Some games are decided in the last two minutes. This one was decided before most of the building had finished sitting down.
Rae Burrell opened the scoring with a layup at the 8:34 mark off an assist from Ariel Atkins, and that started a 13-0 run for the Sparks. Seattle missed its first six shots. Burrell and Nneka Ogwumike combined for eight points in the stretch, Erica Wheeler dropped in a three, and by the time Dominique Malonga finally got the Storm on the board with a jumper, the afternoon already had a shape to it.
Los Angeles kept going, running the opening burst out to 18-2 before the 3:22 mark of the first quarter. Dearica Hamby's layup with 5:45 left in the half capped an 11-0 spurt and made it 39-20.The Storm shot 32 percent in the first half, 12 of 38, and went 2 of 11 from three. They trailed by 19 at the break, and the three-point shooting never came around. Seattle finished 4 of 22 from deep.
To Seattle's credit, they did make it uncomfortable for a while. The Storm put together a 22-6 run from the 3:25 mark of the third quarter into the 7:02 mark of the fourth, cutting the deficit to 72-58. Flau'jae Johnson was the engine of it, scoring 11 of her 19 points in the final period. That is roughly where the photograph above comes from, Hamby working through contact with Mackenzie Holmes in the fourth with the game still nominally alive.
It did not stay alive long. Los Angeles answered with a 9-0 run from 4:18 to 2:26 that pushed the lead to 89-69. Ogwumike scored six points in the fourth on 2-of-3 shooting from three, and the Sparks held the Storm to 39 percent from the field and 1 of 7 from three in the closing quarter.
Ogwumike finished with a game-high 23 points on 9-of-17 shooting, including 4 of 7 from behind the arc, plus a team-high 12 rebounds. It was the 132nd double-double of her career and her 17th of the season, and her one offensive rebound moved her into sole possession of sixth on the WNBA's all-time offensive rebounding list.
Burrell added 22 points, going a perfect 8 for 8 from the line, along with four rebounds and three assists. It was her 10th 20-point game of the season. Hamby did not have a big scoring night, six points, but she pulled down 11 rebounds and had a game-high four steals with two assists. Cameron Brink chipped in 11 points on 3-of-15 shooting.
Malonga was the bright spot for Seattle with 17 points on 8-of-21 shooting and 15 rebounds. Johnson's 19 led the Storm in scoring. LA won the fast break battle 9-4 and the steals column 4-1.
The win moved the Sparks to 15-25 and gave them back-to-back victories for the first time since July 10, with three wins in their last four. Ogwumike has been talking all month about the team finally playing at a consistent tempo, and this was the cleanest version of it.
Both teams now head into the FIBA World Cup break. It was the final home game of the season for the Storm, which is a rough way to say goodbye to Climate Pledge Arena, and the Sparks do not play again until September 17 against Dallas.
