Sparks Win Third Straight, Defeat Mystics on Road
WNBA Los Angeles Sparks

Sparks Win Third Straight, Defeat Mystics on Road

July 22, 2025 - Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA)
Los Angeles Sparks News Release


Los Angeles Sparks (9-14) at Washington Mystics (11-12)

Game 23 | July 22, 2025 | CareFirst Arena | Washington, D.C. | ESPN3

Game Leaders:

Sparks

PTS - Dearica Hamby (24)

REB - Dearica Hamby (14)

AST - Kelsey Plum (7)

Mystics

PTS - Brittney Sykes (18)

REB - Shakira Austin (6)

AST - Sonia Citron (6)

First Quarter:

Forward Dearica Hamby scored the first Sparks points with a layup at the 7:21 mark, assisted by guard Kelsey Plum

Forward Rickea Jackson hit a jump shot to make the score, Mystics, 18-5. Hamby recorded the assist

Plum tallied a steal and then a breakaway layup to cut the Sparks' deficit to 24-10

On the next Sparks possession, guard Julie Allemand drained a triple, assisted by guard Julie Vanloo

On the ensuing Los Angeles chance, Vanloo hit the three-pointer via an assist by Allemand to shrink Washington's lead to 26-16

The Sparks shot 46.2% (6-for-13) from the field and 37.5% (3-for-8) from deep in the opening quarter. Each of the five Sparks starters scored in the first

Second Quarter:

Guard Sarah Ashlee Barker cut the Sparks' deficit to six points, 27-21, with a three-pointer at the 7:42 mark via Plum's third assist of the game

Guard-forward Rae Burrell made her first points of the game with a pull-up jumper, assisted by Barker

The Sparks took their first lead of the game, 33-32, on a Stevens layup via a Jackson pass at the 2:29 mark

Burrell scored five consecutive points to put the Sparks ahead, 38-33, with 1:26 left in the half

The Sparks held the Mystics to nine points in the second quarter, and Washington turned the ball over seven times. Nine points is the second-lowest total Los Angeles has allowed in a quarter this season

Hamby (11 PTS, 5-for-8 FG), Stevens (9 PTS, 4-for-4 FG) and Burrell (7 PTS, 3-for-6 FG) led L.A. in shooting in the first half

Los Angeles shot 50.0% from the field, assisting on 14 of its 17 made field goals

Third Quarter:

Hamby opened the third-quarter scoring with a layup after grabbing an offensive rebound at the 9:41 mark, matching the Sparks' largest lead of the game, 42-35

Stevens completed a three-point player, hitting a layup and a free throw, with 8:37 left in the quarter

Plum made her first triple of the game at the 8:07 mark via an assist by Stevens

Stevens' three-pointer gave Los Angeles its largest advantage of the game, 51-42, with 7:12 to play in the third

Jackson scored the last five points for the Sparks, with both shots assisted by Allemand. The second-year forward scored a game-high 10 points (3-for-7 FG, 2-for-3 3PT, 2-for-2 FT) in the third

Los Angeles and Washington were tied at the end of the third quarter, 67-67. The Sparks shot 47.4% from the field and went 5-for-10 from beyond the arc in the quarter

Fourth Quarter:

Hamby scored the Sparks' first points of the final quarter with a cutting layup of an assist from Burrell at the 9:10 mark

Jackson returned the lead to the Sparks, 72-71, with a three-pointer via a Plum assist with 8:16 left in the game

With 4:27 left in the game, Allemand drained a triple to make the score 80-75, Sparks advantage

Jackson

The second half of play featured two lead changes and one time tied.

Main Takeaways:

The Sparks have won three straight games and four of their last five. Los Angeles shot 51.5% from the field and outscored Washington 39-21 from beyond the arc. The Sparks shot 41.9% (13-for-31) from distance

Dearica Hamby notched her 48th career double-double with 24 points (10-for-14 FG) and 14 rebounds, also contributing three assists and two steals. Hamby's six offensive rebounds matched her career high

Azurá Stevens (15 PTS, 6-for-11 FG, 2-for-5 3PT, 1-for-1 FT) tied Nneka Ogwumike for third in Sparks history when it comes to consecutive games with 6+ REB:

1. Candace Parker - 46

2. Lisa Leslie - 28

T-3. Azurá Stevens/Nneka Ogwumike - 22

Kelsey Plum set the Sparks record for most consecutive games with 3+ 3PM in five consecutive games, surpassing Kristi Toliver and Mwadi Mabika. Over her five contests, Plum has gone 16-for-31 from beyond the arc

Plum finished with 11 points (4-for-9 FG, 3-for-6 3PT), seven assists and two steals

Rae Burrell posted a game-high +13 rating with seven points scored (3-for-7 FG), two assists and one block

Pregame Quotes:

Head Coach Lynne Roberts

On what she expects from the Mystics Tuesday night:

"Washington's a good team. I think they're really well-coached and they run really good stuff. They are young, but that doesn't mean anything to me. I think that sometimes there's beauty in that, too, right? They don't know any better. I think we caught them at the end of a long road trip, and we beat them, and I'm sure they're gonna be coming for us tonight. I anticipate a dogfight, and we did a good job at our place. They lead the league in free throws, and I thought we did a really good job of not fouling and keeping them off the free throw line. That was a point of emphasis, but I can imagine [that] if I'm them, I'm pushing that envelope a little bit to try to get to the free throw line, and so we've got to be ready for that."

On adding Latricia Trammell to the Sparks' coaching staff:

"As we evaluated defensively, she's known for her defensive mind and strategy, so it's another resource for us to improve defensively. She's just an incredible human being, and she's been around our franchise for the season, just consulting. I've gotten to really appreciate her and trust her, and I'm looking for any edge for us to get better. We're pushing to see what we can do in the second half of the season, and see if we can make a playoff push, and so whatever advantage we can gain for our organization, I want to do it. [Latricia Trammell] was an idea that I had and luckily, she's all in. I'm fortunate to have her, and she's gonna make us better defensively, but she's just an unbelievable person that I really respect and admire, and I'm grateful that she's helping us out."

Postgame Press Conference Quotes:

Head Coach Lynne Roberts

On what's changed going into the second half of the season:

"I think it's the same stuff that we talked about when it wasn't going well, right? It's time together. It's getting people healthy. We don't run a traditional system, and it takes time to figure out, just to learn each other and learn where shots are gonna come from and all those things... There's a sense where these guys are starting to play to win, not just play and hope we win. That's a mindset and that's a different mentality. They're figuring that out... The intensity level is different. The talk in the huddles is a little bit different. It's just starting to really click, and I think they can feel it, I see it. It makes my job easier... and these guys are pros, and they're elite, and so I've found that the less I do, the better we play, in terms of they can just play off each other and take what the defense gives us, but I thought, defensively, we were pretty dang good tonight. They got us in transition a little bit, we turned it over, and they made us pay, but in the half court, defensively, I thought we were really, really good."

On overcoming the early first-half deficit:

" I think the key is to just not panic. I think we defensively were not aggressive. I felt like we were so prepared with the scout [report] that it almost looked like we were thinking out there instead of just playing, and so I just reminded them to pick up the defensive intensity, but with 36 minutes to go, if you panic, you're screwed, and so that's what I'm most proud of, just that we didn't panic, and they stayed steady. Every team in this league's gonna go on a run, and you're gonna go on runs, and I think the best ones just stay steady and just keep chopping wood and... from this game, there's a lot of things to highlight and be proud of, but that's the one thing that I'm [proud of]. They're playing to win and they're staying steady, and I think that's the key to sustained success."

On the bench's contribution to Tuesday's win:

"I thought that was huge, you know, in the second quarter, we had a very untraditional lineup in there. We had Rae Burrell at the 4 and Sarah Ashlee Barker and Julie Vanloo, and [Julie] Allemand and that group got it going. They broke the game open for us... I thought our bench was really, really good. Everybody contributed. Sarah Ashlee only played five minutes, but she's plus-six in those five minutes. That's pretty big. She got a couple big stops, she just did some good things, and Rae just brings energy and hit a couple big shots, and we're gonna need that. Great teams need their bench and everybody has a role, and everybody matters, and I think tonight showed just what some punch off the bench, what that can do for a team."

Dearica Hamby

On the importance of consistency to success throughout the season:

"I just try to show up in any way that I can. Most nights it's [showing up] offensively, but [I] just try to keep the team in rhythm and continue to encourage us to move the ball and play with each other, and then it finds everybody. Everybody's buying into the system right now, and we talked about it at the beginning of the year. When we do that, everybody's gonna eat, and we're showing that [in] the last month, I would say."

On moving through adversity from the first quarter:

"In the first quarter, we came into the huddle, and we knew we were playing like crap. Just reminding ourselves that we can't get any worse than that, and we need to play some defense. We also turned the ball over, and we're a team that typically feeds off of our offense, so once we started seeing the ball go in, I felt like we got better on both ends and just the consistency of what we've been talking about all season. And we did it, yeah. We're learning how to win."

Rickea Jackson

On her confidence offensively:

"I'm feeling pretty good. That first half, I joked with Coach and said I was still in Indiana in that first half, trying to get that rhythm back going. But I feel like my teammates just found me, and we just played really good basketball in the second quarter. We had a lineup with Rae [Burrell] at the 4, and it worked. So, I feel like we just [made] whatever they do wrong, and I just feel like we're just turning it in the right direction."

On being proud of the team's perseverance:

"I'm just proud of how we let our frustration fuel us to want to do better and not get in our feelings. We could have easily rolled over against this team, but we continued to punch, we continued to work it out, so I'm just proud of the mentality that we had. That just goes to show our mentality is getting stronger and stronger as a team, and we truly just trust in each other, and we can be anybody when we are playing how we played in the second half."

What's Next?:

With their first game after the All-Star break complete, the Sparks continue their East Coast trip, facing the Connecticut Sun July 24 at 4 p.m. PT, followed by the New York Liberty July 26 at 4 p.m. PT.

Check out the Los Angeles Sparks Statistics



Women's National Basketball Association Stories from July 22, 2025


The opinions expressed in this release are those of the organization issuing it, and do not necessarily reflect the thoughts or opinions of OurSports Central or its staff.

OurSports Central