WNBA: The good, bad and ugly with the Sparks

Approximately 10 days into the 2025 WNBA season, the Los Angeles Sparks are 2-3 and in ninth place in the standings.

Despite the season just getting underway, the Sparks already have experienced significant adversity. During her literal first minute of action for the season, Rae Burell suffered a right leg injury and is now sidelined for six to eight weeks. Rickea Jackson is also out, missing time due to a concussion.

These injuries to Jackson and Burrell, along with Cameron Brink still recovering from her ACL tear, forced the Sparks to sign Liatu King, who they drafted No. 27 overall in the 2025 draft and participated in training camp with the Sparks before being waived, to a rest-of-season hardship contract.

While an injury bug this early in the season is brutal for a young team, not everything has been negative with the Sparks. Kelsey Plum has had some stellar performances, including her record-setting 37-point debut.

Still, there is some work to do to get to where they want to go. Here is the good, bad, and ugly for the Sparks through five games.

The good: Plum Dawg is an Angeleno

The Sparks traded away their No. 2 pick in the 2025 WNBA Draft for Plum in an effort to solve their backcourt problem. Since Chelsea Gray’s departure after the 2020 season, LA’s guards have been a revolving door of players ranging from serviceable to concerning.

No one made a compelling case during these sub .500 seasons to earn the starting spot, and by acquiring Plum, LA hopes to have a point guard they can trust. So far, Plum has been all that and more. An increased role with the Sparks, compared to her responsibilities with the Las Vegas Aces, has resulted in the best start of her WNBA career.

Plum is averaging 24.8 points, 5.6 assists, and two rebounds per game. Her scoring, which is second highest in the league, is well ahead of her career high, and if she maintains this level of production, she will be a shoo-in for an All-Star appearance in Indianapolis this summer.

With so much youth on this roster, the Sparks need every basket Plum can muster. The Sparks are 2-0 when Plum scores 28 or more points—and winless when she doesn’t. Despite the evidence that Plum scoring equals wins for the Sparks, she has expressed that her only focus is on team success.

Early results indicate the Sparks’ decision to trade for Plum was a good one. If the team can improve around their new star guard, it could catalyze their return to WNBA relevance.

The bad: Offensive production

One of the reasons the Sparks need Plum to be a superstar is that few others can get anything going offensively.

Their 89-75 loss against the Minnesota Lynx on May 18 is a prime example. Los Angeles’ offense completely stalled as they went 2-for-20 from the field in the third quarter as Minnesota took control of the game. The fourth quarter was even worse as the Sparks scored just 13 points to close out the game.

Far too often, the Sparks have these extended runs where they struggle to score or hit their open 3-pointers. LA is simply not talented enough to win games if the offense is absent for huge chunks of the game. These are the growing pains of having a new head coach in Lynne Roberts, who is implementing a system and establishing ideologies.

For now, it’s a department that needs to be addressed, but there is no need for Sparks fans to ring the alarm bells of panic just yet.

The ugly: Is this enough?

Not to rain on the parade of optimism in sunny Southern California, but one of the Sparks’ victories was against the expansion Golden State Valkyries, and the other was against the still-winless Chicago Sky.

If Los Angeles is to climb up the standings, they’ll have to prove they can do more than just beat up on the teams dwelling in the basement of the WNBA. So far, they haven’t been able to do so. Luckily, a new week will present opportunities to do so. The Sparks play the Atlanta Dream, Las Vegas Aces and Phoenix Mercury this week. Stacking victories against these teams will show that 2025 is a year of progress for the Sparks, not just another season of disappointment.

Whether you look at a 2-3 record and see that the Sparks have won nearly half of their games or focus on the fact that they have lost more games than they have won, there is plenty of time left for LA to prove which team they are. The marathon that is the WNBA season is underway, but there’s plenty more games to go. If they continue to improve in the margins, the Sparks will be just fine.