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The Los Angeles Sparks continued their hot streak going back to before the All-Star break following their 97-96 win against the Dallas Wings on Friday. With the win, the Sparks improved to 16-17 and temporarily moved into eighth place in the WNBA standings pending the final score of the Seattle Storm’s game against the Atlanta Dream. Although the Sparks beat the Wings, the fourth quarter saw Dallas storm back from a double-digit deficit and push the Sparks to the final possession of the game. For veteran forward Azurá Stevens, the Sparks win was a major turnaround from earlier in the year.
The Sparks played quite a bit of close games during the early goings of the regular season, but were unable to get over the hump and close games out. In the second half of the season, the Sparks have been able to hang on in crunch time and pull off wins, something that Azurá Stevens chalks up to an increased maturity.
“I think it’s just maturity. I think if this was earlier on in the season, we probably would have crumbled when they went on a run. But it shows growth and maturity. Basketball is a game of runs, and we don’t freak out when that happens anymore,” Stevens said following the win. “Now we’re steady, we calm down. I thought we got good looks in the fourth quarter, but shots weren’t falling.”
“But I think it just speaks to our maturity and growth that we don’t panic when teams go on runs,” Stevens continued. “We find ways to still get wins, which is key.”
Part of the Sparks’ turnaround has also been the strong play of Stevens. A candidate for the league’s Most Improved Player Award, Stevens has been one of the team’s veteran leaders and one of the only players on the roster with a championship ring alongside Kelsey Plum and Dearica Hamby.
Coming into Friday, Stevens had appeared in all 32 games for the Sparks, at a little over 28 minutes per game. She was averaging a career-high 14.6 points, 8.1 rebounds, 2.0 assists, 1.3 steals and 1.2 blocked shots with splits of 51.4 percent shooting from the field, 42.3 percent shooting from the three-point line and 77.4 percent shooting from the free-throw line. With the exception of her free-throw percentage, all other numbers are career-highs.
Back on Aug. 12 before the Sparks’ game against the New York Liberty, head coach Lynne Roberts gave an impassioned take on Stevens’ candidacy for Most Improved Player.
“If she’s not the top vote getter for Most Improved, something’s wrong. I think when you talk about Most Improved, a lot of times players will change rosters and so it’s a different opportunity. And so if you go from you’re coming off the bench, and then you go to another team and now you’re starting, that doesn’t necessarily show improvement,” Roberts said. “And so Azurá has been here, and her numbers from last year to his year are drastically improved.”
“She’s improved, she’s put in the work and she had a great season at Unrivaled. She came in here ready to roll, and she’s completely bought in to what we’re doing,” Roberts continued. “I think the system has helped her improve in terms of the numbers as shown. . .there’s nobody in the league that’s more improved than Azurá Stevens.”
