Sparks just keep going and going in win over

Dearica Hamby lined up for one of those last-second launches as the first-half clock dipped toward zero.

The ball clanged off the entrance rim, showing 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 entire enviornment hostage, the ball dropped. Hamby fell with it, her teammates swarming to elevate her as Crypto.com Arena erupted for what was maybe the Sparks’ most interesting 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 stated. “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 inconceivable triple capped a solo 10-point scoring spree and a 20-minute efficiency in which the ball zipped across the hardwood, the protection suffocated and every Spark had their fingerprints on a rout of the WNBA’s seventh-best staff.

“We’ve been starting on the defensive end,” ahead Rickea Jackson stated. “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.

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 move of the sport, she orchestrated a play that would lead to Julie Vanloo discovering a wide-open Sania Feagin in the paint, capping off a clinic in ball motion.

When Burrell stole her second move of the sport, she took issues in her own arms, going coast to coast for an and-one layup in the paint.

And each time, it appeared as though everybody profited off the Bunny. Her contagious vitality appeared to unfold to each of her teammates, who sliced through gaps on offense and introduced out the clamps on protection to restrict the Mystics (11-11) to 12 factors 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 stated, after referring to Burrell as a “firecracker.”

In the method of 10 painful minutes for the Mystics, Sonia Citron and Kiki Iriafen — the Mystics’ rookie duo who will compete in the All-Star sport this Saturday — have been held to a mixed two factors.

Meanwhile, Plum — the Sparks’ All-Star — appeared to have a gown rehearsal Tuesday night time, tuning up her shot forward of Friday’s three-point contest and Saturday’s All-Star Game.

Plum opened the night time on a tear — 9 factors on a excellent four-for-four begin, including one from past the arc. With cutters carving up the protection and her bigs sealing space down low, she shifted gears into facilitator mode as properly, racking up six assists by sport’s finish.

“Thought tonight was our best,” Plum stated. “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 wire-to-wire victory.

“You saw how bad we wanted this one,” Roberts stated. “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.”