Wednesday morning links: Minnesota Lynx and L.A. Sparks fall, Connecticut Sun suffer more injuries, and Gary Kloppenburg fights for his job

The Minnesota Lynx and Los Angeles Sparks went into last night's games with a chance to strengthen their position at the top of the Western Conference.

They ended up both losing to inspired playoff contenders on the road.

We'll start with those and then move to some other news from around the league.

• Jayda Evans of the Seattle Times described how the scrappy Seattle Storm ended the Los Angeles Sparks' league-best six-game winning streak. Although rebounding was undeniably a problem for the Sparks throughout the game, their 37.7% shooting wasn't exactly helpful either with MVP candidate Candace Parker shooting just 4-for-10. Read more >>>

• Charles Odum of the AP quoted Minnesota Lynx star Maya Moore as attributing an 88-75 road loss to the Atlanta Dream to poor defense: "We just weren't disciplined with containing them 1-on-1," Moore said. "They did a good job of finishing. Our bad offense gave them transition points and against Atlanta you can't afford to turn the ball over as many times as we did, because they're really good at exploiting that." Read more >>>

• Sheri Warren of Sheri On Sports gave her Beast of the Game award to Courtney Vandersloot for her performance in the Chicago Sky's win against the Washington Mystics last night: Sloot finished with 19 points, 5 rebounds, and 7 assists. Most of all, Warren highlights Vandersloot's activity on the defensive end. Read more >>>

• The Tulsa World posted an article about coach Gary Kloppenburg "fighting for his job as the WNBA season heads into its final weeks." Kloppenburg is on a two-year contract that is set to expire at the end of this season and the Shock are going to evaluate things at the end of the season. The Shock lost another close one last night to the Phoenix Mercury. Read more >>

• John Altavilla of the Hartford Courant reports that Allison Hightower (knee) and Kelly Faris (foot) will be out for the remainder of the Connecticut Sun's season. Altavilla has noted that the Sun have had "...a full roster of 11 players available for an entire game just twice this season." Read more >>>

• Aaron Fischman of Slam Online reports on the Indiana Fever just fighting to make the playoffs this season after winning the WNBA title last season, highlighting the impact of injuries. But the silver lining is that the injuries have provided opportunities for others to step up and both Karima Christmas and Shavonte Zellous have done so. Yet as they head down the stretch of the season - with the San Antonio Silver Stars coming to town tonight - they're waiting patiently for Zellous to recover from plantar fasciitis. Read more >>>

• SLAM Radio had a guest on their show who we're familiar with yesterday: Swish Appeal's own Zack Ward. Zack discussed the WNBA award races, including the Coach of the Year award where he discussed his top three candidates: Brian Agler, Lin Dunn, and Mike Thibault. He might have made me more happy than he made Albert with his pick. Read more >>>

• Buck Lanford of Good Day Atlanta interviewed Atlanta Dream sponsorship sales consultant Sarah Ryan (who is married to Atlanta Falcons quarterback Matt Ryan) and Dream center Ruth Riley about the 2013 season and their upcoming Breast Health Awareness game on Saturday. Sarah Ryan (nee Marshall) played basketball at Boston College from 2003-2007 and notes that she's the best basketball player in the family. Watch the video >>>

• Jeffrey Williams of SportsPageMagazine took some time to remember former Houston Comets guard Kim Perrot, who passed away at 32 14 years ago Monday. Using quotes from combination of teammates who knew her well and opponents who were less familiar with her off the court, Williams explores how Perrot's legacy continues to live on. Read more >>>

• Evans interviewed Sky coach Pokey Chatman to discuss her birth name, coaching Elena Delle Donne and the controversy about anti-gay legislation passed in Russia that has led to some calling for a boycott of the upcoming Winter Games in Sochi (more on that from SB Nation's Outsports). Chatman remarked, "...it’s sort of unfathomable to me in this day and age, if you’re here in America, to go back to that kind of (inequality). I can’t even comment on the ridiculous nature of it all." Chatman says she'll be taking a break this WNBA offseason. Read more >>>

Of course if you find other links out there you can feel free to drop them in the comments, create a fanshot, or write up a fanpost if you have a longer commentary to share with the community.