TORRANCE — Sparks point guard Jasmine Thomas is ready to stop overthinking and start playing basketball.
“Just play off instinct and what I feel and just play hard,” Thomas said. “Don’t try to play safe.”
Thomas, 33, is a mere 11 games back after suffering a season-ending ACL injury in May 2022. The 13-year WNBA guard, who was acquired via trade during the offseason from the Connecticut Sun, is still searching for her first breakout game in a Sparks uniform.
“(I’m still not) confident. It’s okay, you can call it what it is,” Thomas said after Friday’s practice at the Sparks training facility at El Camino College in Torrance. “It’s the confidence really. I’m definitely locked in, like you said, I do know what’s going on. I’m talking to my teammates. I’m talking to myself, keeping myself engaged, but a lot of times on the court, it’s just the confidence. It’s really trusting myself, believing in what I can do and getting back to playing basketball the way I know how.”
Thomas started her first home game for the Sparks in Wednesday’s 90-79 loss to the Atlanta Dream, finishing with three points, one assist, and one block in 14 minutes.
“It’s cool to start,” Thomas said. “Obviously, that is an accomplishment in a career, in a game, but for the most part it’s just trying to get this group to come together and stay together through all the adversity that we’re going through. So for me, I’m just trying to be out there and be focused on doing my best and giving what I can right now but also just keeping us together.”
“She brings a veteran presence. She certainly knows our terminology. She understands the philosophies that we brought with us from Connecticut,” said Sparks head coach Curt Miller, who is nearly halfway through his first season with the Sparks, after previously coaching for the past seven years with the Connecticut Sun.
“She’s a veteran so she understands this league. She understands how…
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