LOS ANGELES — The Liberty fell to the Sparks 98-97 Sunday, and they have no one to blame but themselves.
The Liberty squandered a 17-point third-quarter lead. They got complacent and it resulted in them fighting with the Sparks down the stretch, only to lose on Nneka Ogwumike’s buzzer-beating 3-pointer.
It was Kelsey Plum and Rae Burrell who led the Sparks’ charge back into the game. The rest of Los Angeles just followed suit, including the fans who came alive during the Sparks rally.
Erica Wheeler drained a game-tying 3 with 5:31 left in the fourth quarter, sending Crypto.com Arena into mania.
New York and Los Angeles exchanged baskets for the rest of the game.
In crunch time, coach Chris DeMarco entrusted Pauline Astier in the lineup over Sabrina Ionescu, who looked out of sorts and was unusually quiet on offense.
Astier scored five of her 17 points in the final two minutes.
The Sparks forced the Liberty into a shot clock violation in a two-point game with 33.3 seconds left — a 9.3-second differential in the shot clock.
Plum’s 3-point attempt rolled off the rim. Breanna Stewart secured the rebound and was immediately fouled.
She hit the back of the rim on her first free throw and drained the second to give the Liberty a 3-point lead.
New York needed a stop.
Astier blocked Wheeler’s 3-point attempt. The Sparks corralled the ball and Stewart fouled Burrell, who drained her free throws to give L.A. a one-point lead.
On the other end, Stewart, again, split a pair of free throws with 8.6 seconds left to give the Liberty a two-point lead, leading to Ogwumike’s game-winner.
DeMarco shook things up Sunday.
Two days after the Washington Mystics snapped the Liberty’s eight-game winning streak, DeMarco made a change to the starting lineup: promoting Satou Sabally in Marine Johannès’ place.
The move felt inevitable. Sabally, a three-time All-Star, was only coming off the bench as the team gradually upped her minutes after a lengthy layoff during the offseason because of a concussion.
Sabally led all scorers at halftime with 11 points. Johannès contributed 10 points off the bench. Jonquel Jones had nine points and six rebounds.
Sabrina Ionescu didn’t attempt a shot in the first half, but the Liberty still led by 12 at the break.
The Liberty opened the third quarter by shooting 3-for-4 from deep.
New York led by as many as 17 points. All they had to do was maintain a lead. But the Liberty failed to do so.
That loss, the Liberty’s second consecutive defeat, is going to sting for a while. It’s not the way the team wanted to open its four-game West Coast swing.
But they don’t have much time to dwell on it. The Las Vegas Aces are up next.