Storm vs. LA Numbers

While I am way behind on the season, I do have all of the Storm vs. Sparks games entered into my spreadsheets. Here are some of the bits and pieces I have found from looking at the data...

The most effective lineups against the Sparks this season have been:

Bird-Wright-Cash-Little-Jackson: +26 in 61 minutes of play

Bird-Abrosimova-Cash-Little-Jackson: +10 in 7.5 minutes of play

Bird-Wright-Cash-Jackson-Robinson: +8 in 5 minutes of play

The lineups that have struggled against the Sparks this season have been:

Bird-Wright-Cash-Willingham-Jackson: -6 in 3 minutes of play

Bird-Abrosimova-Cash-Willingham-Jackson: -4 in 10 minutes of play

While Alison Lacey does not show a negative +/- value against the Sparks this season, she has barely played, with only 2.5 minutes all season.

Essentially, the numbers play out that the Storm don't play well against the Sparks with Willingham on the floor. She is -23 for the season against the Sparks at the PF position.

Vesela on the other hand has looked relatively good as long as she is on the floor with Lauren Jackson, and Robinson has looked good paired with either Jackson or Camille Little.

The key to this series may be allowing Le'Coe to continue healing while leaning more heavily on Vesela and Robinson.

Another issue for the Storm, as has often been the case, is that they struggle against the Sparks when Sue Bird is resting. Tanisha Wright is +31 against the Sparks when playing the off guard position and -12 when forced into the point guard slot to rest Sue. The one truly effective lineup with Bird resting against the Sparks this season has been:

Wright-Abrosimova-Vesela-Jackson-Robinson: +2 in 3 minutes of playing time.