The LA Sparks were down by 20 points in the third quarter on the road against the Minnesota Lynx. Not much of that sentence sounds like LA would have a chance at the end of Game 2 ... but they did. They actually had plenty of opportunities to leave Minnesota with a 2-0 lead in the series, but came up short in a 70-68 loss on Tuesday.
The Sparks were literally a few feet away from winning Game 2 over the Lynx
The Sparks lost Game 2 by two points. They also hit long twos with a toe on the three-point line.
With just a two-point loss there are plenty of things to pick apart and see where a team went wrong. It could be a missed free throw here, or a turnover there. But maybe the most frustrating of all for the Sparks in Game 2 was the amount of three-pointers they hit with their toe on the line, making the shots long twos instead.
They hit six. That’s six extra points in a game they lost by two points, all because a players foot was in the wrong spot by a couple inches. Six times!
Alana Beard had two in the first quarter.
Then it was Essence Carson’s turn, hitting one in each of the second and third quarters.
And then Candace Parker capped off the night with two late in the fourth quarter!
With it happening so frequently, I tried to find an excuse. Maybe the double lines threw them off. Wait no, maybe it was the color of the lines! But, that’s all just silly. As a player, you have to know where the line is and you have to make an adjustment. In the end, this is just a bunch of made baskets where the Sparks left points on the table.
That said, Game 2 was incredible, as was Game 1. The rest of this series is going to be must watch basketball.
