Dearica Hamby has carried the Los Angeles Sparks on her shoulders all season, but Saturday night at Climate Pledge Arena felt different. With 10 seconds left in double overtime and her team\u2019s playoff hopes hanging by a thread, she found herself with the ball and pure chaos unfolding around her. What happened next surprised even her \u2013 and the story she told afterward might be even better than the shot itself.<\/p>\n
How Did Dearica Hamby Pull Off That Impossible Game-Winner Against Seattle?<\/p>\n
Hamby\u2019s clutch bucket against the Seattle Storm delivered a much-needed 108-106 victory for the Los Angeles Sparks, but the three-time WNBA<\/a> All-Star\u2019s account of those final seconds reveals just how wild the moment really was. Speaking on the Bird\u2019s Eye View with Sue Bird podcast<\/a>, Hamby recalled the frantic sequence that ended with her game-winning shot.<\/p>\n \u201cI remember there\u2019s 10 seconds,\u201d Hamby recalled. \u201cI remember slouch dribbling and it feels like forever. Like in that moment, I definitely thought it was Do you know what you\u2019re down? Like in the moment. Maybe not now, but like you\u2019re like very aware of everything.\u201d<\/p>\n Then came the steal that changed everything. \u201cAnd so when I get the steal, when I get the steal, I\u2019m just like shoot it. Yeah. But the crazy I haven\u2019t hit a halfcourt shot since. And so it was the craziest experience for me cuz when I caught it, like my hand turns and I like shoot it. So like it wasn\u2019t me. I don\u2019t know who shot it, but somebody took over. It wasn\u2019t me. Um and so yeah, and shot it.\u201d<\/p>\n But as the ball left her hands, doubt crept in. \u201cAs I\u2019m chasing after it, I see Sydney Colson and Kayla McBride under the basket and I\u2019m like, I\u2019m going to get traded. This is it. I\u2019m getting traded,\u201d Hamby said, laughing about the panic she felt in the moment. \u201cAnd then it goes in and by the reactions you can tell.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n The shot sealed the Sparks\u2019 victory and added another highlight to Hamby\u2019s career, while offering fans a rare glimpse into the mix of instinct, chaos, and pressure that defines crunch-time basketball.<\/p>\n Can Hamby\u2019s Heroics Actually Get the Sparks Into the Playoffs?<\/p>\n The Sparks haven\u2019t had it easy in 2024-25, stumbling out of the gate with just three wins in their first 10 games and spending most of the season watching the playoff race from the outside. But something has clicked in recent weeks. They have won six of their last seven games, climbing to 12-15 on the season and giving themselves real hope with 17 games to go and a 31% chance at making the playoffs, according to ESPN\u2019s WNBA Power Index.<\/p>\n Hamby has been the driving force behind that turnaround. Averaging 17.6 points and 8.1 rebounds, she\u2019s been both a reliable scorer and defensive anchor for the Sparks. Her recent hot streak tells the story \u2013 five 20-point performances in her last 10 games, including several clutch moments that have kept their season alive.<\/p>\n The next test comes Tuesday, August 5, against the red-hot Indiana Fever, who are riding a five-game winning streak. For Hamby and the Sparks, every remaining game carries playoff implications. One impossible shot down, 16 more chances to prove they belong in the postseason conversation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dearica Hamby has carried the Los Angeles Sparks on her shoulders all season, but Saturday night at Climate…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":118173,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[62,67,132,68,232],"class_list":{"0":"post-118172","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wnba","8":"tag-sports","9":"tag-united-states","10":"tag-unitedstates","11":"tag-us","12":"tag-wnba"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114970491861894020","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118172","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=118172"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118172\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/118173"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=118172"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=118172"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=118172"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}