Despite shooting 46.8% from the field, recording 23 assists and committing just nine turnovers, the Sparks fell to the Liberty, 105-97, Tuesday at home. Los Angeles scored 52 of its 97 points in the paint, marking its highest total in regulation this season.

Dearica Hamby climbed into 10th on the Sparks' all-time scoring list, finishing with 21 points, eight rebounds, four steals and one block. Hamby's eight boards also moved her into 26th on the WNBA's all-time rebounds list, surpassing Diana Taurasi.

Kelsey Plum scored a game-high 26 points on 8-for-13 shooting, including a perfect 8-for-8 at the free-throw line, adding five assists and five rebounds. With the performance, Plum tied Nneka Ogwumike for most 20-point games in a single season in franchise history with 19. 

Azurá Stevens tallied 17 points shooting 7-for-11 from the field, adding one three-pointer, four assists and three steals. She passed Lisa Leslie for sole possession of 10th in franchise annals in three-pointers made. 

The Sparks doubled the Liberty's second chance scoring, 14-7, and outscored New York 15-0 on the fast break.

QUOTES OF THE NIGHT:

Head Coach Lynne Roberts

On the team’s performance:

“I just felt like we were missing a little ‘umph’ today. Defensively, we were not great. Giving up 105 [points]. We still scored 97, I just heard Dearica [Hamby] is top 10 [on the Sparks’ all-time scoring list], which is awesome. That's big time. We just were a little bit off, but we still scored almost 100 and did some good things. But you have to give credit to New York, I thought they did a good job. Their zone slowed us down a little bit.”

Dearica Hamby

On bouncing back from the close loss:

“[We plan to] just continue the momentum we've had the last 12 games. One game shouldn't break us. Like I said, we did a lot of things well, and we didn’t play our best basketball, but we have really important games coming up that we should win, and [we’ll] go from there.