Cameron Brink makes return from ACL tear in Sparks’ loss to Aces

Los Angeles – At the end of the first quarter Tuesday in Crypto.com Arena, Los Angeles Sparks, striker Cameron Brink collected a pass of his teammate Julie German, gathered behind the arc and, with his first attempted shooting in a WNBA match in 13 months, drained a 3 points.

The crowd was roaring when returning to defense, Brink raising her arms and cracking a smile.

The moment was a weight on his shoulders because, a year more withdrawn from his left ACL tear, Brink made his long-awaited return to the court during the 89-74 of Sparks against the Las Vegas Aces.

“I was definitely a little nervous at first,” said Brink, “but once my entrance, I wanted to cycle.

“Great day. Ten out of 10.”

Brink, who was on a restriction a few minutes (15), finished with 5 points, 3 rebounds, 1 flight, 1 block and a plus-mine of more than a little less than 14 minutes of play.

“I thought she had done a good job,” said Sparks coach Lynne Roberts. “To be honest, she was more comfortable there than I had planned, just because since the duration of mid-season.”

Addition of her teammate Kelsey Plum: “I was really proud of her. I told her after the match:” Cam, it’s very impressive to come and have the impact you made. “… I thought she was phenomenal.”

Cheers rang while Brink, choice No. 2 of the Sparks in the 2024 draft, went to the table to check her first action of the night, then once again once she was finally under an expiration time of the Sparks.

Brink said that she had more than 20 relatives in the stands for the capital.

“It’s an emotional moment when you have been released for 13 months and that you actually have the uniform and you are going to play,” said Roberts. “She loves basketball, so she has finally been lucky to be there and to be with her teammates that she has been watching for 13 months, and I think it’s her happy place.”

Brink said that she felt that she was in the flow of the match once she entered and that her teammates helped her feel comfortable while she was reactivated for the game live.

Some things will still take time to come back. Brink admitted that she did not feel as fast as it was last year and said that even if she did not like minutes, she will accuse to play closer to 20 to 25 minutes.

But her usual competitive fire was fully presented, including on a game in the third quarter when she was first beaten in defense by Nalyssa Smith, but recovered in time to deliver her first block of the season.

“I really missed it,” said Brink. “It is definitely my favorite part of basketball, it’s just to compete, to work on my buttocks. So it’s really fun to be there with my teammates and feed on the crowd. I will never forget it.”

Brink has been a crucial part of the effort to reconstruct Sparks since they wrote it. She dazzled at the beginning, in particular defensively, with an average of 7.5 points, 5.3 rebounds and 2.3 blocks before dropping with the injury on June 18, 2024, 15 games in her WNBA career.

Brink said on a recent episode of “Celebrity Wheel of Fortune” that she had also torn a meniscus on the play.

The national champion of Stanford 2021 said that even if there was a little fear and doubt in the bottom of her mind, she felt ready to come back in recent days after playing at full speed and not thinking about her knee.

“I know I’m ready,” she said, “because when I play, I smile.”

Although his recovery has his setbacks, the whole trip made her more resilient, she added.

“I’m just grateful for the process, the people who helped me along the way and just happy to do the sport that I like again,” said Brink. “I am harder than I thought, you are always stronger than you think. There are so many lessons that I have learned, but I think if I can come back, it is not much that I cannot do.”

Roberts stressed that the team did not want to exert too much pressure on the edge as it returns. But the Sparks – who entered a better sequence of five -game championship victories on Tuesday before falling into an 11-15 file – hope that, as it will become more comfortable, their second -year star can help raise their defense to complete their emerging offense at Haut Octane.

The defensive execution of LOS was lacking on Tuesday, when the triple MVP A’ja Wilson struck 17 points in the first quarter before finishing with 34 plus 10 rebounds for his 21st career match 30-10. Jackie Young counted her first career triple in career (18 points, 11 rebounds, 11 assists). Las Vegas (14-13) has won five of his last seven games.