Storm-Sparks Preview

By KATE HEDLIN
Posted Jun 02 2012 4:08PM

It says something about the kind of season Kristi Toliver is having that even in one of her worst games of the season, she found a way to help the Los Angeles Sparks win their last time out.

Her late-game heroics are all too familiar to the Seattle Storm.

Toliver and the Sparks will go for a third straight win Sunday when they host the Storm - the third meeting of the season between the Western Conference rivals.

After being mostly a role player off the bench her first two seasons in the WNBA, Toliver saw additional playing time in 2001, starting 17 of her 32 games played.

Toliver seems to have built off that increased playing time this year. She's averaging a career-best 20.0 points - among the league's top 10 scorers - and is 13 of 26 from 3-point range.

While Toliver had a WNBA-record 14 turnovers her last game, she hit a game-winning 3-pointer at the buzzer to lift Los Angeles to a 76-75 win over Tulsa on Tuesday.

"Good teams just find a way," coach Carol Ross said. "I told (Toliver) in the locker room, 'Nothing else can go wrong for you. You've used up all your wrong chips.' It was time for something good to happen. For her to be able to keep her head up and have the confidence to take the shot says a lot about her character."

Toliver has been the go-to scorer the Sparks (4-1) missed last season, when they were without Candice Parker for much of the year and missed the playoffs

After scoring at least 21 points in three straight games, Parker finished with 10 points, 10 rebounds and three blocks in Tuesday's victory.

The Sparks, who also started last season 4-1, have become very familiar with the Storm. After the teams met in the preseason, Los Angeles swept a home-and-home series to open the regular season last month.

Toliver came up big in both victories. She scored 10 of her 25 points in the fourth quarter on May 18 to help the Sparks overcome a 21-point second-half deficit en route to a 72-66 victory, then had two 3-pointers in the final five minutes of a 74-61 win May 22.

After their tough start, the Storm (1-3) are looking to build off their first victory following a 76-58 win over the Shock on Friday.

Seattle outscored Tulsa 40-23 in the second half and Sue Bird finished with a season-high 27 points, going 5 of 7 from 3-point range.

Bird had scored 12 points combined her previous two games while shooting 4 of 17. She had connected on 5 of her previous 17 attempts from beyond the arc the prior three games.

"That's Sue to me, I expect her to play well every night and when she doesn't I'm surprised," Camille Little, who had 19 points and nine rebounds, said about Bird snapping out of her two-game shooting slump.

The Storm have lost three straight against the Sparks at the Staples Center.

Ogwumike's late basket lifts Sparks over Storm

Posted Jun 04 2012 12:15AM

LOS ANGELES (AP) The Los Angeles Sparks found yet another way to beat the Seattle Storm.

Nneka Ogwumike scored with 2.5 seconds remaining to lift the Sparks to a 67-65 victory over Seattle on Sunday night.

Ogwumike took an inbound pass from Alana Beard and made a right hand running shot over Ann Wauters as the Sparks beat Seattle for the third time in 16 days.

Los Angeles prevailed despite shooting a season-worst 34.9 percent from the field. Kristi Toliver led the Sparks with 23 points and Candace Parker added 16 points and 13 rebounds.

The game-winning play was initially drawn up for Parker but Beard couldn't find her. Ogwumike got the ball on the perimeter, to the right of the basket and she wasn't confident when it left her hand.

``Actually it didn't because floaters are my worst shot,'' Ogwumike said. ``I was very concerned about the outcome. But in that kind of moment, dimensions, the geometrics of everything really kind of fall into place and it's about getting the ball and doing it.''

The victory gave the Sparks the season tiebreaker over Seattle for seeding in the playoffs. Los Angeles rallied from 21 points down against the Storm on opening night and recorded a wire-to-wire 13-point victory four days later.

Ogwumike, the top pick in this year's draft, is a big contributor to the Sparks' 5-1 start. She was quiet for most of the game and finished with 10 points on 3 for 9 shooting. Her teammates were glad to see her in the spotlight.

``I think it was huge,'' Parker said. ``The way the defense was - Nneka did a good job reading the situation. She was able to get in there and get to her shot. I'm really proud of her that she was even able to step up and take that shot ... Nneka's one of those players that she's going to bring a lot of energy and she's going to do a lot of things that don't really show up on the stat sheet. I think that's the key about her.''

The game-winning basket hurt more for Seattle considering it had a foul to give.

``We talked about giving one, but we just never got it accomplished,'' Seattle coach Brian Agler said. ``Nneka hit a hell of a shot. Ann was right on her. She sort of shot it around Ann's arm.''

Agler and his players also lamented losing a 60-53 lead with about four minutes remaining. The Sparks went on a 10-0 run capped by Ogwumike's reverse layup. Parker scored inside off Toliver's assist and got one of her three blocks in that stretch.

Toliver, who made a buzzer-beating 3-pointer against Tulsa on Tuesday, completed a three-point play with 2:20 remaining and scored on a left hand drive that rattled in for a 65-63 lead with 12.6 seconds to go before Seattle's Camille Little tied it on a putback.

Katie Smith led Seattle with 19 points, including a 3-pointer with 35 seconds remaining that tied it at 63. Sue Bird added 12 points but the Storm fell to 1-4.

``Losses are tough, period, but (especially) the ones that are last second,'' Tina Thompson said. ``It stings a little bit because you think about the opportunities that we had to change the outcome.

``We've had time to kind of practice on our things. We're nowhere near where we need to be but we're getting better defensively.''

Seattle is trying to build off its first win of the season, against Tulsa, and Agler still took away positives as the Storm continue to get more familiar with each other.

``We're a team that's improved a lot in two weeks, and we're not done improving,'' Agler said. ``I felt like we had a really good effort tonight without having a lot of preparation.''

Seattle took a 34-32 lead into halftime after Smith made her third 3-point basket to cap 12 lead changes in the first half.

Parker scored nine of her team's 16 points in the first quarter, including a 3-pointer to give the Sparks a 16-15 lead. But the Sparks were held to 34.4 percent shooting in the first half.

Before the game a moment of silence was observed for former Sparks coach and NBA player Orlando Woolridge, who died late Thursday.

• Storm: --
• Sparks: --

• Storm: --
• Sparks: --

• Lead Changes: 13
• Times Tied: 9

• Arena: Staples Center, Los Angeles, CA
• Officials: #8 Daryl Humphrey, #39 Michael Price, #46 Tim Greene
• Attendance: 12639
• Duration: 2:07