Los Angeles — The Los Angeles Sparks defeated the Phoenix Mercury 78-75 Sunday afternoon at Staples Center. Candace Parker became the 20th player in WNBA history to score 5,000 career points in the win, while Chelsea Gray served as the closer, scoring 12 of her game-high 24 points in the fourth quarter.
“They were going under drastically on screens with her (Gray), and that’s her sweet spot,” Sparks forward Jantel Lavender said postgame. “If teams are going to do that, we say, ‘Keep shooting the ball.’ That’s what she did tonight and came up huge for us.