Candace Parker’s game-winner sends Sparks to WNBA Finals again

The Los Angeles Sparks will return to the WNBA Finals for the second straight year for a rematch against the Minnesota Lynx, who the Sparks beat last season for their third championship. The Mercury put up a fight, but the Sparks closed out the three-game sweep with an 89-87 win on Sunday.

The Sparks were the second-best team during the regular season, finishing with a 26-8 record that was behind only the Lynx. Now Los Angeles will appear in the Finals for the fifth time in franchise history — and could win it for a fourth time.

The Sparks had won Games 1 and 2 comfortably by double-digits, but a trip to Phoenix proved more difficult. After a back-and-forth game, it looked like Los Angeles would finally pull away, and with four minutes left, the Sparks led 81-69. But Diana Taurasi — the WNBA’s all-time leading scorer and three-point shooter —answered with three consecutive shots from distance. With 11 seconds left, she hit another one to tie things at 87. (When we wrote about Taurasi being an all-time elite closer, we weren’t joking.)

But Los Angeles still walked away as the winner thanks to a Candace Parker driving layup with three seconds left on the clock. It was a backbreaking shot for Phoenix, who really shouldn’t have even been in the game but came out of nowhere to tie things up. Unfortunately, it was too far of a hill to climb.

This is the second straight postseason where Phoenix has won two single-elimination games to advance to the semifinals. Of course, both ended the same way, in a sweep against one of the WNBA’s two-two seeds.

Phoenix did it last year as a No. 8 seed, but they had an 18-16 record as a No. 5 seed this time around — something that mostly happened due to the star power of Diana Taurasi and Brittney Griner. It’ll help when DeWanna Bonner returns next season after missing this year due to pregnancy (she had twins in July), since she was the second-leading scorer on the Mercury last year.

The Sparks have been a playoff presence over the past decade, but they hadn’t been able to regain the magic from when they won back-to-back championships in 2001 and 2002. Now they have a chance to do just that, and against the same team they beat just a year ago. We’re used to basketball rivalries in our championship games after seeing the Warriors and Cavaliers meet three times in a row, and we’ll get it again in the WNBA. Who’s ready?