Against the lowly Sparks, the Liberty almost suffered what would’ve been a historic collapse Thursday night.
Key word: almost.
The Liberty managed to survive their worst fourth-quarter showing of the season to beat the Sparks 85-81 at Barclays Center.
The home team had built up a 28-point advantage with 9:48 left in the fourth quarter and was sitting pretty.
Until they weren’t.
The Sparks stormed all the way back, scoring 21 unanswered points to make it a nine-point game. Los Angeles got within one with 21.7 seconds left, but the Liberty held on to prevent their opponents from matching the biggest comeback in WNBA history.
Two days after an obliteration at Indiana, the Liberty looked to redeem themselves against a team destined for the draft lottery.
But the Liberty played poorly in the final frame. The Sparks, losers of eight of 10 games entering Thursday, didn’t wave the white flag in the fourth quarter, and the Liberty paid the price.
Los Angeles — no longer featuring Kelsey Plum after the star guard was traded to Phoenix at the deadline — went on a 21-0 rampage to cut the Liberty’s mighty lead in less than three minutes.
Sabrina Ionescu finally ended the 4:19 drought with a much-needed basket at the rim.
But the Sparks didn’t stop. They kept at it.
With 3:50 left in a four-point game, head coach Chris DeMarco questionably challenged a Marine Johannes foul. It was unsuccessful, burning the team’s final timeout.
The Sparks made it a three-point game on three occasions over the final four minutes.
Dearica Hamby’s layup cut the gap to 82-79 with 57.9 seconds to go. A bad inbounds pass from Pauline Astier was recovered by Ariel Atkins and the Sparks called a timeout with 26.6 left.
Rae Burrell made the layup to make it 82-81 with 21.7 seconds left.
Sabrina Ionescu knocked in a pair of free throws to build the Liberty’s lead back to three. It was enough to secure the win.
The Sparks outscored the Liberty 40-18 in the fourth quarter.
Had they lost, it would no doubt have been the Liberty’s worst defeat of the season.
Even with the win, the Liberty shouldn’t be feeling too proud of themselves because the Sparks had no business being in the game that late.
