Then, on Sunday, Cameron Brink had a career-high 21 points at home versus the Dallas Wings, but that also resulted in a defeat, this time by the slimmest of margins, 84-83.
The one consistent thing the Sparks have done so far is lose, as they are now 1-4 and only in front of the winless Washington Mystics and the 1-6 Fever.
Still, there were plenty of outstanding individual performances and some of them left a lot to be desired.
So, let’s grade this week’s performances. As always, grades are based on expectations for each player. A “B” grade represents the average performance for that player.
She was relatively good this weekend, with only brief moments of mediocrity. The biggest blemish from her play was her second-half performance versus the Fever. She went scoreless in the third quarter and only mustered up two points in the fourth. Had she given even close to her typical production during that half, they likely beat the Fever in front of a sold-out crowd.
Brink has quickly established herself as a dominant defender, but this weekend, she showed that her offensive ceiling is also quite high.
She averaged just half a point less than Hamby and registered her first 20-plus point game, dropping 21 on the Wings. She already looks more comfortable and is attacking the basket to get her own shot.
She was perfect from the charity stripe, shot 57% from the field and 44% from 3point range.Her main blemish from thesepair of games is her propensity to foul. Brink had five fouls in both games, which forced head coach Curt Miller to bench her during essential stretches in each competition
