The LA Sparks are in unprecedented territory when it comes to defensive end, but for all the wrong reasons. As reported by Sparks beat writer Justin Russo, the Sparks currently have a defensive rating of 115.6, the lowest ever in WNBA history.<\/p>\n
When Russo caught up with court general Kelsey Plum<\/a> after the Sparks\u2019 Sunday night game, she bluntly challenged her teammates to show more consistency on defense.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s about being a professional. You show up every night, and you do your job. That\u2019s what we need to do moving forward, every night.\u201d<\/p>\n Plum, who is in her second season with the Sparks, added that her squad needs to show more heart as they look to limit their opponents\u2019 production.<\/p>\n \u201cI get it, you make mistakes and everything. But it\u2019s really more just about pride.\u201d<\/p>\n For a change, the Sparks were clearly the better team defensively as they defeated the Portland Fire<\/a> 89-72 that night. Plum and her crew held the expansion team to 36.1% from the field and 3-for-28 shooting from deep, while also forcing 15 turnovers for the game.<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n Still, the Sparks have their work cut out for them as they continue to fine-tune their system on both ends of the floor.<\/p>\n \u201cIt Comes Down to Discipline\u201d: Sparks HC Calls for Team to Maintain Focus After Win Over Fire<\/p>\n Plum\u2019s message was echoed by Sparks head coach Lynne Roberts, who told reporters after the game that she wants her players to stay focused.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re all healthy now, and we gotta go. It all comes down to discipline, to do things right on both ends of the floor.\u201d<\/p>\n Roberts added that her coaching staff hasn\u2019t put in new sets \u201csince training camp,\u201d emphasizing that her players just need to execute what they already know.<\/p>\n READ MORE: \u201cDisgusting behavior\u201d: Fans Accuse Aces Of Stat Padding As Rae Burrell Suffers Injury In Closing Seconds Of Decided Game<\/a><\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n Lisa Leslie Drops 5-Word Reaction As Retired WNBA Players Set to Earn Upto $100,000<\/a><\/p>\n College Sports Network has you covered with the latest news, analysis, insights, and trending stories in college football<\/a>, men\u2019s college basketball<\/a>, women\u2019s college basketball<\/a>, and college baseball<\/a>!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The LA Sparks are in unprecedented territory when it comes to defensive end, but for all the wrong…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":691891,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[17816,300137,10504,23758,5483,5551,12077,99,80663,434],"class_list":["post-691890","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wnba","tag-defensive-rating","tag-justin-russo","tag-kelsey-plum","tag-la-sparks","tag-lynne-roberts","tag-phoenix-mercury","tag-portland-fire","tag-sports","tag-the-sparks","tag-wnba"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/691890","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=691890"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/691890\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/691891"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=691890"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=691890"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=691890"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}