LOS ANGELES \u2014 Despite missing the playoffs for the sixth straight season, Sparks head coach Lynne Roberts believes her team has a lot to play for, especially with the franchise\u2019s all-time leading scorer Nneka Ogwumike a mere four games away from retiring from the WNBA.<\/p>\n
\u201cFour wins,\u201d Roberts said, \u201cwe want those. So we\u2019re always going to compete to win. I don\u2019t know how to coach any other way. I think Nneka (Ogwumike) deserves that for us to play our best, coach our best for her in these last four games of what\u2019s been an incredible career.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Sparks (15-25) will be on the road in their first game after the WNBA paused for nearly three weeks for the FIBA World Cup, taking on the Dallas Wings, who have already clinched one of the league\u2019s eight playoff spots.<\/p>\n
However, the Wings, who are currently in eighth place, are battling for playoff seeding with the New York Liberty and Washington Mystics. All three teams have 24-16 records, but the Liberty and Mystics hold tiebreakers over the Wings.<\/p>\n
After trying to play spoiler against Dallas, the Sparks will host the Portland Fire on Sunday, play at the playoff-bound Las Vegas Aces on Tuesday, then conclude their 44-game slate at home against the playoff-bound Golden State Valkyries net Thursday (Sept. 24).<\/p>\n
SPARKS\u2019 NYE READY FOR 4TH WNBA CHANCE<\/p>\n
Roberts said the Sparks plan to play the team\u2019s reserve players more and give opportunities to new players like guard Aaliyah Nye, whom the team claimed off waivers on Aug. 29.<\/p>\n
\u201cObviously, we want to play our bench and play everybody,\u201d Roberts said. \u201cAnd just compete like hell. That\u2019s what we\u2019re trying to do.\u201d<\/p>\n
The team waived fan-favorite guard Kate Martin to sign Nye, a 2025 second-round draft pick by Las Vegas. Nye averaged 15 minutes per game as the Aces won the 2025 WNBA championship.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m just blessed to get another opportunity here with the Sparks,\u201d Nye said.<\/p>\n
The Toronto Tempo selected her in the 2026 expansion draft and waived her during training camp in May. The 6-foot 3-point shooting specialist then signed with the Atlanta Dream but averaged just 0.7 points before they waived her after signing veteran forward DeWanna Bonner, before she landed in Los Angeles.<\/p>\n
\u201cObviously, this is not how I wanted it to go, but I\u2019m just being optimistic about everything,\u201d Nye continued.<\/p>\n
Roberts said the last four games will also be an opportunity for newly signed rookie developmental contract players, former Vanderbilt guard Ndjakalenga Mwenentanda and former Maryland guard Shyanne Sellers, to get some minutes. Mwenentanda and Sellers are both expected to play in two of the last four games, Roberts said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think I\u2019m going to have some jitters at first, but I think I\u2019m going to embrace the moment and try to be helpful to the team,\u201d said Sellers, who was drafted 17th overall by Golden State in the second round of the 2025 draft but was waived during training camp.<\/p>\n
Mwenentanda, an undrafted member of the league\u2019s 2026 rookie class, signed a training camp contract with Golden State but was waived during training camp before signing a replacement contract and playing in five games between May 8 and June 2. However, the 6-3 guard, who grew up in South Dakota, is still eager to score her first points in the WNBA.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne of my goals as a rookie is, whenever I get in,\u201d Mwenentanda said, \u201cobviously I\u2019m not searching for buckets, but at least to score this rookie season before I go into next year.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dallas forward Alanna Smith, who played for Australia in the World Cup, will miss Thursday\u2019s game with a leg injury. Wings All-Star guard Paige Bueckers is averaging 20.6 points and 5.9 assists per game.<\/p>\n
The Sparks, who are led by Ogwumike\u2019s 17.2 points and 8.9 rebounds per game, have no players listed on their injury report.<\/p>\n
SPARKS (15-25) AT WINGS (24-16)<\/p>\n
When: Thursday, 5 p.m.<\/p>\n
Where: College Park Center, Arlington, Texas<\/p>\n
TV: USA, Spectrum SportsNet<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LOS ANGELES \u2014 Despite missing the playoffs for the sixth straight season, Sparks head coach Lynne Roberts believes…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":850624,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[2356,23758,3031,13489,3029,99,434],"class_list":["post-850623","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wnba","tag-california","tag-la-sparks","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-county","tag-los-angeles-sparks","tag-sports","tag-wnba"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/850623","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=850623"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/850623\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/850624"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=850623"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=850623"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=850623"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}