The Los Angeles Sparks will look to avoid a second early-season, three-game losing skid when they host the Phoenix Mercury on Sunday.
Phoenix (4-2) contributed to Los Angeles' three-game losing slump through the WNBA campaign's first four games, winning an 89-86 nail-biter on May 21. The Sparks rallied from a fourth-quarter deficit of 14 points to pull within one but could not complete the comeback.
Los Angeles (2-5) made a similar final-quarter rally its last time out, battling back from 24 points at Las Vegas on Friday. After cutting the gap to a single-digit margin with just over four minutes left, the Sparks could not withstand a late surge by the Aces in the 96-81 loss.
Kelsey Plum scored a team-high 17 points in her return to Las Vegas, but shot only 6-of-19 from the floor and managed just eight points through the first three quarters.
"It's tough, they've had five days off and we're playing our seventh game in 14 days," Plum said following the loss. "I was frustrated in myself. I didn't have any legs."
Los Angeles continues its active early stretch. The Sparks will have the most games to their credit after Sunday with their eighth.
Although it has played one less game on the season than Los Angeles, Phoenix is not entering the game with extra rest. The Mercury also played Friday, giving up a 6-0 run in the final 53 seconds to lose to a Minnesota Lynx side playing without WNBA-leading scorer Napheesa Collier.
At 26.8 points per game, Collier is the only scorer averaging more than Plum's 24 points per game in the league. The three-time All-Star and two-time WNBA champion Plum is shooting 40 percent from 3-point range despite a 1-of-7 effort from beyond the arc on Friday.
Phoenix's Satou Sabally is sixth in the league in scoring through the initial stretch, averaging 20.8 points per game after her 26-point, 11-rebound double-double against Minnesota. Sabally and Plum each scored 25 when the Mercury and Sparks last met.
Sami Whitcomb, who shot just 1-of-7 from the floor and scored six points in the May 21 encounter with Los Angeles, could be a difference-maker for Phoenix if she builds off of her best performance of the season.
Whitcomb scored 13 points and dished six assists on Friday.
"One of the things we told Sami when we were trying to get her to decide to come [to Phoenix in free agency] is we didn't want her to just be a shooter," Mercury coach Nate Tibbetts said. "[On Friday], she did more. She played off pick-and-roll a little bit, she got downhill and she used her quickness."
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