Sparks Dispatch the Sky, 73-65

Eight games into the season, some things are becoming apparent about the Sparks.

The offensive rhythm Coach Joe Bryant envisioned at the start of training camp is coming together. There were times during their 73-65 victory Friday over the Chicago Sky that the Sparks passed crisply, shot fluidly and ran confidently.

But there were times where lapses in concentration and an inability to close out the Sky’s struggling expansion team made the game closer than it should have been.

That probably will be the Sparks’ modus operandi for a while longer as they continue to blend in eight new players and get more comfortable with Bryant’s system.

It also explains why Bryant was more cheerful than perturbed after his team improved its record to 5-3.

“It’s an important thing that we get the win no matter what,” Bryant said. “We did control them in the first half, but you know they will come back. Ideally, you’d like to win by 40, but this is not Duke against some other team.”

Still the Sparks -- who got 19 points, 11 rebounds and four blocked shots from Lisa Leslie, and 15 points from Chamique Holdsclaw off the bench -- acknowledged there were miscues (such as 18 turnovers) they got away with Friday that might have hurt them against other, more experienced teams.

“One thing we have to continue to do is keep the focus on us, play Sparks basketball, and everything else should fall into place,” said Temeka Johnson, who had nine points and seven assists.

“We can’t get complacent with teams.... They’re gonna play hard. Even if we were supposed to be the better team, we still need to play the way we’re capable of playing and not let a team stay around at the end of the game. Because you never know what’s going to happen.”

Chicago (1-7), which has lost seven in a row since winning its opener May 20, came into Staples Center a diminished team.

The Sky was already missing Chelsea Newton and Elaine Powell because of injuries.

And Friday morning, it learned Stacey Dales, who suffered a deep bone bruise in her right leg in the Seattle game Wednesday, could be lost six to eight weeks.

Still, Chicago, which had 19 points and nine rebounds from guard Jia Perkins and 16 points from rookie forward Candice Dupree, hung close.

After trailing 43-31 at halftime, the Sky outscored the Sparks 18-9 in the third quarter -- when Los Angeles made only four of 16 shots -- to close the gap to three, at 52-49.

It was not until a 12-2 spurt by the Sparks late in the fourth quarter that the L.A. lead extended to 71-55.

Before the game, Bryant said that Dalivorka Vilipic had cleared her visa hurdles and reported to the team.