LOS ANGELES — Sparks head coach Lynne Roberts isn’t having the season she thought she’d have. Not even close. Los Angeles is 13-25 and, with six games left in the season, is out of playoff contention. The Sparks lost their offensive focal point, Kelsey Plum, twice: once to an injury that sidelined her for over a month, and then again at the trade deadline to the Phoenix Mercury. They played nine crucial games without their defensive anchor, Cameron Brink, after a nasty ankle sprain. They parted ways with their general manager mid-season.
And even though Roberts has only held the position since 2024, her job security is in question after this season’s outcome. Last year was framed as a rebuilding year, but the signings of 11-time All-Star Nneka Ogwumike and two-time All-Star Ariel Atkins in the offseason signaled a shift: win now.
The 2026 season had the potential to look different without Plum’s injury. With Plum on the court, they were 7-5, including a dramatic victory over the Liberty in the 30th Season Celebration Game at home. Energy was high. Then, Plum was ruled out again. The Sparks have been 5-17 since. Of those losses, the first few without Plum were blowouts: a 28-point loss to Toronto on June 25 in which Marina Mabrey tied the WNBA single-game scoring record with 53 points; a lopsided 111-87 loss on June 27 to the Indiana Fever; and an 18-point loss to Seattle on July 6, the last-place team in the WNBA.
The Toronto game was a statement. The Tempo, an expansion franchise in its first season, put up 125 points on the Sparks, the most in a regular-season game in WNBA history, and Mabrey’s 53 came on 17-28 shooting and 9-18 from three, a mark that also tied the league’s single-game 3-point record, which Mabrey set the week before.
Forty-eight hours later, they suffered a 24-point loss to the Indiana Fever. Then, a loss by 18 to the near-last-place team Seattle Storm. The sense was doom and gloom. Would their offense recover without Plum there to buoy it?
Then, something momentarily shifted. The Sparks won two home games over Indiana and Chicago, led by Ogwumike on offense. Then came a six-game skid. Only one of the games was lost by double figures. In a 4-point loss to New York on Aug. 13, the Sparks were down by 28 at one point. They fought back and outscored New York 40-18 in the fourth quarter, including a 21-0 run and a career-high 28 points from Rae Burrell. The fight has been real, and so has the pace: the Sparks rank second in the league in pace at 81.5, a number that tracks with a team leaning on youth, depth and constant lineup turnover just to get through games.
In their matchup against the Washington Mystics in mid-August, the first sub off the bench for the Sparks was Tonie Morgan, who had played a total of six minutes in the WNBA before that night. Morgan finished the game with 7 points and six assists in 17 minutes. At one point, the Sparks’ lineup was made up of Morgan, Jihun Park, Ariel Atkins, Alissa Pili and Dearica Hamby. Two veterans, two rookies, one of whom was only about six hours into her WNBA contract (Morgan was converted from a Developmental Contract that same morning), and Pili, who is still on a Developmental Contract. While maybe not the most impactful, it was, without a doubt, not a lineup that Washington had scouted.
Even before the Washington game, Roberts told reporters, “This group is giving me everything they have. They’re playing their asses off. We’ve been undermanned in every game in terms of the roster that we put together; we never had.”
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It’s a different sentiment than was shared at the beginning of the year. Former general manager Raegan Pebley started media day by saying, “We assembled this team to put ourselves in a position that would commit to the process and has the capacity to go win a championship.” Kelsey Plum added, “Our depth and our talent is immense this year, and the mission is clear. We want to win now.” Neither Plum nor Pebley is part of the Sparks organization as the 2026 season comes to a close.
After the trade deadline, Roberts began coaching the back half of a season amid a front office in transition and a roster that no longer resembled the one she had been hired to lead.
The Pebley firing also carried some weight. She was two years into the job, the executive who had executed the Atkins trade and the Ogwumike signing, and the one who had publicly praised Roberts regularly. Ownership’s statement thanked Pebley for her impact on “the Sparks roster and player experience” without addressing the record, and it was announced that interim duties would be split between assistant general managers Zach Knowlton and Nate Nielsen.
Whoever takes the GM job permanently will have their own read on whether Roberts is part of the next phase. And despite multiple attempts, the Sparks front office could not be reached for comment on this story.
Mid-season, amid frustrations, Roberts said she feels no different pressure this season than she did when she was 25. Roberts was an assistant coach at her alma mater, Seattle Pacific, between 1997-2002. “That’s just who I am,” she said. “Maybe there’s more [pressure], I don’t know. I’m not going to be different.”
After the Aug. 9 loss to Golden State, Ogwumike told reporters, “I’m happy we didn’t just acquiesce,” a refrain the Sparks have shared, with varying vocabulary, throughout the season. At one point, the Sparks trailed the Valkyries by 19 before clawing back within 3 points with less than a minute remaining in the game.
Rae Burrell used similar language after the Aug. 15 loss to the Mystics. “Like Lynne said, if we keep fighting and doing what we need to do, then the result will take care of itself. I’m just super proud of my team, their fight really, and the togetherness that we’ve shown as well. We don’t roll over. We’re gonna we’re gonna fight to the end. So super proud of my team.”
Burrell herself could serve as an argument for the success of Roberts and her staff. Burrell’s production has steadily improved since Roberts arrived. Last year, she came off the bench and averaged 7.5 points and 1.2 assists. This year, she’s almost doubled her points to 14.4 per game and 2.5 assists. She’s shooting 38.7% from three, up six percentage points from last year. She’s making athletic plays to finish at the rim, and inserting energy into an offense that desperately needs playmaking.
In Plum’s absence, Burrell has led the team in scoring eight times, setting a career high of 28 points in a near comeback against New York. She’s commanding more attention on defense, a focal point for future Sparks offense.
Erica Wheeler, an 11-year veteran who has had to lead this team in unexpected ways this season as the starting point guard, told reporters, “I think we’ve been showing some tough shit. Excuse my French. I think we’ve been showing that, and we’re just happy to be here, man. This is a dream job. Even though it’s hard, it’s still a dream job, and I think everybody in that locker room knows that. And we’re playing for the person that’s next to us, and also for our coach.”
Asked about Wheeler’s comments and what it means to have veterans who continue to express faith in her and want to win for her, Roberts said, “I appreciate that, and I have not sensed, at any point this whole season, that there’s been any sort of lack of buy-in or frustration with what we’re trying to do. It’s just we’ve had a brutal season of injuries and inconsistent lineups, so it’s really hard to get any sort of momentum,” she told reporters. She went on to discuss the challenges of losing guard Akoa Makani to injury, a piece they were hoping to count on after the Plum trade.
“Despite all of that, they’ve been locked in,” Roberts said. “I have felt like we’re all for one and one for all from the jump. So I appreciate that from E-Dub, and it goes right back at them. I believe in these guys, and I’ll fight for them to the end.”
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Wheeler has praised Roberts amid challenges a few times, telling The IX Sports, “I think the biggest thing is that no coach is going into a season thinking you lose one of your best players. KP built this team, so nobody’s seen that coming. However, it’s a business. Things happen, things change, and you roll with the punches.”
She went on to share that she believes Roberts “can only work with what she has,” noting that she’s had to reach deep into her bench. “For her to be able to put us in position to even become close to these games, beat Minnesota, which nobody expected, almost beating Golden State, and those two top teams right now. So I think that’s credit to her and how she prepared us, and more importantly, just her not giving up.”
When outright asked if she thought Roberts was deserving of this role, Wheeler said: “She wouldn’t be here this long if she wasn’t.”
The Sparks largely pass the eye test when it comes to frustration. The body language, the attention to Roberts, the camaraderie and the kind words they share about each other, their coach, come across as genuine rather than performative. A team that’s given up doesn’t put on a 40-18 fourth quarter against a taller, more experienced and more talented New York team.
“They show up every day and play their asses off,” Roberts told reporters. “I want to continue with that culture, building for the future. We want to try to win every game we play. And I couldn’t be any more proud of the group in terms of how they’re showing up and giving me everything.”
The question remains whether that camaraderie and fight demonstrated through a season lined with adversity will be enough to increase investment into Roberts, with the promise of two early first-round picks to come from 2027’s loaded draft class.
Emma Cannon, in her eighth season in the league, has been repeatedly touted as an additional coach for the Sparks this season, playing limited minutes but remaining a vital part of their culture. When asked whether she believed Roberts should remain the coach headed into next season, she told The IX Sports it was “above her pay grade,” but that she recognized the difficult hand Roberts has been dealt with the absence of both Pebley and Plum.
“I feel like she’s doing her best with what she got,” Cannon said. “It’s a hard situation to be in, but I think she’s making the most out of the situation, and I feel like she still pours into us every day. And I feel like that’s what a good coach is: a person that shows up every day for her players, whether we’re winning or losing, but still with a good attitude and still wants us to succeed.”
Roberts knows the team isn’t where they want to be. But she is up front about it. “I’ve been working my ass off, and so are my assistants,” she told reporters prior to the New York game on July 30. “I’ll be damned if I throw my hands up and wallow. That’s not going to happen. So, we’re just going to keep chopping wood, keep grinding, keep attacking. I’m not going to give in to frustration.”
The Sparks play the Washington Mystics on Friday at Crypto.com arena.
