Sparks vs. Lynx: Los Angeles Closes on 8-0 Run to End Minnesota's 10-Game Winning Streak

For 35 minutes, this looked like one more entry in Minnesota's summer highlight package. The Lynx led for 80 percent of Thursday night at Target Center, they had won 10 straight, and they sat on top of the WNBA. Then Kayla McBride buried a 3 with 4:53 left to make it 82-81, and Minnesota's offense quietly left the building without telling anybody.

Los Angeles scored the game's last eight points, the Lynx clanged their final seven shots, and the Sparks walked out with an 89-82 win that ended the streak. They pulled it off one night after losing 95-88 in Chicago, on the back half of a back-to-back, against a team that had already beaten them twice this season. Degree of difficulty: high.

A Game of Runs Until One Team Stopped Running

Minnesota looked fully awake early. A 10-0 burst in the first quarter turned an 8-7 game into 18-7 by the 5:00 mark, and the building was humming. The Sparks answered by outscoring the Lynx 14-4 the rest of the period, and what could have been a rout was a 22-21 game after one.

Los Angeles even moved in front in the second, going up 37-32 with 4:12 to go before halftime. Minnesota responded the way a team with its record usually does: 11 straight points in about two minutes, a 43-37 lead and, eventually, a 48-40 advantage at the break.

The third quarter was where the Sparks started making things uncomfortable. They won it 26-23 to trail just 71-66 heading to the fourth, then poured in 15 points in the first 5:07 of the final period. The lead had changed hands nine times by the end of the night, but Minnesota had spent most of it in front, and McBride's 3 felt like the shot that would finally shake the Sparks off.

Instead it was the last basket the Lynx would make. Nneka Ogwumike took a feed from Ariel Atkins for a running layup at 2:39 to put Los Angeles ahead. Erica Wheeler stuck a 10-foot pull-up off another Atkins assist. Monique Akoa Makani drilled a 12-foot step-back at 1:18, and Wheeler slammed the door on a drive with 37.5 seconds left.

Everybody Ate for Los Angeles

Rae Burrell led the Sparks with 17 points, hitting 3 of 6 from deep and all four of her free throws. Dearica Hamby gave them 16 points and nine rebounds on a ruthless 7-of-9 from the field, and Ogwumike added 16 and seven, although five turnovers made her night a little bumpier than the scoring suggests.

The real fun was deeper in the box score. Wheeler played 30 minutes, handed out nine assists, scored 12 and did not turn it over once, which is how you run an offense on the second night of a back-to-back. Cameron Brink came off the bench for 12 points, eight rebounds, five assists and three blocks, finishing plus-22 in 25 minutes, the best number on either team. Akoa Makani was plus-20 in her 19 minutes. Atkins deserves a line here too. She scored only seven, but her six assists included the setups on Ogwumike's go-ahead layup and Wheeler's pull-up, which is a good way to make seven points feel like 20.

For Minnesota, rookie Olivia Miles was terrific and deserved a better ending: 23 points, eight rebounds and five assists on 8-of-16 shooting, even with five turnovers of her own. Napheesa Collier produced 21 points, eight boards and six assists, McBride scored 15, and Courtney Williams had 12 points and eight rebounds. The problem was everybody else. Minnesota's starters scored 79 of the team's 82 points, and the bench went 1 of 8 from the field.

The Longest 4:53 in Minneapolis

This was not one play so much as a slow leak. Seven straight misses is a bad stretch for anyone. Seven straight misses with a one-point lead evaporating, in front of 12,824 people who have not had to sweat much lately, is the kind of thing that makes a film session very quiet.

The contrast at the other end was the whole story. While Minnesota kept launching and missing, Los Angeles got exactly what it wanted: a running layup, two midrange jumpers and a drive, none of them from beyond the arc. The Sparks had piled up 46 points in the paint and 27 assists by the end of the night, and they closed the same way they had played, by moving the ball and getting close. All four baskets in that 8-0 finish came inside 13 feet, and three of them were assisted.

Stats That Matter

• 0: Minnesota points over the final 4:53.
• 23-11: Los Angeles' edge in the fourth quarter.
• 46-28: The Sparks' advantage in the paint.
• 27-17: Assists, Los Angeles, on 34 made field goals.
• 21-3: Bench scoring, Los Angeles over Minnesota.

What It Means

Minnesota is 25-7 and still leads the league, so nobody needs to panic in Minneapolis. This was the first Lynx loss since a 90-89 decision against Connecticut on July 6, and it dropped them to 12-5 at home. Las Vegas comes to town on Saturday, so the chance to change the subject arrives quickly.

Los Angeles improved to 12-18 and 7-9 on the road, with two wins in its last three games, and finally got on the board against Minnesota after two losses in this season's series. The Sparks head home to face Golden State on Sunday night.

Read Receipts

Winning streaks that long usually die in dramatic fashion, with a buzzer-beater or an overtime classic. This one just stopped answering. The Lynx will still be the team everyone is chasing come Saturday, and one bad finish does not change what they have been for a month. But for 4:53 on a Thursday in August, the rim treated them like a text left on read, and a Sparks team on no rest, with every excuse to mail it in, cheerfully replied instead.

Stats from the official box score via ESPN. Game details as reported by the Associated Press.