The Los Angeles Sparks (2-2) hope to have both Azurá Stevens and Jasmine Thomas make their 2023 debuts Saturday night against the Seattle Storm (0-3) at Crypto.com Arena (10 p.m. ET, CBS Sports). Both are game-time decisions.
Both are in their first year with the Sparks, with Thomas being acquired in a trade with the Connecticut Sun and Stevens being signed in free agency. Both were expected to be key contributors if not borderline stars. Stevens has been out with a back injury; Thomas is still recovering from a torn ACL that kept her out for all but five games of 2022.
LA is coming off an overtime win over the Phoenix Mercury Friday night. So far, the Sparks have only played two teams, losing twice to the Las Vegas Aces (one blowout, one close one) and emerging victorious over Phoenix twice (one blowout, one close one). We’ll see how Lexie Brown follows up her career-high-tying 26 points from Friday night. Brown, who also accomplished the feat in the wubble with Minnesota, was 11-of-16 from the field and 3-of-7 from distance. Brown averaged 19.6 minutes per game over two years with the Lynx before averaging just 9.5 in the 17 games she appeared in for the 2021 WNBA champion Chicago Sky. Last year, in her first season in LA, she got back to being a key contributor for a…
