Kelsey Plum’s return can’t reverse Sparks’ defensive woes in loss to Wings

Not even Kelsey Plum’s return could overcome the will of the Dallas Wings on Friday night.

Although the WNBA’s leading scorer returned from an ankle injury to score 27 points, the Sparks still let a winnable game get away from them in a 104-96 loss. It marked their first three-game losing streak since June of last year.

The Sparks’ offense looked much better than it did in Tuesday’s 79-69 loss to Las Vegas, but it struggled in the fourth quarter, allowing Dallas (7-3) an opportunity to storm back and win.

“The ball was moving, we had balanced scoring, five players in double figures, that’s how we want to play,” coach Lynne Roberts said. “Dallas is a good team. I think in the last four minutes they kind of willed it to happen for them, and we didn’t, and that’s unfortunate.”

The Sparks (4-6) had no answers for the three-headed attack of Arike Ogunbowale, Paige Bueckers and Jessica Shepard, who spearheaded the Wings’ 63% shooting effort in the fourth quarter to seal the win.

The Sparks entered the game with the WNBA’s worst defensive rating, and they allowed more than 100 points for a league-worst third time.

“They just had some really timely, kind of what I call 50-50 plays, could go either way, went their way, and they capitalized on it,” Roberts said. “So you have to tip your hat to them. We didn’t win the last three, four minutes, and it cost us. It’s a game of runs. They made the last run.”

The Sparks led by nine points in the second quarter but surrendered the lead late in the quarter as the Wings capitalized on 55% shooting to cut their deficit to one by halftime.

The Sparks led 78-77 going into the fourth after a back-and-forth third quarter, but Dallas went on a 15-5 run to lead by eight. It was the only cold quarter for the Sparks, who scored just 18 points, with more than half of their offense coming from Plum.

“It’s just mental toughness,” Sparks forward Dearica Hamby said. “Rebounds, helping the strong side [defensively] when we shouldn’t be. Just little things that we could have had more control over. We have to be more disciplined to finish a game.”

It was a two-point game with under two minutes to play when Ogunbowale collected a rebound off her own shot to give the Wings a two-possession lead before Plum missed a three-pointer and a free throw.

Nneka Ogwumike notched a double-double with 13 points and 10 rebounds while Ariel Atkins scored 16 points. Hamby scored 15 points on six-for-eight shooting, a strong bounce-back performance after shooting 0 for 7 against the Aces.

“We’re all just kind of trying to figure it out, adding new pieces,” she said. “I definitely felt more natural the first half, back to just having more of an open floor, but we’ll continue to build off that trust.”

Ogunbowale scored a game-high 30 points and made six three-pointers. Bueckers had career-high 14 assists and Shepard finished with 22 points with 15 rebounds.

“It’s a team thing,” Atkins said of the defense. “We have to pay attention to the details of the game and [be] sticking with the scout.”

Wings guard Odyssey Sims left the court in a wheelchair in the second quarter after she twisted her left ankle coming down from a rebound attempt; she didn’t return. In the fourth, Aziaha James had to be carried off by her teammates after she got hit hard by an Ogwumike screen.

The Sparks will host the expansion Portland Fire (6-6) on Sunday, who lost a tight game against Phoenix on Friday night but have been an electric team offensively.

Perhaps the scoring woes are over with Plum back in the lineup, but the Sparks still seem a long way off from finding their footing.

“We’re going to keep building,” Hamby said. “We have another game in two days, then the next four or five games are definitely winnable, so carry over the positives from this game.”