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LOS ANGELES – The Los Angeles Sparks, one of the WNBA’s original and most storied franchises, are on the verge of their fourth consecutive season of missing the playoffs. Throughout this season though, Sparks head coach Curt Miller has stressed the importance of the process and being a build rather than simply focusing on wins and losses.
Following the Sparks’ latest loss, an 80-62 thrashing at home by the Atlanta Dream, Miller was honest about what he wanted to see from the team for the remainder of the season regardless of their final win/loss record.
“I just want an attitude, a culture of growth. I want a culture that doesn’t separate when it gets tough, a resilient team that can take a poor stretch or a run and respond to it,” Miller said. “I don’t like these 9-0, 10-0 starts against us. But what’s really important to me is how we’re responding to runs in the game do we step back up.”
Two issues have plagued the Sparks this season, poor starts and inability to close games. After getting off to a great start against the New York Liberty on Wednesday, the first issue reared its ugly head again as the Dream rattled off the first nine points of the game on Sunday.
The Sparks were never able to really respond after that and therefore didn’t even have a chance for the second issue, closing out games, to be a factor.
The Sparks are going to finish with a record under .500 for the fourth straight season, but as Miller emphasized, the way the team finishes out the 2024 season goes beyond that.
“I want a work, a professionalism about this group down the stretch regardless of how many wins we end up with. I just want a compete level that’s higher,” Miller said. “I ask Dearica [Hamby] and Azurá [Stevens] to really lead us. They’re two WNBA champions in our locker room. And it’s really important that they continue to keep leading what the passion, energy, compete level has to be like to be forming a championship team in the long run.”
Li Yueru has shown strong growth for the Sparks this season
Part of what Curt Miller means when he talks about this season being more about the process for the Sparks than the win/loss column is the continued growth of the younger players. One young player in particular who has shown strong growth as of late is second year center Li Yueru.
Yueru is coming off a strong Olympics performance with China and some of that play has begun to translate to the WNBA. Agains the Dream on Sunday, Yueru finished with a team-high 14 points while shooting 4-0f-7 from the field. She also shot 6-of-7 from the free-throw line.
Following the game, Yueru spoke about how she’s grown this season.
“I still try to learn more every game. . .I’ve learned for every game and try to figure it out. . .and I’m still learning. For today I tried to be stronger with Tina [Charles] because she’s a superstar,” Yueru said. “I’m learning lots in practice, from coach and I’m learning a lot from other teams. So I’m trying to be better to help our team and try to be better myself.”
This is Yueru’s second season in the WNBA after being drafted by the Atlanta Dream with the No. 35 overall pick in the 2019 WNBA Draft. Her rights were ultimately acquired by the Chicago Sky by way of the Sparks and she made her WNBA debut in 2022 playing 16 games off the Sky bench.
The Sparks acquired Yueru in an offseason trade this year that sent the No. 8 overall pick in the 2024 draft to the Sky. In 29 games for the Sparks this season, Yueru has averaged 4.8 points and 3.5 rebounds while shooting 44.5 percent from the field.
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