A last night at the Garden
The Connecticut Sun will not play in Boston again. Their 85-77 win over the Los Angeles Sparks overnight closed a three-year run of games at TD Garden, staged in a building the franchise was borrowing while its own future was settled elsewhere. Next season the team relocates to Houston.
Olivia Nelson-Ododa made sure the last one went the right way. She finished with 18 points and 11 rebounds, 13 of those points arriving before halftime, and Los Angeles never found an answer for her in the paint.
Kennedy Burke added 17 and shot 3 of 4 from beyond the arc. Diamond Miller scored 13. Leila Lacan handed out 10 assists. Saniya Rivers came off the bench for 11.
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The run that settled it
Connecticut led 46-40 at the interval, a margin thin enough to mean very little. What came after it meant a lot. Nelson-Ododa drove for a layup, drew the foul and completed the three-point play. Burke buried a three. Miller finished at the rim. Eight unanswered points, and Los Angeles spent a timeout trying to stop the bleeding.
Rae Burrell answered with a game-high 19 for the Sparks. The visitors never got the initiative back.
Two seasons already decided
The records frame the night honestly. Connecticut moves to 9-25, Los Angeles to 12-23. Neither team is playing for position in late August, and both rosters have shifted toward auditions.
That is where the useful detail sits. Lacan’s 10 assists and Rivers’ 11 points off the bench belong to players the Sun will be counting on when the franchise starts over in Texas. Nelson-Ododa’s double-double belongs in the same file. An 18-point, 11-rebound night carries more weight in August for a team at 9-25 than the scoreboard suggests, because the minutes are being handed out on what comes next.
Houston takes over next season. Tuesday was the last piece of Boston business.
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