The Sparks capped a three-game homestand with an 81-78 win over the Mystics, leading by as many as 14 and trailing only once (by a single point).

Dearica Hamby paced Los Angeles with a team-high 20 points and a team-high-tying 12 rebounds, marking her 11th double-double of the season and the 53rd of her career. The 11th-year forward also reached several milestones, registering her 100th career block to move into 15th place on the franchise’s all-time list and surpassing 1,500 career field goals made.

Rickea Jackson notched 16 points, knocking down multiple threes for the 11th straight game. The streak is the longest in franchise history and the second-longest in the league this season. Jackson has connected on at least three triples in five of her last seven outings and eclipsed 100-career three-pointers in just her second season. 

Kelsey Plum added 18 points, with 14 of them coming in the final period. The lefty guard also distributed seven assists and finished with a game-high +22 rating, while Azurá Stevens matched Hamby with 12 rebounds and chipped in nine points and four assists.

The Sparks secured 33 defensive rebounds, their second-highest mark of the season, and held the Mystics to 31 first-half points, their fewest allowed in an opening half this year. In the first half, Washington shot just 29.7% from the field and 27.3% from deep.

QUOTES OF THE NIGHT:

Head Coach Lynne Roberts

On fighting through a rocky second half of play:

 “We got a little sloppy… I thought in the second and third [quarters], we were settling for threes when we needed to be attacking. We shot 36 threes, which is a lot, and I'm okay with that, but you need to shoot better than 27% if you're gonna shoot that many. I think what you saw was we put [Kelsey Plum] at the 1 for a little bit just so she could get the ball in her hands. They were doing a good job of top-blocking her and making every catch really hard. Defenses are so keyed on her, I thought she did a good job of choosing her spots. [Dearica Hamby] was just a beast on the boards, and finishing in traffic, and those and-ones, she's just so strong and athletic. They showed their experience, and [Azurá Stevens] did a great job defensively, but we have to be better at putting teams away. But we took care of business, and at this point, it's [time to] advance and move on.” 

Dearica Hamby

On the Sparks’ defensive performance tonight: 

“We know how talented [Sonia] Citron is, so our game plan was to make other people take shots and we did that. I would even say going off the last game [against the Indiana Fever], I felt we had a good defensive game. It didn't turn into victory, but I think we're just trending in the right direction.”

Azurá Stevens

On messaging from the Sparks’ leaders: 

“We know [what’s] at stake, but [we’re] just trying to break it down to each possession matters and not getting too caught up in, ‘oh, we gotta win X amount of games.’ We know the circumstances, but all we can control is the next possession, so just trying to make sure we lock in on Washington, and now [we have] Seattle tomorrow. [We’re] just taking it day by day and really focusing on us — our defense, our rebounding, our pace on offense, just really looking in at us as a team and just chopping day by day.”