Sparks Miss a Beat in 76-73 Loss to Sun

Pushed around under the hoop, often unable to make layups and not on the same page when the game hung in the balance, the Sparks on Sunday night looked like a team sorely missing its leading scorers.

Minus Lisa Leslie and Tamecka Dixon, both sidelined by knee injuries, Los Angeles stumbled to a 76-73 loss to Connecticut before 7,135 at Staples Center. The Sparks (16-5) have dropped their last two games, this one to a .500 team.

“This was a game we should have won,” Coach Michael Cooper said. “We don’t have that killer instinct to close games out, and we have to get that back. That’s the thing we’re missing. We’re waiting for our cavalry to get back.”

The Sparks trailed most of the evening, getting their first lead with 10 minutes 23 seconds to play. L.A. had as much as a six-point lead with 6:09 left, but Shannon Johnson’s layup with 18 seconds left put the Sun up, 74-73.

After a timeout, the Sparks’ Mwadi Mabika, who scored a game-high 23 points, dribbled to the top of the key and, with about eight seconds left, hoisted the ball toward the rim. She said she intended the airball to be a pass to Rhonda Mapp.

“I tried to go to the basket and I saw the defense come,” Mabika said. “It wasn’t a good pass.”

Mapp, who started at center in place of Leslie, caught what she said was a shot, not a pass, and threw it back out in Mabika’s direction.

“I didn’t think to go back up,” Mapp said. “I saw Mabika in the paint.”

Where Mabika was spotted was not where she stood once the return pass arrived. The ball tumbled into the backcourt for a violation with 2.6 seconds to play.

The Sparks needed to foul twice to send Connecticut to the line. Taj McWilliams-Franklin dropped in two free throws to push the Sun lead to 76-73. Mabika missed a desperation shot as time expired.

Nykesha Sales’ 17 points led Connecticut (11-11), which had five players in double figures and shot 48.3%.

The Sparks trailed, 39-36, at halftime, a deficit that would have been larger if not for Shaquala Williams. The rookie guard, who had a total of six points in 12 games before Sunday, made all four of her shots in the first half, scoring 10 points in 10 minutes off the bench.

Upset with some of his veterans, Cooper said Williams can expect more playing time.

Nikki Teasley, for one, labored in the opening half, missing all six of her shots. She finished with 18 points.

“I just felt like the energy wasn’t there the first half,” she said. “I felt like I had to set the tone. I need to be a leader, as the point guard, as the captain tonight.”

In the end, the Sparks could not make up for the nearly 34 points per game they get from Leslie (18.9) and Dixon (14.9). The two players who started in their places -- Mapp and Nicky McCrimmon -- combined for three points.

Leslie bruised her right knee in the July 12 All-Star game. Dixon strained her left knee in Friday’s game against Houston.

Dixon underwent an MRI exam Saturday, and the test showed no structural damage. She is listed as day to day.

“I’m hopeful for Tuesday,” Dixon said. “My trainer would probably say Thursday.”

Leslie sat out for the third consecutive game and is eligible to come off injured reserve Tuesday when the Sparks play host to Washington, though it seems unlikely that she will play. Leslie limped into the locker room before Sunday’s game wearing a novel brace. Called a complex meridian unit, the brace utilizes an electromagnetic field to aggregate blood cells, accelerating the healing process.

“It’s just a matter now of the bruise healing and the pain going away,” she said. “I won’t be on the court if I’m in pain.”