Sparks Win Third Straight at Home
July 9, 2012LOS ANGELES, Calif. – Taking on a Dream team without its leading scorer, Angel McCoughtry, out with a reported sprained left ACL, the L.A. Sparks easily outpaced and outclassed the visitors from Atlanta, 79-63, for their third straight win at home.
The victory avenged an earlier blowout loss to the Dream in Atlanta in the first meeting between Carol Ross’s Sparks and the team she helped make a contender for the last three seasons working as an assistant under head coach Marynell Meadors.
The three home wins also amounted to a course correction after L.A. had lost its three previous games.
The Sparks were once again paced by hot-shooting guard Kristi Toliver who netted 19 points while forward Candace Parker grabbed 12 rebounds to notch her 12th double-double in 19 games this season.
“She makes getting a double-double pretty routine,” said Sparks coach Ross. “Sometimes we get so accustomed to them we don’t really give them the significance they deserve.”
“I don’t think you can just focus on one player,” Dream coach Meadors said. “I know Parker is the star, and rightly so, but you can’t just focus on her, because there are very good people around her and they’re very solid.”
Guard Alana Beard led the winners with seven assists.
Parker herself thought the Sparks had an advantage playing both games of their weekend back to back on their own floor.
“We know that we had it a little bit easier because we played at home last night, we didn’t have to travel,” she said. “We got to sleep in our beds, so we knew it was going to be tough for them. We just wanted to make it a running game and hope that we had more rest than them.”
She got no argument from Sancho Lyttle.
“I was tired,” the Dream forward said. “I played most of the game last night and then we traveled from Phoenix to LA and woke up at 5:30 this morning. It was rough, but it is what it is and we still have to play and really that’s why you have teammates.”
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