improvement

After aiming to leap from the WNBA’s worst team to a season of triumph, the Sparks instead ended the season seeking perspective — none more so than Kelsey Plum.

In the season’s final weeks, while fighting for a playoff spot, Plum called Dearica Hamby, her closest teammate, to voice her frustration. Accustomed to winning seasons with the Las Vegas Aces, Plum sought solace after several losses, and Hamby grounded her.

“Hey, I won eight games last year,” Hamby responded. “So this looks different to me.”

Despite finishing under .500 for the fifth consecutive season and falling just short of making the playoffs, the Sparks easily more than doubled last year’s win total. Hampered by a slew of injuries that stunted momentum, they greatly improved with the league’s fourth-best record after the All-Star break.

“I really wanted to impact winning, and so it’s tough because sometimes I don’t do a great job of giving myself grace,” Plum said. “We did win 21 games, different from eight a season ago, [but] at the same time, as a competitor, I really want to be in the playoffs.”

Missing the postseason has left Plum carrying that burden, an internal battle she said she’ll have to process. The weight was heavier for Plum, after taking a leap of faith, betting on herself as a No. 1 option for the first time in her career and the motivating factor behind accepting a trade to L.A.

Sparks guard Kelsey Plum, who will become a free agent this offseason, drives against Dream guard Jordin Canada during a game Sept. 5.

(Paras Griffin / Getty Images)

Now, heading into the offseason, Plum’s message to her teammates is to “take that chip and that hunger,” as she will, and carry it into next season.

For Hamby, this season was a necessary dismantling and rebuilding of the organization, an essential step for lasting success.

“My optimism and perspective is I’d rather have a slow burn than a quick fix,” Hamby said. “We’re talking about long-term and wanting to build something for years to come, with the core that we have.”

For the Sparks to take the next step, head coach Lynne Roberts and general manager Reagan Pebley face a tall task: holding together a roster that finally showed promise of reaching lofty goals. Drawing on their coaching backgrounds, both have leaned on a collaborative approach to building the roster, but free agency will be a test this offseason.

Outside of second-year contributors Cameron Brink and Rickea Jackson, and this year’s rookie class — all locked into multi-year deals — every veteran on the roster will hit the market. That includes three players who delivered career years: Plum, Hamby and Azurá Stevens.

Plum, with Hamby seated beside her, refrained from guaranteeing her return during exit interviews Friday night. Yet her impassioned message to fans after the season finale, role as the face of the franchise, and input in offseason plans make a return likely.

Hamby, who began recruiting Plum nearly a year ago in hopes of building a legacy together, also appears committed to staying. As she put it, the two “always talked about being together, staying together, whatever we do.”

Fever forward Kelsey Mitchell, middle, tries to drive against the Sparks’ Dearica Hamby (5) and Azurá Stevens (23), who both will be free agents this offseason.

(Michael Conroy / Associated Press)

For starters, retaining them along with Stevens and Julie Allemand is a priority, but it could become a bit complicated come free agency.

Stevens, the healthiest she’s been in years, delivered career highs in points (12.8), rebounds (8.0), minutes (28.4) and games (all 44) as a primary contributor, particularly when injuries plagued the team early in the season — a showing that could attract suitors in free agency.

Allemand is headed to Turkey to play professionally this offseason but hopes to return next season — a return that might hinge on a more defined role. She said she can “do a lot more” and doesn’t want “to be satisfied with this, and be like, ‘OK, let’s just come back next season,’ and it’s the same.”

“It’s always tough to run it back,” Pebley said. “Success is really hard to sustain, and momentum is really hard to hold on to. … We’ll do everything we can to make sure the right pieces stay. Maybe it’s putting people in a different spot, but also addressing some needs that we have.”

The challenge isn’t just shuffling or adding talent; it’s doing so without overcorrecting. The goal is bringing in players who add value while preserving locker-room balance — those whom both Roberts and Pebley trust to fit seamlessly into the culture, enhancing it rather than disrupting it.

Changing the culture and building an identity was Roberts’ top priority heading into her first full WNBA season, and she believes the roster has fully bought in, a process that began with earning the players’ trust.

“They don’t care what you know until they know you care,” Roberts said. “I wanted to get them on board and get them bought in. And so then next year there can be more accountability and I can do a better job.”

Sparks coach Lynne Roberts talks with guard Julie Allemand during a break in play. Allemand will become a free agent this offseason.

(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)

Pebley said missing the playoffs has left everyone focused on accountability, at times, to a fault.

Plum is carrying the weight of coming to L.A. to win and falling short. Roberts is shouldering the responsibility of missing the mark of turning a perennial losing team into a winner, like she was hired to do. Pebley herself has been reflecting on the decisions she could have made differently.

“Like mature, experienced people that can gain perspective, do hold on to that self-accountability, but also start to move things into the right place,” Pebley said. “We want to get better, and we will. We’re very committed to doing that, and grateful that it’s not just on one of our shoulders.”

This week’s top high school football games in the Southland:

FRIDAY

Mater Dei (2-0) at Corona Centennial (2-1), 7 p.m.

This is the third Trinity League team the Huskies have played in their tough nonleague schedule. They’ve beaten Servite and lost to Santa Margarita. They have a history playing Mater Dei and must find a way to run the ball effectively. Mater Dei has been surprisingly inconsistent on offense. New quarterback Ryan Hopkins has a great group of receivers but the Monarchs need improvement with a game against Bishop Gorman looming next week. The pick: Mater Dei.

Mission Viejo (3-0) at San Diego Lincoln (3-0), 7 p.m.

Prepare for an offensive shootout on Lincoln’s new turf field. Lincoln has scored 57, 36 and 50 points. Mission Viejo has scored 58 and 53 points in its last two games. Lincoln is the best team in San Diego. Mission Viejo, led by quarterback Luke Fahey, could complete one of the best starts in school history with a victory considering it already owns wins over Santa Margarita and Folsom. The pick: Mission Viejo.

Having missed most of last year through injury, Chathli began this season with a career-high 95 in the T20 Cup against Hampshire. She also made a match-winning 65 against Warwickshire in the Blast.

With Warwickshire the opponents again in the final, it was Chathli who hit the winning runs in Surrey’s chase.

“I quite like problem-solving,” says Chathli, a chemistry graduate from University College London.

“I used to play chess when I was younger so I enjoy that.

“I’m quite good at reading pitches and the pace of the game.

“I like whacking the ball, but I also really enjoy the tactical side of cricket and getting into a battle with the bowler – what are they trying to do, and what can I do to get the better of them?”

Chathli’s father is Harry Chathli, the public relations and business expert who served as Yorkshire’s chair between October 2023 and May 2024.

Her early introduction to the sport came on family trips to India – her father was born in Mumbai – or when watching him play club cricket.

“It was probably a little bit inevitable,” she says.

In 2016, Chathli made local news headlines when she became the first female player to score a fifty for the men’s teams at Dulwich Cricket Club – a club that has been in existence since 1867.

Her younger brother also scored a fifty in the same match that day, though it later took a turn.

“He smashed the ball straight to extra cover and ran me out,” she laughs. “That’s definitely logged in the memory bank.”

Nine years on, Chathli made her first fifty in The Hundred in Spirit’s win against Birmingham Phoenix earlier this month.

At the other end was Australia superstar and Spirit team-mate Harris, as she was when they took Surrey over the line in that Blast final.

“Grace is funny. She’ll keep it simple and say, ‘If they bowl length, just ramp it; if it’s full, just step back and clear it over the top for six’,” says Chathli.

“It’s nice to know her thought process, but that’s not really my game.

“I’m usually not fussed about milestones, but the fact it was my first [fifty] at the highest level that we have in this country, it’s hard not to be pretty happy.

“It was nice to prove that I can do it on the biggest stage. To be out there with Grace, it was pretty special.”

With a 6-1 annihilation of the downtrodden Chicago White Sox on Tuesday night, the Dodgers extended their advantage in the National League West to eight games.

Eight games, despite slumps by Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman.

Eight games, despite injuries to Tyler Glasnow and Blake Snell.

Eight games, despite being less than three weeks removed from sharing the division lead with the San Francisco Giants.

Almost everything that could go wrong this season for the Dodgers has gone wrong, and they are ahead of the second-place San Diego Padres by eight games and the third-place Giants by nine. The Dodgers have looked nothing like the 120-win juggernaut they were expected to be, and they have the best record in the major leagues.

“I still believe our best baseball is ahead of us,” manager Dave Roberts said.

Three months remain in the regular season, more than enough time for the Dodgers to become whole, more than enough time for them to transform into baseball’s version of the Mongol army.

Roberts said the Dodgers are “not really playing our best baseball,” and he’s right. They haven’t steamrolled their opponents as much as they have outgutted them.

“We haven’t been at full strength all year,” Roberts said. “A lot of teams can say the same thing. But to our credit, no one has made any excuses about that.”

The Dodgers and Giants were even in the standings on June 13. The Dodgers won 13 of their next 16 games. The Giants lost 12 of their next 16, their blockbuster trade for Rafael Devers shaking up the division but not in the way they wanted.

From mid-May to mid-June, the Dodgers played 26 consecutive games against teams with winning records, but the Giants and Padres failed to take advantage of that. Roberts’ team emerged from that stretch in first place and has continued to increase its division lead since.

What should be disconcerting for the Giants and Padres — as well as the New York Yankees and Mets, and any other aspiring contender — is that the Dodgers have managed to distance themselves from the competition without looking particularly imposing.

Their win over the White Sox on Tuesday night marked the rare game in which they dominated every aspect of the game, with Yoshinobu Yamamoto giving up just one run in seven innings, the offense scoring four runs in the first inning, Shohei Ohtani launching his 30th homer in the fourth, and Jack Dreyer and Anthony Banda each pitching a scoreless inning in relief.

They need more games like this but not just to win the division or secure a first-round bye in the playoffs. They need them to create the momentum required to make another championship run.

“One thing I’ve learned,” Roberts said, “is the most important thing is once you’re [in the playoffs], you’ve got to be playing your best baseball because anything can happen.”

Ohtani has resumed pitching, albeit in a limited capacity. As much talk as there was about how his mound return affected his hitting, Ohtani still homered seven times last month.

The Dodgers aren’t counting on Ohtani to make seven- or eight-inning starts in the postseason, but they think he could contribute four or five innings at a time without compromising his offensive production.

Betts was kept out of the lineup on Tuesday, Roberts categorizing the day off as “more of a mental day.” Betts hasn’t found much of an offensive rhythm this season, but his track record indicates he is bound to break out of his slump.

“He’s an easy guy to bet on,” Roberts said of the eight-time All-Star.

The same could be said of Freeman.

The Dodgers also received uplifting news on the injury front.

Roki Sasaki played catch on Tuesday and was clocked at 91 mph, a sign that his season might not be over.

Snell and reliever Blake Treinen will pitch live batting practice sessions on Wednesday, marking their first time facing hitters since landing on the injured list. A day later, Glasnow is scheduled to make what could be his final start of a minor league rehabilitation assignment, with the Dodgers hopeful he can throw about 75 pitches over five innings. If management continues to have doubts whether Snell or Glasnow will be available in October, it can always make a move before the July 31 trade deadline.

As the team with the best record in baseball, the Dodgers technically have nowhere to go but down. In reality, they can only improve from here. This is their floor. By the time the playoffs come around, they should be a better team than they are now.