‘Frustrated’ Lynne Roberts hints at lineup change amid poor defense

LOS ANGELES – Perhaps the biggest issue facing the Los Angeles Sparks in the offseason was addressing the team’s poor defense last year. Personnel changes were made from the coaching staff to the roster in an effort to improve defensively. With 10 games in to the 2026 regular season, the Sparks’ defense hasn’t improved much, leaving head coach Lynne Roberts a little frustrated.

Prior to the Sparks’ game against the Portland Fire on Sunday, Lynne Roberts admitted that lineup and rotation changes might be on the horizon if the team’s defense does not improve.

“That’s the stage we’re at,” Roberts said during her pregame press conference. “That’s where we’re at, so stay tuned.”

The Sparks are currently dead last in the WNBA when it comes to defensive metrics. They are 15th in opponents points, giving up 93.0 per game. They are also 15th in defensive rating at 115.6. Some of the changes the team made in the offseason were to add defensive coach Ebony Hoffman to the staff, as well as trading for Ariel Atkins and signing Nneka Ogwumike.

Between Atkins and Ogwumike, the veteran duo has a combined 12 All-Defensive team selections. But the team has continued to struggle on the defensive end. Following the Sparks’ loss to the Dallas Wings on Friday, Dearica Hamby cited a breakdown in basic fundamentals as a key reason behind the defensive struggles.

From Roberts’ vantage point, the Sparks have shown flashes of being able to execute defensively, but the consistency and the effort is not there every possession, leading to the frustration.

“We’re not running complex schemes right now. You’ve got to walk before you can run. We have to have discipline to just execute the scheme, what we’re trying to do. We do it sometimes, we don’t do it the next time,” Roberts said. “If we want to reach our potential it has to be all the time. That doesn’t mean you’re gonna hold a team to zero. But make them make hoard shots and make them make contested long twos, guarded threes … we’re so inconsistent with our discipline, it’s why I’m frustrated.”

The Sparks were also at the bottom of the barrel last season in opponents’ points as they gave up 88.2 per game. They were actually slightly better in terms of defensive rating coming in at 10 out of 13 at 110.7.

One potential idea that has been floated around is trotting out a big lineup featuring three of the team’s bigs in Ogwumike, Hamby and Cameron Brink. While Roberts has said she doesn’t have immediate plans to roll out that lineup, she acknowledged she was not opposed to it at some point in the season.

Brink has been the team’s best interior defender and the best shot-blocker at 1.5 per game. That’s also good enough for sixth overall in the WNBA. The only glaring issue with Brink, which is a big one to be sure, is her ability to defend without fouling. She’s averaging four fouls a game which is on par with her rookie season in 2024.

Roberts is confident, however, that the Sparks’ defensive woes will get better. She still sees a strong resolve in the locker room with the attitude to fix what ails them.

“Very frustrating, but we’ll fix it,” Roberts said. “You can do two things with frustration. You can stay in it or you can continue to grind and fix it and that’s what we’re doing. We’ll fix it, but it’s frustrating for sure.”

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