{"id":209805,"date":"2025-09-08T09:02:18","date_gmt":"2025-09-08T09:02:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/209805\/"},"modified":"2025-09-08T09:02:18","modified_gmt":"2025-09-08T09:02:18","slug":"sparks-defeat-dallas-to-keep-their-faint-playoff-hopes-alive-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/209805\/","title":{"rendered":"Sparks defeat Dallas to keep their faint playoff hopes alive"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Sparks<\/a> defeated the Dallas Wings 91-77<\/a> on Sunday at Crypto.com Arena to keep their faint playoff hopes alive heading into the final week of the regular season.<\/p>\n

Julie Allemand<\/a> finished with 21 points, a career-high five steals and four assists, and Rae Burrell<\/a> had 13 points as the Sparks went on a 16-0 run in the fourth quarter.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI think we stayed strong defensively, we got some steals, and then we were just running and played as a team,” Allemand said. “When we play like that, I think we are unstoppable.”<\/p>\n

The Sparks (20-22) must win their final two games against Phoenix and Las Vegas and have Seattle lose to Golden State on Tuesday to make the postseason.<\/p>\n

Read more:<\/b> Sparks’ playoff hopes fading fast after another loss to Dream<\/a><\/p>\n

The Sparks led for nearly the entire game, capitalizing on 10 three-pointers, 11 steals and six players scoring in double digits.<\/p>\n

Dallas, however, went on a 19-2 run at the beginning of the third quarter and managed to briefly lead twice.<\/p>\n

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Amy Okonkwo<\/a> hit a three-pointer with 8.9 seconds left in the third quarter to give the Wings (9-34) a one-point lead. But the Sparks didn’t waste time responding, with Allemand hitting a three-pointer before the buzzer that put the Sparks ahead for good.<\/p>\n

Burrell scored 11 points in the fourth quarter to help the Sparks pull away.<\/p>\n

Sparks coach Lynne Roberts praised Burrell for her aggressiveness.<\/p>\n

Read more:<\/b> Angel Reese apologizes for ‘misconstrued’ comments: ‘Didn’t intentionally mean to put down my teammates’<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cShe\u2019s going to fly around and make things happen,\u201d Roberts said. \u201cShe\u2019s so athletic, bouncy, and aggressive \u2014 that brings everyone to life.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Azur\u00e1 Stevens<\/a> had 13 points and 11 rebounds, and Dearica Hamby<\/a> finished with 15 points and eight rebounds. Kelsey Plum had 12 points and Rickea Jackson contributed 11 points.<\/p>\n

Stevens said her performance was a reminder of how she can contribute to the Sparks’ success.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know I am a big part of the team, just like everybody else is,\u201d Stevens said. \u201cI know when I come out aggressive, even if I am not making shots, it still puts pressure on the defense.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dallas rookie Paige Bueckers<\/a> finished with 18 points, seven assists and six rebounds. Myisha Hines-Allen had 15 points, 13 rebounds and seven assists. Maddy Siegrist added 13 points and four rebounds for the Wings.<\/p>\n

Get the best, most interesting and strangest stories of the day from the L.A. sports scene and beyond from our newsletter The Sports Report.<\/a><\/p>\n

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Sparks defeated the Dallas Wings 91-77 on Sunday at Crypto.com Arena to keep their faint playoff hopes…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":209806,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5135],"tags":[5229,9777,1596,2470,10589,10590,5610,2184,8733,18409,2471,10593,10594,115167,2086,4232,358,10585,3187,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-209805","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-dallas","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-azura-stevens","10":"tag-dallas","11":"tag-dallas-wings","12":"tag-dearica-hamby","13":"tag-julie-allemand","14":"tag-kelsey-plum","15":"tag-las-vegas","16":"tag-maddy-siegrist","17":"tag-myisha-hines-allen","18":"tag-paige-bueckers","19":"tag-rae-burrell","20":"tag-rickea-jackson","21":"tag-sarah-ashlee-barker","22":"tag-seattle","23":"tag-sparks","24":"tag-texas","25":"tag-the-sparks","26":"tag-tx","27":"tag-united-states","28":"tag-united-states-of-america","29":"tag-unitedstates","30":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","31":"tag-us","32":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115167870677991687","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209805","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=209805"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209805\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/209806"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=209805"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=209805"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=209805"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}