Los Angeles, Ca- Los Angeles Sparks returned to action at Crypto Arena after a tough loss to Indiana Fever to face the Washington Mystics as the Sparks defense catapulted by Kelsey Plum quickly put the clamps on Mystics team particularly, Rookie All Stars and primary scorers Sonia Citron and KiKi Iriafen while Rickea Jackson led the Sparks’ offense on 8-0 run with back to back triples and a Plum layup en route to a much needed victory,81-78, for chances of taking the final playoff spot. “
“She [Plum]did a really good job on [Kelsey] Mitchell, too,” coach Lynne Roberts said. Kelsey [Plum]’s really smart, and understands the game, and understands what the other team’s trying to do, and so is [Sonia] Citron. I thought [Plum] did just a tremendous job.
While Plum focused early on defense against Citron, Jackson and Azurá Stevens continue to build upon their first quarter run with two perfect trips to the free throw line, giving Sparks a 12-0 advantage.
Steph Dolson entered the game and stopped the bleeding for the Mystics with a triple to get Washington on the scoreboard with less than five minutes left in the first quarter.
“We know how talented [Sonia] Citron is, so our game plan was to make other people take shots and we did that,” Dearica Hamby said. “I would even say going off the last game [against the Indiana Fever], I felt we had a good defensive game. It didn’t turn into victory, but I think we’re just trending in the right direction.”
Sarah Ashlee Barker came off the bench and hit her first shot of the game, a triple to put her team up, 22-9. Then Shakira Austin closed the quarter with two free throws to cut Sparks lead down to 11, 22-11.
Mystics opened the second quarter with a 11-0 run tying the game before Cameron Brink snagged an offensive rebound and put back to regain the lead, 24-22.
The Sparks continued to lock in on defense and limiting the Mystics to 31 first-half points, their fewest allowed in a first half this season. Washington shot just 29.7% from the field and 27.3% from three in the first half. However, Sparks slowed down on both ends of the court, leading into multiple rotations off the bench, as they finished the half holding on to a nine-point lead, 40-31.
“We got a little sloppy… I thought in the second and third [quarters], we were settling for threes when we needed to be attacking,” Coach Roberts said. “We shot 36 threes, which is a lot, and I’m okay with that, but you need to shoot better than 27% if you’re gonna shoot that many.”
Sparks resurged after taking their foot slightly off the gas behind their dynamic duo leaders Plum and Hamby turned up on offense initiated by an 8-0 solo run of Plum including back-to-back triples, to push the lead up to six, 71-65 after Mystics had tied the game.
Hamby and Stevens both showed tenacious defense on Mystics strong frontcourt, Shakira Austin and Iriafen, despite Austin and Iriafen scoring 22 and 11 points, respectively.
“We know [what’s] at stake, but [we’re] just trying to break it down to each possession matters and not getting too caught up in, ‘oh, we gotta win X amount of games, ’”Stevens said. “We know the circumstances, but all we can control is the next possession, so just trying to make sure we lock in on Washington, and now [we have] Seattle tomorrow.”
Hamby appeared to come back alive on the offensive end in the fourth quarter finishing the game with 20 points and 12 rebounds, making her 11th double-double of the season. Plum added 18 points with 14 of them coming in the fourth quarter. Jackson scored 16 points, including her 11th consecutive game with multiple threes, which is longest for the Sparks franchise and second in the WNBA.
“[Dearica Hamby] was just a beast on the boards, and finishing in traffic, and those and-ones, she’s just so strong and athletic,” coach Roberts said. “They showed their experience, and [Azurá Stevens] did a great job defensively, but we have to be better at putting teams away. But we took care of business, and at this point, it’s [time to] advance and move on.”
Moving closer towards the end of the season, the Sparks hit the road on a three-game trip, starting on the west coast against the Seattle Storm (Sept. 1 at 7 p.m. PT) and then heading south to Georgia for the Atlanta Dream (Sept. 3 at 4:30 p.m. PT & Sept. 5 at 4:30 p.m. PT).