{"id":995589,"date":"2026-08-12T06:51:06","date_gmt":"2026-08-12T06:51:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/995589\/"},"modified":"2026-08-12T06:51:06","modified_gmt":"2026-08-12T06:51:06","slug":"sparks-struggle-with-mercurys-zone-defense-during-loss","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/995589\/","title":{"rendered":"Sparks struggle with Mercury’s zone defense during loss"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

It seemed no lead was safe during the Sparks\u2019 matchup against the Mercury on Tuesday night before Phoenix rallied for a 94-87 win<\/a> at the Galen Center, snapping its three-game losing streak.<\/p>\n

The Sparks have lost nine of their past 11 games, but both teams are still fighting for a playoff spot with fewer than a dozen games remaining. Sparks coach Lynne Roberts said pregame that the players know what is at stake during the final stretch of the season.<\/p>\n

The Sparks (12-20) sit in 10th place, one spot ahead of the Mercury (13-22) and outside of the eight-team playoff cut line, with 12 games remaining.<\/p>\n

Kelsey Plum, who was recently traded<\/a> from the Sparks to the Mercury, did not play during the first matchup against her former team because of a lower left leg injury.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are no gimme games in this league for anybody, whether you are in first or last \u2014 every game is hard,\u201d Roberts said.<\/p>\n

Dearica Hamby and Rae Burrell led the Sparks with 19 each and Nneka Ogwumike added 18 points and nine rebounds. Cameron Brink finished with seven points and five rebounds off the bench.<\/p>\n

After a slow start during a loss to the Golden State Valkyries on Sunday, the Sparks splashed 23 points in the first quarter.<\/p>\n

The Sparks claimed a 47-44 halftime lead after a steal by Burrell, which she followed with a crafty reverse layup in the final seconds.<\/p>\n

The teams traded the lead throughout the third quarter.<\/p>\n

The Sparks pulled ahead in the fourth, but Phoenix tied it 81-81 with 3:33 remaining after a bucket from the Mercury\u2019s top scorer No\u00e9mie Brochant.<\/p>\n

Brochant led the team with 24 points and five steals, making it difficult for the Sparks to rally.<\/p>\n

Ariel Atkins cut the deficit to 90-87 after banking in a three-pointer with 22 seconds remaining, but the Mercury made their free throws and pressured the Sparks\u2019 offense.<\/p>\n

The Sparks had difficulty solving problems caused by the Mercury\u2019s zone defense. And dominating the paint for stretches of the game, Hamby had four turnovers, including two in the fourth.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was kind of those one-on-one on the inside before they went zone,\u201d Hamby said. \u201cI feel like the second half was every time I went to my move, they were right there and on time with the turnovers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Roberts said that she expects to see the same zone defense on Thursday when the Sparks travel to New York to face the Liberty (20-14).<\/p>\n

\u201cThe ball did not move. We were trying to throw dimes when you need to make the easy play,\u201d Roberts said. \u201cBut that\u2019s what zone does, you know? If we had shot better, they probably would have gotten out of it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It seemed no lead was safe during the Sparks\u2019 matchup against the Mercury on Tuesday night before Phoenix…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":995590,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5123],"tags":[1582,276,10589,398875,1910,2961,5615,224,5337,5948,53421,160,449,10593,24566,26804,5612,4232,3007,205396],"class_list":["post-995589","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-ca","tag-california","tag-dearica-hamby","tag-final-stretch","tag-game","tag-la","tag-lead","tag-los-angeles","tag-losangeles","tag-loss","tag-matchup","tag-mercury","tag-point","tag-rae-burrell","tag-rebound","tag-roberts","tag-spark","tag-sparks","tag-team","tag-zone-defense"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/117081216676002907","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/995589","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=995589"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/995589\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/995590"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=995589"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=995589"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=995589"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}