An exit at 17.2 points a night
The Los Angeles Sparks host the Portland Fire on Sunday in a game with nothing on the line in the standings. Both teams have missed the playoffs. But the matchup carries real meaning for Nneka Ogwumike, who is down to the final three games of her career.
The veteran announced last month that this season would be her last. She is finishing at 17.2 points and 8.8 rebounds per game. Those are not the numbers of a player being pushed out. Few leave the WNBA still producing like that.
“I’m very grateful that I was able to do this on my own terms”, she said. “And to have the chance to come back to Los Angeles as well.”
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Two teams came back bruised from the World Cup break
The FIBA World Cup pause did nobody any favors here. Los Angeles (15-26) had been on a two-game winning run, against Washington and then Seattle, before the break. The restart was a mess: a 97-77 loss in Dallas on Thursday.
Portland (16-26) has been worse, dropping back-to-back games, 94-91 against Phoenix and then 82-66 at Golden State on Thursday and Friday. The Fire have now lost three straight and six of their last seven.
Against Dallas, the Ogwumike-Dearica Hamby frontcourt combined for 32 points. Rae Burrell was the only other Spark to reach double figures, finishing with 12. That problem has been following Los Angeles around for a long time.
Portland takes stock after year one
For the Fire, an expansion franchise, this final week is mostly about taking stock before a first offseason. One more game remains after Sunday, at home to Golden State on Tuesday.
Head coach Alex Sarama would rather focus on the direction than the raw results. “I feel like with every game, we have gotten better”, he said after Friday’s loss. “That is all you can ask for in the final stretch.”
The biggest bright spot has been Carla Leite. In her second WNBA season, the guard leads the team in scoring and assists, averaging 15.8 points and 6.3 assists. She put up 26 points on Thursday. Back on August 2, she had 21 points and 8 assists in a 106-101 shootout loss to the Sparks that ended Los Angeles’ six-game skid.
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