Los Angeles ? The Connecticut Sun showed one of the WNBA’s perennial powers why the Eastern Conference leaders are the league’s best team.

Nykesha Sales scored a season-high 26 points to lead the Sun to a 90-70 rout of the Los Angeles Sparks on Monday night.

“We always say, ‘The game is 0-0,’ and work hard no matter how much we’re up,” Sales said. “All five of us play defense. All of us can score. All of us run the floor well. With L.A, the cohesion is just not there right now.”

Katie Douglas added 18 points, and Lindsay Whalen had a season-best 16 for the Sun (8-1). Connecticut leads Indiana by two games in the Eastern Conference.

Connecticut tied a season high with 39 rebounds and shot a season-best 53 percent in its highest-scoring game of the season.

Chamique Holdsclaw scored 23 points, and Lisa Leslie added 13 points for the Sparks (6-5), who fell 21â2 games behind West leader Sacramento.

“I don’t think we had any energy,” Sparks coach Henry Bibby said. “I thought we were flat and going through the motions. We came out and weren’t hungry.”

Connecticut used an 18-4 surge to take a 22-10 lead with 10:14 left in the first half. Taj McWilliams-Franklin led the run with six points, as the Sun made nine of 12 shots.

Los Angeles narrowed the deficit to 24-14 but another 18-4 run gave the Sun a 42-18 lead with 4:36 before halftime. The Sparks scored only four points and made just one basket in a span of 4:51.

“We were aggressive at both ends of the floor in the first half,” Sun coach Mike Thibault said. “We wanted to try to make them get up and down the court the whole time. I think that was the biggest key.”