Dearica Hamby lined up for one of those last-second launches as the first-half clock dipped toward zero.
The ball clanged off the front rim, appearing short — until backspin carried it to the back iron for a second bounce.
With Julie Allemand holding her knees and Kelsey Plum already prancing away, the ball kissed the rim twice more. And, finally, after a two-second pause that held the whole arena hostage, the ball dropped. Hamby fell with it, her teammates swarming to lift her as Crypto.com Arena erupted for what was perhaps the Sparks’ finest half of basketball of the season in a 99-80 stomping of the Washington Mystics.
“No one on our team would want anyone to hit a buzzer beater more from three than Dearica,” Plum said. “We were just all super excited, and especially the way it rolled in — it was very, like, climactic. … It was a great moment and it just represented the style we’re trying to play moving forward.”
Hamby’s improbable triple capped a solo 10-point scoring spree and a 20-minute performance in which the ball zipped across the hardwood, the defense suffocated and every Spark had their fingerprints on a rout of the WNBA’s seventh-best team.
“We’ve been starting on the defensive end,” forward Rickea Jackson said. “We’ve been letting our defense dictate our offense. And I feel like when we’re doing that, the offense has been really fun, looked really good, and tonight, especially in the first half, we were really disrupting them, not letting them do what they wanted to do.’
By the end of the first half alone, Hamby had piled up 18. Plum chipped in 14. Jackson scored nine and Azurá Stevens had eight. Facilitating it all, Allemand dealt eight assists. And — in what didn’t reflect itself in the box score the way it did on the hardwood — the Energizer Bunny chimed in with four points.
Energizer Bunny?
Coach Lynne Roberts awarded that label to Rae Burrell before Tuesday night’s showdown, adding that “she brings life and energy” to the squad.
When Burrell picked off her first pass of the game, she orchestrated a play that would lead to Julie Vanloo finding a wide-open Sania Feagin in the paint, capping off a clinic in ball movement.
When Burrell stole her second pass of the game, she took matters in her own hands, going coast to coast for an and-one layup in the paint.
And each time, it seemed as though everyone profited off the Bunny. Her contagious energy seemed to spread to each of her teammates, who sliced through gaps on offense and brought out the clamps on defense to limit the Mystics (11-11) to 12 points in the second quarter.
“Rae’s challenge is to make sure that she keeps that channel because she brings so much. I thought in the first half, she was phenomenal — she put pressure on them, and she’s just so athletic. I love her spirit and her slunk and her laugh,” Roberts said, after referring to Burrell as a “firecracker.”
In the process of 10 painful minutes for the Mystics, Sonia Citron and Kiki Iriafen — the Mystics’ rookie duo who will compete in the All-Star game this Saturday — were held to a combined two points.
Meanwhile, Plum — the Sparks’ All-Star — seemed to have a dress rehearsal Tuesday night, tuning up her shot ahead of Friday’s three-point contest and Saturday’s All-Star Game.
Plum opened the night on a tear — nine points on a perfect four-for-four start, including one from beyond the arc. With cutters carving up the defense and her bigs sealing space down low, she shifted gears into facilitator mode as well, racking up six assists by game’s end.
“Thought tonight was our best,” Plum said. “I know the numbers back it up, but in terms of like, our pace, and the way we shared the ball, the way we moved, we got great shots. We got great, quality shots. So just to continue to do that and defensively, like Rickea said, fly around, be super physical.”
And this time, the Sparks (8-14) didn’t let their scoring avalanche slip through, cruising into the All-Star break with a dominant victory.
“You saw how bad we wanted this one,” Roberts said. “I’m happy, and it certainly makes the break better, and I’m really proud of these guys — but I really am gonna keep my foot on the gas and make sure that our team does the same.”