{"id":695302,"date":"2026-05-26T17:28:14","date_gmt":"2026-05-26T17:28:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/695302\/"},"modified":"2026-05-26T17:28:14","modified_gmt":"2026-05-26T17:28:14","slug":"nneka-ogwumike-checks-the-sparks-plus-the-player-coach","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/695302\/","title":{"rendered":"Nneka Ogwumike checks the Sparks. Plus: The player coach"},"content":{"rendered":"

No Offseason Newsletter \ud83c\udfc0\u00a0| This is The Athletic\u2019s women\u2019s basketball newsletter. Sign up here<\/a> to receive No Offseason directly in your inbox.<\/p>\n

Welcome back to No Offseason! This season\u2019s getting spicy. Today we unpack:<\/p>\n

\ud83d\udccd Off days in L.A. and N.Y.
\n\ud83c\udfc0\u00a0Ionescu\u2019s debut<\/a>, among others
\n\ud83d\udcca How are the Dream and Mercury trending?
\n\ud83c\udfa7 WNBA mailbag<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s go.<\/p>\n

On the Ground<\/p>\n

Tensions rise in L.A.<\/p>\n

The 30 or so minutes of practice the media gets to view aren\u2019t always the most revelatory. You see a lot of warm-ups, shooting drills \u2014 sometimes\u00a0half-court shots<\/a> \u2014 and other ways of running out the clock before teams close the doors and get to the good stuff.<\/p>\n

But there was some actual tension at practice\u00a0in Los Angeles\u00a0last week after the Sparks, who came into the season with hopes of contention, started the season 1-3. (They\u2019re now 3-3.)<\/p>\n

After the scout team scored on yet another offensive rebound, Nneka Ogwumike had about enough. After doling out little bits of wisdom throughout practice, like \u201cLet\u2019s not go for so many ball fakes,\u201d this particular error demanded a stop in the action.<\/p>\n

The 15-year veteran, who joined the Sparks in free agency, chastised her teammates for relaxing after every mistake instead of continuing to play.\u00a0She questioned why players were competing on offense but not on defense.<\/p>\n

In her words, \u201cWhat the hell?\u201d<\/p>\n

Instances like this show why the Sparks believed they needed Ogwumike to restore their franchise\u2019s legitimacy. The seven-time All-Defensive honoree can \u2014 and clearly\u00a0will\u00a0\u2014 hold the rest of the team accountable on that end of the floor.<\/p>\n

Los Angeles won\u2019t be a lockdown squad, but even a middling defense \u2014 the Sparks ranked 10th out of 15 teams in defensive rating over the last week \u2014 will be enough to get wins when their offense finds its rhythm.<\/p>\n

Ionescu debuts for New York<\/p>\n

In Brooklyn,\u00a0the New York Liberty (3-4) had nearly an entire week of practice between the end of their three-game road trip and their home game against the Golden State Valkyries. There was no visible tension on the Liberty practice court. Instead, it was gratitude, as their full roster slowly began to take shape:<\/p>\n

Sabrina Ionescu returned to practice after missing the first week of games with a left foot injury.
\nLeonie Fiebich and Raquel Carrera finally made it to New York after helping Valencia Basket win the Liga Femenina Endesa championship in Spain.<\/p>\n

Ionescu\u00a0made her season debut<\/a>\u00a0against the Dallas Wings on Sunday, finishing with 11 points, seven assists and five rebounds in the Liberty\u2019s 91-76 loss. Carrera made her WNBA debut Sunday, but logged only one minute for the Liberty.<\/p>\n

Fiebich\u2019s status was set to active yesterday, making her available for games. However, she missed yesterday\u2019s 81-74 loss to the Portland Fire due to rest.\u00a0The Liberty have yet to play like a championship-contending team\u00a0as they navigate absences and continue searching for consistency within the new systems under first-year coach Chris DeMarco.<\/p>\n

More news from the W:<\/p>\n

Fast Breaks<\/p>\n

\ud83c\udfc0 Back to Ogwumike, who passed Indiana Fever legend Tamika Catchings\u00a0for fifth all-time in points<\/a>,\u00a0with 7,383.<\/p>\n

\ud83e\udd4e UCLA national champion Megan Grant went from fall basketball practice to\u00a0setting the NCAA softball\u00a0home run record<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\ud83c\udfc1 Do we have a Rookie of the Year race<\/a>?\u00a0Azzi Fudd has entered the chat.<\/p>\n

\u2716\ufe0f Caitlin Clark\u00a0missed a game. And then\u00a0things got weird<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\ud83c\udf99\ufe0f On the latest\u00a0\u201cNo Offseason\u201d\u00a0podcast, we broke down the developmental player system, the challenges of dual ownership structures and what truly defines effective coaching \u2014 from team execution to player buy-in and locker room dynamics.\u00a0Listen to all that and more here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

You Gotta See This: A weekend of WNBA debuts<\/p>\n

Ionescu\u2019s season debut had the makings of a moment. She started strong, scoring five points in the first quarter before making both of her 3-point attempts in the second. One of her deep balls came from just inside the half-court line. After it sank through the net, she stared into the crowd with one of her trademark grins, sending fans into a raucous celebration.<\/p>\n

Her game fell flat in the second half, when she was held scoreless, shooting 0-for-6 from the field.<\/p>\n

More debuts:<\/p>\n

The Seattle Storm welcomed 19-year-old\u00a0Awa Fam\u00a0to the WNBA on Sunday after the No. 3 pick was with her Spanish club Valencia a week ago. Fam hasn\u2019t even had a chance to practice with Seattle, but she still dropped 10 points in the Storm\u2019s 97-85 win over the Washington Mystics.The most promising moment of the game came when Fam connected with fellow rookie Flau\u2019jae Johnson on the pick-and-roll. Get used to a lot of this:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

And congrats to Fam\u2019s Seattle teammate\u00a0Katie Lou Samuelson,\u00a0who made her 2026 debut after tearing her ACL during last season\u2019s training camp. (Best wishes to the Chicago Sky\u2019s Rickea Jackson and Minnesota Lynx\u2019s Emma Cechova for similarly smooth recoveries.)
\nOn the other end of the age spectrum, Portland beat the Toronto Tempo on Saturday in part due to nine assists from 35-year-old Slovenian guard\u00a0Teja Oblak.\u00a0Per\u00a0Across the Timeline<\/a>, Oblak is the seventh player to be at least 35 years old in her WNBA debut, and the first since 2003. Seven other players aged 30 and older have made their WNBA debuts in the last three seasons, as more roster spots allow for older players to realize their professional dreams.This is the first season in league history with multiple players younger than 20 and older than 30 playing their first WNBA games.
\nMichaela Onyenwere\u00a0played her first game of the season for Washington, tallying six points and four fouls. Although the 26-year-old Onyenwere is closer in age to Fam than Oblak, she is the most experienced Mystics player, and her Washington teammates call her \u201ccoach.\u201dTo be fair, she literally coached two of them\u00a0as a UCLA assistant this past season, when the Bruins (with current Mystics players Lauren Betts and Angela Dugalic) won a national title.
\nTrending: Who\u2019s up, who\u2019s down?<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s check in on the way some teams are trending.<\/p>\n

\ud83d\udcc8 Up: Atlanta Dream<\/p>\n

The Dream are owners of the best record in the league (4-1) and are undefeated when Rhyne Howard takes the floor. Entering yesterday\u2019s games, there were 26 instances of a team falling behind by 15-plus points this season; only Atlanta has recovered to win after trailing by that many, and the Dream have now done so twice (against Minnesota and the Phoenix Mercury).<\/p>\n

There have been offensive hiccups because of veteran stalwart Brionna Jones\u2019 injury and Angel Reese learning a new system,\u00a0but this is the WNBA\u2019s best defensive team, poised to win its first playoff series since 2016.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\ud83d\udcc9 Down: Phoenix Mercury<\/p>\n

Ever since the season opener, when the Mercury limited the Las Vegas Aces to 66 points, defense in Phoenix has been nonexistent, particularly on the perimeter. The Mercury are missing Monique Akoa Makani, who has been unavailable due to overseas commitments, but one player alone isn\u2019t responsible for giving up 90.5 points and 11.2 3s per game \u2014 a 1-5 stretch \u2014 since the matchup against Las Vegas.<\/p>\n

Even after a strong defensive start against Atlanta on Sunday, that had Phoenix up 70-58 with five minutes to play, the Mercury collapsed and conceded 24 points the rest of the way. They were beaten from beyond the arc (the Dream made four 3s), in transition and on second-chance points.<\/p>\n

The defense has been, in a word, gross.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\u201cTeams are coming in and getting anything and everything that they want against us,\u201d Mercury forward Alyssa Thomas said after losing to Los Angeles.<\/p>\n

A Thomas-led team hasn\u2019t even been below average in defensive rating since 2016. The Mercury have a lot of new players to integrate with only four members of their 2025 playoff rotation currently active, but they\u2019re digging themselves a big hole to start the season.<\/p>\n

Watch Guide<\/p>\n

Here are the top games we\u2019re monitoring this week (all times ET):<\/p>\n

\ud83d\udcfa Dream-Lynx\u00a0<\/p>\n

Wednesday at 9 p.m., USA Network\u00a0<\/p>\n

Atlanta comes to Minnesota with the league\u2019s best record as the 4-2 Lynx seek revenge for a one-point loss in the season opener.<\/p>\n

\ud83d\udcfa Fever-Valkyries<\/p>\n

Thursday at 10 p.m., Prime Video\u00a0<\/p>\n

Things got spicy between the 4-2 Indiana Fever and 4-2 Valkyries last week, and now Golden State has Ballhalla on its side.<\/p>\n

\ud83d\udcfa Sparks-Mystics<\/p>\n

Friday at 7:30 p.m., Ion\/League Pass<\/p>\n

Have the Sparks actually righted the ship after a 1-3 start? A real-deal playoff team would win in Washington.<\/p>\n

\ud83d\udcfa Storm-Tempo<\/p>\n

Saturday at 1 p.m., League Pass<\/p>\n

Vancouver\u2019s team versus Toronto\u2019s team? Kidding, but tune in for the WNBA\u2019s first international team against the international frontcourt of the future.<\/p>\n

\ud83d\udcfa Aces-Valkyries<\/p>\n

Sunday at 3:30 p.m., Peacock\/NBC\u00a0<\/p>\n

The WNBA\u2019s Sunday prime-time matchups have delivered so far, and you can bet the 4-2 Aces are tired of losing on nationally televised showcases this season.<\/p>\n

\ud83d\udcfa Lynx-Mercury<\/p>\n

Monday at 10 p.m., Peacock\/NBC<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a shame that 4-2 Minnesota will make both its visits to 2-5 Phoenix, where its 2025 season ended in the WNBA semifinals, before Napheesa Collier returns from injury. Still, every matchup between these teams tends to go down to the wire.<\/p>\n

\ud83d\udceb Love No Offseason? Check out\u00a0The Athletic\u2019s other newsletters<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"No Offseason Newsletter \ud83c\udfc0\u00a0| This is The Athletic\u2019s women\u2019s basketball newsletter. Sign up here to receive No Offseason…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":695303,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[629],"tags":[49,48,82,630,4141],"class_list":["post-695302","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wnba","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-sports","tag-wnba","tag-womens-college-basketball"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/695302","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=695302"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/695302\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/695303"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=695302"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=695302"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=695302"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}