As Phoenix Mercury coach Nate Tibbetts watched the Sparks play the Las Vegas Aces from his home Friday, he was jealous of the electric Crypto.com Arena atmosphere and competitive matchup he saw. It made him excited for Sunday’s game against the Sparks, which exceeded his expectations.
Natasha Cloud scored a career-high 31 points as the Mercury overcame the absence of Diana Taurasi to defeat the Sparks 84-78 after a tense fourth-quarter duel Sunday at Crypto.com Arena.
For Sparks coach Curt Miller, it was not only a disappointing game, but a frustrating one too.
“I’m frustrated that we didn’t play how we were capable of playing,” Miller said. “I don’t think we played with the same spirit, intensity and focus. The No. 1 thing you realize as a coach with a lack of focus is when you struggle coming out of a timeout and look at them in the eye and diagram something and they don’t know where they are supposed to be.
“They don’t execute. That is a frustrating thing for a coach. If we played like we did tonight, Minnesota would beat us by 20 easily. I don’t worry about the wins and losses. I’m worried about playing to our standards, and if we don’t do that Tuesday against Minnesota it will be a long night.”
Despite a career-high 22 points from Sparks rookie Rickea Jackson, Phoenix broke a 78-78 tie when Cloud scored with 35 seconds left in the game. Missed three-point attempts from Aari McDonald and Dearica Hamby in the final 30 seconds helped seal the win for the Mercury (11-10).
Miller said he was proud of the rookie’s performance, which was critical to keeping the Sparks in the game.
“Rickea is a really talented rookie, they guarded her now for the second game in a row in stretches with [Brittney Griner] and we had to find that matchup in a variety of ways to try to isolate [Griner] on the perimeter and also get us moving against [Griner],” Miller said. “For overall growth, I want her to want to take over at times with how they were guarding her. She had a good game. I think it could have been even more of a monster game.”
Hamby led the Sparks (5-16) with 25 points and nine rebounds and Jackson had six rebounds and three assists. Cloud had nine rebounds and five assists, and Mercury teammate Kahleah Copper had 25 points and 10 rebounds while shooting 11 for 13 from the free-throw line.