{"id":716839,"date":"2026-06-21T05:48:08","date_gmt":"2026-06-21T05:48:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/716839\/"},"modified":"2026-06-21T05:48:08","modified_gmt":"2026-06-21T05:48:08","slug":"sparks-news-new-guard-is-already-aware-of-how-dangerous-la-can-be","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/716839\/","title":{"rendered":"Sparks news: New guard is already aware of how dangerous LA can be"},"content":{"rendered":"

LOS ANGELES \u2013 Even before star guard Kelsey Plum\u2019s recent lower leg injury<\/a>, the Los Angeles Sparks<\/a> knew they wanted more ball-handling and playmaking in the backcourt. Instead of trying to play rookie guards Ta\u2019Niya Latson and Chance Gray out of position, the Sparks opted to poach Kiana Williams<\/a> from the Phoenix Mercury.<\/p>\n

Since Kiana Williams was on a developmental contract, the Sparks were able to sign her to an offer sheet and force the Mercury to match. They did not, and the fifth-year guard officially joined the Sparks for practice on Saturday ahead of the team\u2019s upcoming game against the New York Liberty.<\/p>\n

Williams is expected to be in the team\u2019s rotation from the get-go, regardless of whether or not Plum is cleared to play on Sunday. And she\u2019s already quite aware<\/a> of how good this Sparks team can be when they\u2019re clicking on all cylinders having played against them with the Mercury.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe just played LA twice over in Phoenix and it wasn\u2019t a great feeling losing both those games. So I know what LA is capable of,\u201d Williams said after practice.<\/p>\n

Williams\u2019 first day with the team coincided with the Sparks\u2019 30th anniversary celebration. Several former franchise legends were in attendance at practice, a few of whom were part of the Sparks\u2019 2001 and 2002 championship teams.<\/p>\n

While the past couple of days were a little bit of a whirlwind for the former Stanford star, she is looking forward to this new opportunity while donning the colors of a once elite franchise.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverything really happened super fast, but to me I ended up in a great situation here in LA. I\u2019m super excited,\u201d Williams said. \u201cWhat a crazy day to have, the alums here just agains about the history, the culture and stuff. So I\u2019m very excited and grateful for the opportunity. I don\u2019t take wearing this purple and old for granted.\u201d<\/p>\n

The No. 18 overall pick in the 2021 WNBA Draft, Williams is already familiar with a few of her new Sparks teammates. She won a national championship at Stanford with Cameron Brink, and she played with Nneka Ogwumike with the Seattle Storm. She was also at Unrivaled alongside Plum, Brink, Erica Wheeler, Dearica Hamby and Rae Burrell.<\/p>\n

She\u2019s spent the past two seasons playing for the Mercury, and this year she was putting up career numbers of 4.8 points and 36 percent shooting from the 3-point line across eight games at a little over 13 minutes. But regardless of numbers, the biggest impact that Williams is expected to have is allowing Plum and Wheeler to get quick breathers in-game.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust trying to be a ball-handler, a backup to E-Dub [Erica Wheeler], take some pressure off of Kelsey Plum. Just bringing my experience. I played with Nneka in Seattle so I\u2019m familiar with her,\u201d Williams said. \u201cJust trying to bring my shooting capabilities, my ball-handling, my leadership and stuff to the team, just trying to mesh in.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sparks head coach Lynne Roberts got to see Williams on the court for the first time during Saturday\u2019s practice, and she was overall pleased with the early returns.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe got with her a little last night just to kind of try to acclimate her with the playbook,\u201d Roberts said. \u201cBut she\u2019s a vet, she\u2019s a pro. So she\u2019s doing good.\u201d<\/p>\n

LOS ANGELES \u2013 Even before star guard Kelsey Plum\u2019s recent lower leg injury, the Los Angeles Sparks knew they wanted more ball-handling and playmaking in the backcourt. Instead of trying to play rookie guards Ta\u2019Niya Latson and Chance Gray out of position, the Sparks opted to poach Kiana Williams from the Phoenix Mercury.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LOS ANGELES \u2013 Even before star guard Kelsey Plum\u2019s recent lower leg injury, the Los Angeles Sparks knew…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":716840,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[3029,581,99,434],"class_list":["post-716839","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wnba","tag-los-angeles-sparks","tag-reporting","tag-sports","tag-wnba"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/716839","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=716839"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/716839\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/716840"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=716839"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=716839"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=716839"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}