3 Sparks on Thin Ice Entering the Regular Season
By Jovan Alford
3. Kia Nurse
We highlighted Nurse on Tuesday as one of the three Sparks players who could be playing their final season in Los Angeles.
The Sparks acquired the veteran guard in an offseason trade with the Storm, which gave LA the fourth overall pick in the 2024 WNBA Draft. Sparks head coach Curt Miller will look for Nurse to help with their floor spacing as he wants LA to play uptempo this season.
Last season with the Storm, Nurse only averaged 5.9 points, 2.3 rebounds, and 1.3 assists in 19.7 minutes per game. However, she shot 35 percent from beyond the arc on 3.6 attempts per game, which is higher than her career average (32.3%).
If you are the Sparks’ coaching staff, you want to see Nurse stay dialed in from deep, which she was during the preseason (5-for-8). However, LA needs the vet to increase her scoring as she’ll be in the starting lineup on Wednesday night.
Early in her career with the New York Liberty, Nurse averaged 13.7 and 12.2 points per game in 2019 and 2020. But the Sparks should not expect that from Nurse four years later. They’ll take her scoring 9.5 points per game, which she did as a full-time starter in 2021 with the Mercury.
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