on the court during other games. The Fever forward jumped back in surprise and then Plum kicked it into the stands.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think its ridiculous, it\u2019s dumb, it\u2019s stupid,\u201d Roberts said. \u201cIt\u2019s also dangerous and players\u2019 safety is number one. Respecting the game. All those things. I think it\u2019s really stupid.\u201d<\/p>\n
Plum added that she thought both teams did a great job \u201cplaying on, don\u2019t give it any attention. The refs too, I really appreciate them too, was just like hey let\u2019s go.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cunningham walked over to the Sparks bench and was laughing about it.<\/p>\n
The Associated Press contributed to this report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Indiana Fever arrived in Los Angeles draped in momentum: Five straight wins, a knack for winning without…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":122928,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[68967,233,10587,75995,1888,75994,4536,2444,6475,1242,5612,62,75993,75992,67,132,68,3427,14164,232],"class_list":{"0":"post-122927","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wnba","8":"tag-bench","9":"tag-caitlin-clark","10":"tag-cameron-brink","11":"tag-com-arena","12":"tag-fan","13":"tag-indiana-fever-team","14":"tag-line","15":"tag-los-angeles-times","16":"tag-night","17":"tag-roster","18":"tag-spark","19":"tag-sports","20":"tag-straight-win","21":"tag-streaking-sparks","22":"tag-united-states","23":"tag-unitedstates","24":"tag-us","25":"tag-wave","26":"tag-way","27":"tag-wnba"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114980436367475070","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122927","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=122927"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122927\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/122928"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=122927"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=122927"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=122927"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}