# 2020 Los Angeles Sparks season

The 2020 WNBA season was the 24th season for the Los Angeles Sparks of the Women's National Basketball Association. The season tipped off on July 25, 2020, versus the Phoenix Mercury.
This WNBA season was set to feature an all-time high 36 regular-season games. However, the plan for expanded games was put on hold on April 3, when the WNBA postponed its season due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Under a plan approved on June 15, the league is scheduled to hold a shortened 22-game regular season at IMG Academy, without fans present, starting on July 24.
The Sparks' season started slowly, with the team going 3–3 in their first six games. Every win was followed by a loss during that streak. Then the team warmed up and won nine games in a row, before losing the last game in August to go into the final month of the season 12–4, and already having secured a playoff berth. September was not kind to the Sparks, as they went 3–3 to finish out the season. Their final record of 15–7 was good enough for the third seed in the playoffs.
As the third seed, the Sparks were awarded a First Round bye and awaited the lowest remaining seed in the second round. They played the seventh seeded Connecticut Sun and suffered a disappointing 59–73 loss to end their season.

## Transactions
### WNBA draft

| Round | Pick | Player | Nationality | School/team/country |
| 2 | 20 | Beatrice Mompremier | United States | Miami (FL) |
| 2 | 22 | Leonie Fiebich | Germany | Wasserburg (Germany) |
| 3 | 34 | Tynice Martin | United States | West Virginia |

### Trades/roster changes

| Date | Details |
| February 10, 2020 | Signed G Kristi Toliver |
| February 10, 2020 | Traded C Kalani Brown to the Atlanta Dream in exchange for G Brittney Sykes and C Marie Gülich |
| February 11, 2020 | Re-signed G/F Tierra Ruffin-Pratt |
| February 20, 2020 | Signed G/F Seimone Augustus |
| February 21, 2020 | Traded G Marina Mabrey to Dallas in exchange for Dallas' Second round pick in the 2021 WNBA draft |
| February 28, 2020 | Re-signed G Chelsea Gray |
| May 15, 2020 | Signed G Sydney Wiese to a contract extension. |
| May 26, 2020 | Traded the second round pick acquired in the February 21st trade to Dallas in exchange for C Kristine Anigwe and a third round pick in the 2021 Draft. |
| June 26, 2020 | G Kristi Toliver opts out of the 2020 season. |
| June 26, 2020 | F/C Chiney Ogwumike opts out of the 2020 season. |
| June 27, 2020 | Signed F Reshanda Gray. |
| June 28, 2020 | Signed G Te'a Cooper. |

## Game log
### Regular season

2020 game log Total: 15–7 :
July
GameDateTeamScoreHigh pointsHigh reboundsHigh assistsLocation AttendanceRecord
1
July 25
Phoenix Mercury
W 99–76
N. Ogwumike (21)
Tied (7)
Gray (7)
IMG Academy 0
1–0
2
July 28
Chicago Sky
78–96
Sykes (16)
Parker (9)
Gray (7)
IMG Academy 0
1–1
3
July 30
Connecticut Sun
W 81–76
Gray (15)
Parker (11)
Gray (6)
IMG Academy 0
2–1 :
August
GameDateTeamScoreHigh pointsHigh reboundsHigh assistsLocation AttendanceRecord
4
August 1
Seattle Storm
L 75–81
Parker (19)
Parker (12)
Gray (5)
IMG Academy 0
2–2
5
August 5
Indiana Fever
W 86–75
Parker (18)
Parker (11)
Gray (5)
IMG Academy 0
3–2
6
August 7
Las Vegas Aces
L 82–86
Parker (20)
Parker (12)
Tied (4)
IMG Academy 0
3–3
7
August 9
Minnesota Lynx
W 97–81
Williams (21)
Parker (10)
Parker (9)
IMG Academy 0
4–3
8
August 11
New York Liberty
W 93–78
Tied (17)
Parker (6)
Tied (4)
IMG Academy 0
5-3
9
August 13
Washington Mystics
W 81-64
Williams (13)
Parker (9)
Tied (3)
IMG Academy 0
6-3
10
August 15
Indiana Fever
W 90-76
Williams (21)
Tied (5)
Tied (5)
IMG Academy 0
7-3
11
August 19
Phoenix Mercury
W 83–74
3 tied (16)
Parker (12)
Gray (6)
IMG Academy 0
8–3
12
August 21
Atlanta Dream
92-85 (OT)
Gray (20)
Parker (9)
Parker (5)
IMG Academy 0
9-3
13
August 23
Dallas Wings
W 84-81
Sykes (23)
Parker (14)
Parker (6)
IMG Academy 0
10-3
14
August 28
Connecticut Sun
W 80-76
Gray (27)
Cooper (6)
Parker (7)
IMG Academy 0
11-3
15
August 30
Atlanta Dream
W 84–79
Sykes (15)
Parker (10)
Parker (7)
IMG Academy 0
12–3
16
August 31
Minnesota Lynx
L 78–96
Gray (18)
Parker (9)
Gray (5)
IMG Academy 0
12–4 :
September
GameDateTeamScoreHigh pointsHigh reboundsHigh assistsLocation AttendanceRecord
17
September 2
Dallas Wings
W 91–83
Parker (22)
Parker (10)
Parker (6)
IMG Academy 0
13-4
18
September 4
Seattle Storm
L 90–89
Parker (25)
Parker (7)
Parker Gray (6)
IMG Academy 0
13-5
19
September 6
Chicago Sky
W 86–80
Parker (24)
Parker (15)
Gray (7)
IMG Academy 0
14-5
20
September 8
New York Liberty
W 96–70
Tied (20)
N.Ogwumike (8)
Parker (7)
IMG Academy 0
15-5
21
September 10
Washington Mystics
L 72–80
Gray (21)
Parker (17)
Parker (6)
IMG Academy 0
15–6
22
September 12
Las Vegas Aces
L 70–84
N.Ogwumike (24)
Parker (10)
Gray (11)
IMG Academy 0
15–7 :
2020 season schedule :

### Playoffs

2020 playoff game log Total: 0–1 :
Second Round
GameDateTeamScoreHigh pointsHigh reboundsHigh assistsLocation AttendanceSeries
1
September 17
Connecticut Sun
L 73–59
Parker (22)
Parker (14)
Parker (5)
IMG Academy 0
0–1 :
2020 playoff schedule :

## Standings

| # | Team | W | L | PCT | GB | Conf. |
| 1 | x – Las Vegas Aces | 18 | 4 | .818 | – | 8–2 |
| 2 | x – Seattle Storm | 18 | 4 | .818 | – | 8–2 |
| 3 | x – Los Angeles Sparks | 15 | 7 | .682 | 3 | 5–5 |
| 4 | x – Minnesota Lynx | 14 | 8 | .636 | 4 | 4–6 |
| 5 | x – Phoenix Mercury | 13 | 9 | .591 | 5 | 4–6 |
| 6 | x – Chicago Sky | 12 | 10 | .545 | 6 | 6–4 |
| 7 | x – Connecticut Sun | 10 | 12 | .455 | 8 | 7–3 |
| 8 | x – Washington Mystics | 9 | 13 | .409 | 9 | 6–4 |
| 9 | e – Dallas Wings | 8 | 14 | .364 | 10 | 1–9 |
| 10 | e – Atlanta Dream | 7 | 15 | .318 | 11 | 5–5 |
| 11 | e – Indiana Fever | 6 | 16 | .273 | 12 | 4–6 |
| 12 | e – New York Liberty | 2 | 20 | .091 | 16 | 2–8 |
* v
* t
* e

## Playoffs

| First round: Single elimination (September 15) | First round: Single elimination (September 15) | First round: Single elimination (September 15) | Second round: Single elimination (September 17) | Second round: Single elimination (September 17) | Second round: Single elimination (September 17) | Semifinals: Best-of-five (September 20–29) | Semifinals: Best-of-five (September 20–29) | Semifinals: Best-of-five (September 20–29) | Semifinals: Best-of-five (September 20–29) | Semifinals: Best-of-five (September 20–29) | Semifinals: Best-of-five (September 20–29) | Semifinals: Best-of-five (September 20–29) | WNBA Finals: Best-of-five (October 2–11) | WNBA Finals: Best-of-five (October 2–11) | WNBA Finals: Best-of-five (October 2–11) | WNBA Finals: Best-of-five (October 2–11) | WNBA Finals: Best-of-five (October 2–11) |
| | | | | | | 1 | Las Vegas Aces | 62 | 83 | 68 | 84 | 66 | | | | | |
| | | | 4 | Minnesota Lynx | 80 | 7 | Connecticut Sun | 87 | 75 | 77 | 75 | 63 | | | | | |
| 5 | Phoenix Mercury | 85 | 5 | Phoenix Mercury | 79 | | | | | | | | 1 | Las Vegas Aces | 80 | 91 | 59 |
| 8 | Washington Mystics | 84 | | | | | | | | | | | 2 | Seattle Storm | 93 | 104 | 92 |
| | | | | | | 2 | Seattle Storm | Seattle Storm | Seattle Storm | 88 | 89 | 92 | | | | | |
| | | | 3 | Los Angeles Sparks | 59 | 4 | Minnesota Lynx | Minnesota Lynx | Minnesota Lynx | 86 | 79 | 71 | | | | | |
| 6 | Chicago Sky | 81 | 7 | Connecticut Sun | 73 | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| 7 | Connecticut Sun | 94 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
Note: Teams re-seeded after each round.

## Statistics
### Regular season

| Player | GP | GS | MPG | FG% | 3P% | FT% | RPG | APG | SPG | BPG | PPG |
| Candace Parker | 22 | 22 | 30.0 | 51.0 | 39.6 | 73.1 | 9.7 | 4.6 | 1.2 | 1.2 | 14.7 |
| Chelsea Gray | 22 | 22 | 30.6 | 44.2 | 30.5 | 93.9 | 3.7 | 5.3 | 1.5 | 0.1 | 14.0 |
| Nneka Ogwumike | 18 | 18 | 26.2 | 56.9 | 50.0 | 83.7 | 4.8 | 1.7 | 1.1 | 0.2 | 13.3 |
| Riquna Williams | 21 | 4 | 21.1 | 43.5 | 42.2 | 88.9 | 1.8 | 1.5 | 1.1 | 0.3 | 10.5 |
| Brittney Sykes | 21 | 14 | 24.4 | 48.7 | 32.7 | 80.6 | 2.6 | 2.1 | 1.5 | 0.3 | 10.1 |
| Te'a Cooper | 20 | 3 | 17.3 | 45.1 | 34.4 | 76.5 | 1.0 | 2.0 | 0.7 | 0 | 7.0 |
| Sydney Wiese | 19 | 15 | 19.1 | 50.5 | 47.2 | 91.7 | 1.7 | 1.2 | 0.6 | 0.1 | 6.8 |
| Seimone Augustus | 21 | 0 | 15.8 | 49.1 | 54.5 | 66.7 | 1.8 | 1.2 | 0.6 | 0.1 | 5.9 |
| Kristine Anigwe | 17 | 1 | 11.6 | 60.4 | 0 | 53.8 | 2.6 | 0.2 | 0.6 | 0.4 | 4.6 |
| Tierra Ruffin-Pratt | 17 | 10 | 14.5 | 26.7 | 46.2 | 73.1 | 2.1 | 0.9 | 0.6 | 0.2 | 2.9 |
| Marie Gülich | 12 | 1 | 9.9 | 50.0 | 0 | 100.0 | 1.5 | 0.6 | 0.3 | 0.3 | 2.4 |
| Reshanda Gray | 10 | 0 | 6.3 | 36.4 | 0 | 85.7 | 2.8 | 0.3 | 0.1 | 0.4 | 1.4 |

## Awards and honors

| Recipient | Award | Date awarded |
| Candace Parker | WNBA Western Conference Player of the Week | August 24, 2020 |
| Candace Parker | Peak Performer: Rebounds | September 14, 2020 |
| Candace Parker | Defensive Player of the Year | September 24, 2020 |
| Nneka Ogwumike | Kim Perrot Sportsmanship Award | September 29, 2020 |
| Brittney Sykes | 2nd Team All-Defense | September 29, 2020 |
| Candace Parker | All-WNBA First Team | October 4, 2020 |