First-round pairing sets up another WNBA playoff battle between Sparks and Minnesota Lynx

It wouldn’t be a WNBA postseason without a Sparks-Minnesota Lynx matchup.

For the fourth consecutive year, the playoffs will bring the teams together. But instead of meeting in the semifinals or finals, where for the past two years LA and Minnesota have forced full five-game series for all the marbles, the WNBA’s two most recent champions will face each other in a single-elimination first-round affair at Staples Center. They meet at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday in a game that will be broadcast on ESPN2.

THE. RIVALRY. CONTINUES.

One game. Win or go home.

Your Sparks host the @minnesotalynx on Tuesday, August 21st at 7:30PM PT#DefendLA, Defend @STAPLESCenter

Reserve your seat today: https://t.co/737Ez7PN4X#GoSparks #All4LA pic.twitter.com/kPVHg9gxPr

— Los Angeles Sparks (@LA_Sparks) August 20, 2018

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The Sparks (19-15) enter the playoffs as the sixth seed. Their only victory in the past five games came at home, where LA is 11-6 this season.

LA returns after dropping its last two regular-season games on the East Coast. Victims of a gut-punch buzzer-beater by Natasha Cloud in a 69-67 defeat Friday against the Washington Mystics, the Sparks squandered Candace Parker’s 13th double-double this year when their comeback fizzled late Sunday in an 89-86 loss to the Connecticut Sun.

The seventh-seeded Lynx (18-16) ended the regular season with an 88-83 victory at home against Washington on Sunday, when they honored soon-to-retire Lindsay Whalen, a four-time WNBA champion.

Prior to Sunday’s victory, in which Sylvia Fowles set the WNBA record for most rebounds in a season with 404, Minnesota had allowed 91 and 96 points in consecutive losses to Chicago and Connecticut. They’ve won only eight of their previous 18.

The Sparks won three of the teams’ four regular-season matchups this season, including their most recent on Aug. 2, when the score was 79-57.

The past two WNBA Finals have established the teams as real rivals, as they’ve taken turns breaking each other’s collective heart.

Last year, Minnesota claimed its fourth league title in seven seasons by winning the best-of-five game series after trailing in the series with the Sparks 1-0 and 2-1.

In 2016, Nneka Ogwumike’s game-winning put-back in the final seconds of Game 5 crowned LA as the WNBA champion for the third time in team history, in the process denying the Lynx a second consecutive title.

With the WNBA playoffs being re-seeded after each round for the third consecutive season, the victor Tuesday in LA will play either third-seeded Washington or fourth-seeded Connecticut in the single-elimination second round, depending who wins the first-round game between the Dallas Wings and the Phoenix Mercury matchup on the other side of the bracket.

Maya Moore leads Lynx scorers, averaging 18 points per game, ninth-best in the league.

Parker’s 17.9 points per game leads the Sparks.

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