7/29 Sparks Postgame Notes & Quotes
WNBA Los Angeles Sparks

7/29 Sparks Postgame Notes & Quotes

July 30, 2025 - Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA)
Los Angeles Sparks News Release


Las Vegas Aces (14-13) at Los Angeles Sparks (11-15)

Attendance: 12,449

Game 26 | July 29, 2025 | Crypto.com Arena | Los Angeles, CA | Spectrum SportsNet, NBA TV

Game Leaders:

Aces

PTS - A'ja Wilson (34)

REB - Jackie Young (11)

AST - Jackie Young (11)

Sparks

PTS - Kelsey Plum (22)

REB - Azurá Stevens (8)

AST - Kelsey Plum (8)

First Quarter:

Forward Dearica Hamby scored the Sparks' first five points of the contest

Forward Rickea Jackson sank a deep jumper to end the Aces' 10-2 run and make the score 18-7, Aces, with 3:50 left in the first quarter

Forward Cameron Brink made her season debut at the 2:39 mark with the Sparks trailing 26-9. She promptly recorded an offensive rebound and assist

Brink made her first attempt of the season, a three-pointer to shorten the Aces' lead to 29-14

Guard Julie Allemand had a team-high two assists in the first quarter

Second Quarter:

Allemand forced a jump ball to kick off the second quarter, quickly converted into a breakaway layup by guard-forward Rae Burrell

Los Angeles went on an 8-0 run to cut its deficit to 31-22 at the 7:37 mark

Forward-center Azurá Stevens' triple via an assist by guard Kelsey Plum cut the Sparks' deficit to 46-34 with 1:18 left in the half

At the 2:52 mark, Brink executed her first steal of the season. The second-year forward was a team-best +6 in the first half

In the first half, Hamby scored a team-high 11 points (5-for-8 FG) and four rebounds

Plum totaled seven points and three assists in a team-high 17 minutes in the first half

Third Quarter:

Hamby scored the Sparks' first basket of the third, set up by an Allemand assist at the 8:37 mark

Burrell launched a successful three-pointer at the 6:12 mark to make the score 55-40, Aces advantage. The second-year then finished a three-point play a minute later to cut into Las Vegas' deficit

Brink notched her first block of the season, swatting NaLyssa Smith's shot from behind at the 1:37 mark

Plum scored a game-high nine points in the third quarter, going 3-for-6 from the floor and 3-for-3 from the free-throw line

Burrell scored six points and added two boards in the the quarter

Fourth Quarter:

Plum scored the first points of the fourth quarter, making both of her free throws after drawing a foul off of Megan Gustafson

At the 8:22 mark, Stevens made the Sparks' first points from the field with a triple off a Plum assist

Burrell drained the Sparks' second three-pointer of the quarter off a Plum assist with 3:00 left in the game, making the score 83-66, Aces advantage

Plum had a game-high 15 points in the second half (7-for-7 FT). The guard also had three rebounds and five assists in the final 20 minutes of play

In the second half, Los Angeles went 12-for-12 in free throws and led in paint points (22-16) and fast break points (4-0)

Main Takeaways:

In her season debut, Cameron Brink tallied five points, three rebounds, one assist, one steal and one block, posting a +7 rating in 14 minutes of play

Kelsey Plum led with a team-high 22 points (10-for-10 FT), five rebounds and eight assists

Rae Burrell set a season high in points with 17 (6-for-11 FG, 2-for-3 3PT, 3-for-3 FT) and matched her career high in rebounds with six, ending with a team-high +9 rating

Dearica Hamby made a team-high seven field goals (7-for-12 FG). The forward scored 15 points, recorded six rebounds and added one assist

The Sparks went 18-for-19 from the free throw line, finishing with a season-high 94.7% free throw percentage

Pregame Quotes:

Head Coach Lynne Roberts

On Cameron Brink's first time back on the floor in 13 months:

"We're thrilled to have her back, and I'm incredibly proud of her. She's on a minutes restriction... I told her that she needs to enjoy the moment... It's a hard injury to come back from mentally and physically, and she's done it with a smile on her face. Of course, [there's] hard moments, and [she's] seen a lot of those. I'm just so happy for her and proud of her. The expectation for her is to get out there and enjoy the moment, let the game come to her a little bit... I want her to be present and grateful that she's back out there. We'll work her back in as she gets her sea legs back, and we're excited to have her, and she's excited, and I know there's some anxiousness and some nerves from her, and how could there not be? But it's good for her to be doing this at home, with this crowd that loves her, and so do we. We're proud of her and excited ... I don't want pressure on her. I want her to just get out there and get the experience back and get into the flow."

On takeaways from Cameron Brink's game:

"Well, I also coached against her for four years, so thank the lucky stars [that] I get to coach her now and not against her. I think she's incredibly athletic, bouncy, can run, and that's the kind of style we want to play. She can play with pace, she's very skilled for her length, she can shoot, and she's gonna be able to do all that stuff with how we play. And then, obviously, just the defense, and her timing, and it's not necessarily how many blocks she gets, she's gonna alter shots, too. I mean, it happened in shootaround today against our practice guys going over Vegas' stuff. She [came] over and she didn't touch it, but the shot was way off because she was there. So, it's not just blocks, and she's great at those too, but it's also just altering shots. I think when you have a rim protector like that, you're able to be more aggressive on the ball because she's back there, and I think that's going to be a really big impact for us."

On seeing growth as the Sparks' roster grows:

"We just gotta keep our foot on the gas and keep improving. I don't think it's a coincidence that we're 7-3 since Rae Burrell came back. We're 6-2 since we signed Julie Vanloo, I don't think that's a coincidence, right? That's legitimate depth that brings a pop off the bench. We were missing that. Now we're gonna have [Cameron Brink], so I think we're getting to see the roster that we were envisioning a few months ago, and my job is to just keep us focused on the process and continue to improve. We still have a lot of things we should be better at, and this league is so good and I have so much respect for all the teams and players and coaches. So what we can't do is start looking up and thinking about two weeks from now, we gotta be present tonight and tomorrow we [will] wake up and think about Seattle. But until then, it's all Vegas and just keeping our foot on the gas with improving and the process."

Postgame Press Conference Quotes:

Head Coach Lynne Roberts

On Cameron Brink's performance:

"I thought she did a good job to be honest, she was more comfortable out there than I anticipated her to be, just because [of] how long she's been out, and coming in mid-season's hard. She was active... [Cameron Brink]'s got a lot of stuff that she could be doing, but basketball's her main thing, that's her passion, and it's an emotional moment when you've been out for 13 months, and you finally have the uniform on, and you're gonna get to play. She loves basketball, so she's finally getting a chance to be out there, and be with her teammates that she's been watching for 13 months, and I think that's her happy place."

On the team's defense Tuesday:

"We just came out a little soft, and Vegas came out with a head full of steam. I thought we were reacting to everything, and not really anticipating things, getting beat on [offensive] boards and cuts, and we played them even other than that first quarter. But you can't give a team like that that much space, and we didn't shoot it well, right? We put a lot of pressure on our defense because we weren't scoring. That's the worst shooting we've had all season. It's bound to happen... You're gonna have an off night with your skill, but we've got to be able to defend, right? It's knowing personnel, it's knowing tendencies, it's staying locked into the game plan even when they score the first eight points, you have to toughen up. We just came out a little hesitant, like they were the aggressor. It's a learning lesson, and you don't want to learn lessons this late in the season, but that's part of it, too."

On containing A'ja Wilson:

"[A'ja Wilson] was phenomenal tonight. She was on one, and... she had an intensity to her, and [she was] determined to score, and we just were reacting, and so we let her gain some confidence and some momentum with that. We've got to be better on her, and she had a heck of a game, so hats off to her. She's a talent, and everybody in this room and elsewhere knows that. We did not do a great job on her tonight... I mean, she could go for 34 and we can still win. Right? That's not the game plan, but she's elite, and so we've gotta figure out better ways [to stop], and I have no doubt we will."

Kelsey Plum

On speaking with Cameron Brink after the game:

"I was really proud of her. I told her after the game, 'It's very impressive to come in, make the impact that you did...Working your way back, minute-restricted... because during the season, there's not a lot of practice time, right? So not really even getting a ton of reps with the full team and to come in and make the impact that she did, I thought she was phenomenal. So just giving herself a lot of grace and love, and [Cameron Brink]'s a competitor, and I love that, and I think she's gonna continue to just help us a ton. Especially defensively, we looked just... horrid tonight... so I think it's gonna be great, and she's someone that's gonna get better game by game."

Rae Burrell

On playing through the fourth quarter:

"You always need to work hard, no matter the score, and I'm always trying to bring that energy. I think it's- just like you said- just playing through the clock, through the buzzer, just [playing] hard til the game's over."

On her season-high 17 points Tuesday:

"I feel like the team did a good job in just preparing me for coming back, and I feel like I didn't really have much of a time where I [felt] like, 'Oh, I'm out of breath...' I just try to bring the same thing every night. I try to bring in some energy, whatever the team needs me to bring and whether that's getting offensive rebounds, being aggressive on offense, defense, just whatever the team needs me to do... I'm just gonna play hard regardless, so I just felt like I was just being me tonight."

What's Next?:

The Sparks travel to the Pacific Northwest for a matchup with the Seattle Storm August 1 at 7 p.m. PT. Los Angeles then returns to Crypto.com Arena to face the Indiana Fever August 5 at 7 p.m. PT, followed by a meeting with the Connecticut Sun August 7 at 7 p.m. PT.

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