Record: 21-3 (WNBA-best)
Playoff Position: No. 1 seed (playoff berth clinched)
Games Remaining: 10

PRECAPS: San Antonio Stars | Connecticut Sun | Dallas Wings | Washington Mystics | Seattle Storm | Phoenix Mercury | Chicago Sky | Indiana Fever | Atlanta Dream | New York Liberty | Minnesota Lynx

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Pre-Break Recap

The 2016 Los Angeles Sparks had a pre-Olympic break run like we’ve never seen before. While joining with the Minnesota Lynx to set a blistering pace for the rest of the league, the Sparks wrote all kinds of franchise and WNBA history. Let’s “pre-cap” it all here:

• L.A.’s 11-0 start was the best in franchise history. Twice previously, the Sparks started 9-0, and on both occasions reached the WNBA Finals.
• 11-0 (and every undefeated win along the way) would have been the WNBA’s best-ever start to a season, if the Lynx had not achieved it first three nights prior. (Minnesota went on to 13-0, the new league standard)
• According to Elias, the Sparks and Lynx gave us the first matchup of two 10-0 or better teams in U.S. “big four” sports history.
• The Sparks tied the WNBA mark for best record after 15 games at 14-1.
• They next tied the fastest start to a WNBA season, matching the 1998 Houston Comets’ championship pace at 20-2. The Dream prevented this Sparks team from breaking that record on July 17 in Atlanta.
• L.A.’s 9-0 start on the road this season (before Atlanta) was the best in WNBA history.
• Nneka Ogwumike set a WNBA record with 23-straight made field goals, in the span of three games from June 7-14.
• Ogwumike shot 71.0% from the floor in the first portion of the season, far and away a record-setting pace over the previous mark of 67%.

Much more on Nneka’s history in a moment. Where did all this dominance come from? Last year’s Sparks, in head coach Brian Agler’s first year, went 14-20. This year they boast the best offensive rating in the league (110.0) and the second-best defensive rating (96.9).

“People forget how injured we were last year,” Agler said to WNBA.com. Ogwumike, Candace Parker, Kristi Toliver, Alana Beard and Erin Phillips all missed time in 2015. “Once we got those people back playing together, we were playing some good basketball. Our first round series with Minnesota went the full 3 games. I think that carried over to this year.”

Ogwumike noticed this year’s team click almost immediately.

“The cohesiveness was instant, and the chemistry is impenetrable, on and off the court. It’s just nice to be able to bring in all the pieces together and make something work so beautifully.”

Pre-Break Highlight
June 24th: Sparks avenge loss, end Lynx historic undefeated streak

There’s no shortage of moments that could have defined the season thus far for the Sparks, and there’s more adversity to choose from than you might expect. There was an early road test at East-leading New York that required a second-half comeback. The ESPN game against Dallas in late June after the loss of Pat Summitt that saw the Sparks down by 22 in the 3^rd, and Candace Parker engineer a 25-point second half for the win. Similarly, her July game against the Mystics, an assist shy of a triple-double, or her game-winning block leading to an and-1 at home against the Fever.

But one Sparks moment truly captured the basketball world. The battle of the unbeatens and the historical start went to the Lynx in L.A. But three days later, the Sparks enacted revenge on the Lynx home floor, in a way that immediately made you question who really wore the crown. Anything you can do, we can do better.

The first round was anyone’s game, coming down to a Renee Montgomery corner three, and Kristi Toliver’s game-tying shot coming a tick too late for the clock and a toe too short for the line. But because the history of a league-best 13-0 mark came with the win, the gap seemed much greater – to everyone except the Sparks.

Toliver led the whooping in round two with 25 points, as L.A. drowned the Lynx with 11 three-pointers en route to a 94-76 rout. It sent Minnesota on a losing streak, and L.A. on to sole possession of the best record, and they haven’t looked back.

“Our team has shown quite a bit of resiliency,” said Agler. “I think for any team to have success at a high level, you have to have that trait.”

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3 Standouts

Nneka Ogwumike

The surprise standout star of the league, four-time WNBA Player of the Week and hypothesized MVP of the season so far; Nneka Ogwumike is putting together one of the best seasons in WNBA history.

Ogwumike ranks third in the league in scoring (19.6 ppg) and rebounding (9.2 rpg), but leads the league, and perhaps the universe, in efficiency.  Nneka’s field goal percentage through the first 24 games is 70.1, something the WNBA has never seen. The record for a full season is 67%, set by Tamika Raymond for the Lynx in 2003. Of note, the NBA record for shooting percentage is 73%, set by Wilt Chamberlain in 1972-73, and not mathematically out of Nneka’s reach but she would have to shoot just over 80% the rest of the way to top that mark.

For WNBA history, she (only) needs to shoot around 60% the rest of the way to finish greater than 67%. How likely is that? It’s actually almost a lock. There have only been four games this season Ogwumike’s shot under 60% percent – or once every six games, so she shouldn’t have problem problem staying above 60% with 10 to go.  In fact, only once this season has Nneka even missed more shots than she’s made.

The people around her day in and day out are just as amazed as we are.

“Her efficiency is almost unthinkable,” said her head coach. “It doesn’t matter what level: NBA, WNBA, international. She’s having a season that’s been unmatched. And it’s not like she’s just playing offense and we’re hiding her at the defensive end, she always [guards] one of the top two players on our opponent.”

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Candace Parker

Normally, if not for otherworldly shooting, Candace would be the top standout on any team. Parker joins Ogwumike in the top 10 in WNBA scoring, second on the team with 16.4 ppg. She then leads the Sparks in assists (5.1), a very telling stat for this new Parker, and ranks second in rebounds (7.1), minutes (31.3), steals (1.4) and blocks (1.0).

“She’s been a huge factor in our success,” said Agler. “Her versatility is just really remarkable, the multiple things she can do at a high level.”

The spiritual leader of this record-setting team, Parker has had more than a hand in most of this season’s comebacks, as we saw above. There’s no shortage of motivational factors driving Parker in those moments lately, from her exclusion on this darling Rio Olympic team, to her drive to re-establish herself after a year away, to the untimely passing of her mentor, college coach and biggest fan, Pat Summitt.

But Parker has handled all of those obstacles with humility and grace. Without overexerting to prove herself, she’s delegated to the hot hand of Nneka this season, standing by to keep the team from falling and to fill up the stat sheet like few players can. After the rare luxury of a month off, it will be Candace’s experience that guides this L.A. team however far into the record books they go.

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Kristi Toliver

It’s not a clean choice to single out a third standout from this well-oiled machine. Predicted Sixth Woman of the Year Jantel Lavender would likely be a starter on any other team in the league, with versatility that can be subbed in at any position. Alana Beard’s returned presence, particularly on defense, speaks loudly for this team. Essence Carson’s arrival as a starter has added physical toughness. Coach Agler couldn’t pick just one, but it’s his offseason point of emphasis that gives us our answer.

“We definitely wanted to get better guard play,” said Agler.  “Kristi’s been exceptional playing the point for us. “Her assist to turnover ratio (3.8/1.3) is exceptional and her ability to hit big shots and how smart a player she is, has been phenomenal.”

Thanks to performances like the revenge game in Minnesota, Toliver ranks third on the team in scoring (14.0), first in minutes played (32.5) and would probably standout simply for her job getting the ball to Nneka in such strong position.

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Pre-Break Photo Gallery

Click here to view the best photos from the Sparks’ season so far

Post-Break Preview

Having already accomplished so much historically this season, L.A. hits the ground for part two with some interesting possibilities. They’ll have ten games left to try and maintain the top playoff seed, but likely the only objective will be winning playoff game one no matter the seed.

Then there’s the completion of history. Right now, L.A. has lost as many games (3) as Houston’s all-time best record did in 1998’s 30-game schedule. A clean 10 games would give the 2016 Sparks the definitive new best record in WNBA history. And even if they trip once, they’d still have a chance to set a new all-time high for wins in a WNBA season, held now at 29 by the 2014 Phoenix Mercury.

But there’s only one real priority.

“We’d just like to put ourselves in a position to win a championship,” said Agler. “Right now, we can’t win a championship today or tomorrow. We just try to stay in the moment and go game by game.”

To that end, one quirky advantage that only this team which already ran the pre-break awards posturing had was non-Olympians. In fact, L.A. had arguably the WNBA’s two best players to not go to Rio in Ogwumike and Parker, which meant a month of practice with its superstars, while almost every other team in the WNBA was without its best players.

“We’ve had good practices,” said Agler. “The most important part is how our people are going to play together. Those are exceptional players. They have to play to their strengths but they also help people play to their teammates’ strengths too, bringing out the best in others.”

They’ll also be getting back a sharpened Ana Dabovic. While her role in L.A. has changed, playing and scoring less than half as much as she did in her first year last year, she got great burn in her native Serbia’s first Olympic appearance in Rio, playing the second-most minutes and ranking third in scoring.

So where do we pick back up with this team, authors of 11 and seven game winning streaks?

“I think we want to pick up where we started in the beginning of the season,” said Ogwumike. “We were really focused on defense and getting stops, being aggressive and making people run up and down the court with us.”

The schedule agrees with Nneka, with the historic Sparks starting fresh Friday, August 26 against the team they opened against, the Seattle Storm.