LOS ANGELES – When the Los Angeles Sparks hired Lynne Roberts as the franchise’s new head coach for the 2025 WNBA season, they were taking a bit of a risk. Although Roberts has decades of experience in coaching women’s basketball, she didn’t have any experience in the WNBA to this point.

With the 2025 WNBA season underway, Lynne Roberts has posted a record of 1-3 so far as Sparks head coach. It’s been a learning adjustment for everyone involved, and prior to the Sparks’ game against the Chicago Sky on Sunday, Roberts spoke about what the biggest adjustment has been during her transition from college to the WNBA.

“Basketball is basketball. To me it’s been a good transition for me just from a basketball standpoint. These players are better, and they’re bigger, stronger, faster, more skilled. So you start off on a higher level with the things you can do,” Roberts said. “The adjustment for me is just not really having practice time. . .learning how to teach and how to make adjustments, how to add things, tweak things, without really getting practice time. That’s been a learning curve for me, but I’m getting the hang of it.”

The Sparks are currently in midst of a four games in seven nights portion of their schedule. Coming into Sunday’s game against the Sky, it was three games in five nights, and then after their Tuesday matchup against the Atlanta Dream, it will be four games in seven nights.

Compare that to the college schedule where games are often played towards the weekend with ample practice time earlier in the week. Games in the WNBA come quickly with not much time for on-court work to smooth things out.

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“I’ve said many times, it’s not a practicing league. It’s not like you can get out there and work on it because the players will be fried,” Roberts said. “So it’s a lot of film and a lot of accountability in that regard. You have to turn the page, you’ve got to move on. . .It’s mindset, it’s film, it’s talking about it, it’s game-planning. It’s 99 percent mental when you play this many games.”

During Roberts’ early tenure as Sparks head coach, she’s dealt with injury woes to key players. Cameron Brink, last season’s No. 2 overall pick, has yet to make her season debut as she continues to recover from an ACL injury. Rae Burrell suffered a leg injury in the first game of the season and is out at least six to eight weeks. And most recently, Rickea Jackson, last season’s rookie standout, is waiting to clear concussion protocol after sustaining a hit to the face last week.

And as the season continues, Roberts will continue preaching her philosophy of turning the page.

“I’m a big believer in turning the page. Like I said after the [Valkyries] loss, had we won we still need to turn the page. You have to move on. But that doesn’t mean you don’t learn from it,” Roberts said. “You have to have that next game, next play mentality and just get up and keep swinging.”