Sparks vs. Sky: Nneka Ogwumike Reaches 3,000 Career Field Goals in a 25-and-12 Night as L.A. Wins 102-87

Nneka Ogwumike's 3,000th career field goal wasn't a putback or some tidy little bank shot, the kind of basket you'd expect to carry a number like that. It was a three-pointer early in the fourth quarter on Friday night, and it opened the stretch that finally shook the Chicago Sky off Los Angeles' back.

Ogwumike finished with 25 points, 12 rebounds and five assists, all five starters reached double figures, and the Los Angeles Sparks pulled away for a 102-87 win at Crypto.com Arena in front of 11,827. For three quarters Chicago refused to go anywhere. Then L.A. won the fourth 29-17, and the Sky ran out of answers.

Thirty Minutes of Nobody Blinking

The first quarter played like a track meet with extra whistles. Erica Wheeler, Ariel Atkins and Rae Burrell all got loose as the Sparks went up 21-14, but Gabriela Jaquez's work off the bench dragged Chicago back, and two Aicha Coulibaly free throws gave the Sky a 29-28 edge after one.

It stayed tight until Ogwumike went to work late in the second. She scored seven points in under a minute, starting with a three-point play at the 3:02 mark, and L.A. carried a 53-48 lead into the break. Chicago came back hot anyway. Kamilla Cardoso's three-point play tied it at 58, rookie Sydney Taylor's three gave the Sky a 61-58 lead with six minutes left in the third, and Azura Stevens' own three-point play knotted it at 64. Emma Cannon, who had nine big points off the L.A. bench, hit a three and then a late bucket to make it 73-70 Sparks going to the fourth.

Six lead changes, a pile of ties and no run of eight straight by either side. Nobody could get any separation until somebody finally got hot from deep.

Three Threes and a Block

That somebody was Ogwumike. She had gone 0 for 3 from deep through three quarters, then hit her first three of the game with 7:46 left to make it 80-72, and that one got her to 3,000. Burrell followed with one of her own. The Sky still had some fight, though, and when Stevens drained a three and Taylor finished a three-point play at the 6:00 mark, Chicago was within 85-80.

Here's where the game actually turned. At 5:10, Ogwumike stepped into another three for an 88-80 lead. On the Sparks' following possession, Dearica Hamby drove to the rim and scored for 90-80. A five-point game had doubled in 88 seconds, and Chicago never got closer than six the rest of the way.

Cardoso's layup and two Natasha Cloud free throws pulled the Sky to 90-84, but Burrell scored on a drive, and Ogwumike's third three of the quarter made it 95-84 with 2:29 left. Taylor's three was Chicago's last gasp at 95-87. Hamby answered with a reverse layup at 1:36 and then went to the other end and blocked Courtney Vandersloot's shot. The Sky did not score again.

The Five-Headed Thing Los Angeles Has Going

Ogwumike is an 11-time All-Star, per Chicago's own recap, and she played like it: 9 of 16 from the floor, all three of her threes in the fourth quarter, and all 12 rebounds on the defensive end. Hamby, Burrell and Atkins each had 17. Atkins, a former Sky guard, was a game-best plus-24 with six assists and three steals against her old team. Burrell went 4 of 6 from three. Wheeler added 15 points and eight assists and finished plus-19. Emma Cannon went 3 of 4 from the floor and grabbed three offensive rebounds in 13 minutes. Los Angeles pulled all of this off with Cameron Brink (left ankle) and Kelsey Plum (lower left leg) both out, which makes the ball movement even more impressive.

Chicago had real production up front and off the bench. Cardoso had 15 points and eight rebounds on 6-of-9 shooting, Taylor scored 15 and hit the biggest Sky shots of the second half, and Jaquez dropped 15 in just 20 minutes. Sheldon and Stevens scored 10 apiece. The trouble came from the perimeter, where Cloud managed seven assists but shot 2 of 11, and Vandersloot gave it away four times in 19 minutes. The Sky were also missing Skylar Diggins (knee).

The 24-Point Math Problem

• 32 on 39: Sparks assists on made field goals. That's as close to a perfect sharing night as you'll see at this tempo.
• 14 of 31 vs. 6 of 25: Three-point shooting, a 24-point gap that swallowed everything else.
• 50-40 and 19 of 22: Chicago's paint edge and its work at the line. The Sky won both of those battles and still lost by 15.
• 25-16: L.A.'s margin in points off turnovers, fueled by 11 steals.
• 32-11: Chicago's bench advantage, which kept the Sky alive for 30 minutes.

Two Straight for L.A., Back to the Road for Chicago

Los Angeles improves to 10-11 and 5-7 at home with its second straight win, and those two wins have come with 106 and 102 points after a three-game losing streak. The Sparks head to Atlanta on Monday.

Chicago drops to 7-15 and 4-8 on the road, giving back whatever momentum it had from Tuesday's 77-66 win in Phoenix. The road stretch continues Sunday in Dallas, and the Sky will need better than 6 of 25 from three to do anything about the Wings.

Clocking In for 3,000

Three thousand field goals is a number you only reach by showing up and being right, over and over, for a very long time. Nothing about it is flashy. Ogwumike's whole career has been a long argument for the value of doing the correct thing on every possession, and on a night when L.A. was missing two key players and Chicago kept refusing to leave, the correct thing happened to be three fourth-quarter threes and a dozen defensive rebounds. Some players chase the moment. She just keeps clocking in, and eventually the moment shows up at her desk.

Stats from the official box score via ESPN. Game details as reported by the Associated Press, WNBA.com and the Chicago Sky.