Victims of a buzzer-beating fall-away basket Friday night, the Sparks’ last regular-season game Sunday will determine whether they host a second-round single-elimination game Thursday or whether they face the Dallas Wings or the Minnesota Lynx in a single-elimination first-round game Tuesday at Staples Center.
The WNBA’s eight playoff teams were set Friday. Now Sunday’s five-game slate — including the Sparks’ game on the road against the fourth-place Connecticut Sun — will determine who plays whom when the playoffs tip off next week.
Sparks fans might want to root for Diana Taurasi and her Phoenix Mercury this weekend, when victories by both the Sparks and Phoenix will give the Sparks a bye before they host a second-round home game Thursday.
If the @LA_Sparks and @PhoenixMercury win tomorrow LA finishes 4th and plays Thur. If LA wins and PHX loses, LA finishes 5 and plays Tuesday vs @DallasWings. If LA and PHX lose, same scenario. If LA loses and PHX wins, LA finishes 6 and hosts the @minnesotalynx tue at Staples.
— Eli Horowitz (@CoachHorowitz13) August 18, 2018
The Sparks and the Mercury are tied in the standings with 19-14 records, and victories by both will create a three-way tie for fourth with the Sun (20-13). At 20 victories, the tiebreaker is determined by a team’s record against teams .500 or better — and the Sparks have the advantage, followed by Phoenix and Connecticut.
Winner of three in a row, Phoenix plays the New York Liberty, who have lost 12 consecutive but tested the first-place Seattle Storm on Friday and played tough in Los Angeles last week.
If the Mercury lose and the Sparks win, Los Angeles finishes fifth and hosts Dallas (15-18) in the first round Tuesday. If the Sparks and Phoenix both lose, it’s the same scenario. And if the Sparks lose and the Mercury win, the Sparks finish sixth and host the Minnesota Lynx (17-16) on Tuesday.
The past two seasons, the Sparks and Lynx finished 1-2, bypassing the one-and-done opening rounds and eventually advancing to the WNBA Finals. The Sparks won the championship in 2016; Minnesota won last year.
On Friday at Washington, the Sparks surged to a 13-0 lead before the Mystics (22-11) worked their way back. Washington guard Natasha Cloud put an exclamation point on her team’s eighth consecutive victory as time expired when, falling backward, she hoisted the winning shot over the outstretched arms of Sparks defender Alana Beard.
Riquna Williams’ 14 points led the Sparks, who had four players score in double figures but shot only 37.3 percent as a team.
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