Los Angeles, CA – The Los Angeles Sparks take the win at the buzzer, on a floater from the paint by Kelsey Plum for 81-80 over Dallas Wings.
“It was a back and forth game,” said Plum, “As a player you gotta believe in yourself.”
Kelsey Plum took over in the 4th as court a general and a scorer, taking the load off Rickea Jackson who carried the team for 3 quarters. But Paige Bueckers would not let her team go away quietly.
Bueckers led the Wings with 44 points, 3 assists, and 4 rebounds. She was the Dallas
Wings today and her box office skills on display. She scored the most points in the game, but it wasn’t enough.
Jackson scored 25 points with 6-7 from 3-point land to led the team, along with Plum dropping 20 points with the most important 2 for the win.
“It was a good win, yeah we gotta play some fucking defense!” said Plum
The game intensity picked up in the 4th quarter and you could see how much each team wanted this win. The lead kept changing back and forth, basket for basket. Even a few hard fouls by the Wings and Sparks.
The Paige Bueckers effect was real at Crypto.com Arena, you could see #5 Wings Jersey all over the crowd but it really showed in the second half when she was on Jumbo-Tron and crowd went crazy with cheers.
Just a few minutes later Bueckers made an And1 to push the Wings 58-57 lead with 2:45 in 3rd quarter. If your eyes were closed you would think we were in Dallas.
The Sparks opened the game out of sync keeping the fans on their feet for most of the 1st quarter before they could score a basket. Finally, at 4:52 mark on the clock Jackson hit a three pointer from the corner making the score 11-3.
Jackson’s 3-pointers single handily helped Sparks keep pace with her 11 points in the first quarter of play. At the end of 1st quarter, Sparks had pulled ahead 18-16 to catch back up.
The Sparks had matched the Wings energy and took 7-point lead into half 44-37.
Both teams the Wings and the Sparks both are on the outside looking in at the top 8 teams that are on pace to make the 2025 playoffs. Wings are 8.5 games out while the Sparks after the most recent run are only 1 game back from the 8th spot.
Next up the Wings will travel home to host the Seattle Storm on Friday August 22nd. The Sparks will host Mercury on Tuesday August 26th.