rae burrell

PHOENIX — Dearica Hamby scored 16 of her 25 points in the fourth quarter, Rae Burrell had a career-high 20 points off the bench and the Sparks beat the Phoenix Mercury 88-83 on Tuesday night but the Sparks were eliminated from the playoff race.

The Sparks needed a win and a Seattle loss to send the chase for the last playoff spot to the last day of the season on Thursday, but the Storm pulled out a 74-73 win over Golden State.

Phoenix, the No. 4 seed, will host fifth-seeded New York, the defending champion, in the best-of-three series when the playoffs open on Sunday.

Hamby’s layup put the Sparks on top for good at 76-74 with 4:16 to play. She followed that with a three-point play. She added a three-point play with 1:01 to go for an 86-81 lead. There were 17 lead changes.

Kelsey Plum added 17 points for the Sparks (21-22).

Alyssa Thomas had her eighth triple-double of the season for the Mercury (27-16) with 10 points, 11 rebounds and 10 assists, but she and the other Phoenix starters sat out the fourth quarter, Satou Sabally led the Mercury with 24 points and Sami Whitcomb added 11.

Phoenix led 25-19 after one quarter but the Sparks were up 45-44 at half.

The Sparks opened the third quarter with a 9-0 run for a 54-44 lead and then the Mercury stormed back to take a 59-58 lead on Whitcomb’s three-pointer.

Burrell’s driving layup in the last minute, when she tied her career high of 18 points, was the difference as the Sparks took a 63-62 lead into the fourth quarter.

The Sparks defeated the Dallas Wings 91-77 on Sunday at Crypto.com Arena to keep their faint playoff hopes alive heading into the final week of the regular season.

Julie Allemand finished with 21 points, a career-high five steals and four assists, and Rae Burrell had 13 points as the Sparks went on a 16-0 run in the fourth quarter.

The Sparks (20-22) must win their final two games against Phoenix and Las Vegas and have Seattle lose to Golden State on Tuesday to make the postseason.

The Sparks led for nearly the entire game, capitalizing on 10 three-pointers, 12 steals and six players scoring in double digits.

Dallas, however, went on a 19-2 run at the beginning of the third quarter and managed to briefly lead twice.

Amy Okonkwo hit a three-pointer with 8.9 seconds left in the third quarter to give the Wings (9-34) a one-point lead. But the Sparks didn’t waste time responding, with Allemand hitting a three-pointer before the buzzer that put the Sparks ahead for good.

The Sparks then pulled away in the fourth quarter, with Burrell scoring 11 points.

Momentum shifted in the third quarter as the Wings went on a 19-2 run in the beginning of the quarter.

Dallas managed to take a one-point lead late in the third quarter before Allemand hit a three-pointer before the buzzer that put the Sparks ahead for good. Burrell scored 11 points in the fourth quarter to help the Sparks pull away.

Azurá Stevens had 13 points and 11 rebounds, and Dearica Hamby finished with 15 points and 13 rebounds. Kelsey Plum had 12 points and Rickea Jackson contributed 11 points.

Dallas rookie Paige Bueckers finished with 18 points, seven assists and six rebounds for Dallas. Myisha Hines-Allen had 15 points, 13 rebounds and seven assists. Maddy Siegrist added 13 points and four rebounds for the Wings.

Less than 10 days ago, the Seattle Storm and the Sparks battled deep into a second overtime — the first of the 2025 WNBA season — wringing every drop of drama out of Climate Pledge Arena. On Sunday night, the same stakes were at play as the teams tried to strengthen their playoff chances.

The intensity didn’t let up till the final horn. With 5.6 seconds left, Dearica Hamby roared into the paint and scored on a driving layup to put the Sparks ahead for good. After the Storm missed their final chance to win, pandemonium spilled onto the floor — Sparks players leaping into one another’s arms, fans hollering over the hardwood, chanting “Hamby” in celebration of the Sparks’ 94-91 victory.

In addition to Hamby’s last-minute heroics, Kelsey Plum proved vital to helping the Sparks win for the ninth time in 11 games. She finished with 20 points, seven assists and six rebounds.

Sparks coach Lynne Roberts has painted Plum as a shape-shifter — able to twist her game into whatever the game demands.

“That’s what your best players should do — get everybody else involved and make sure we’re flowing,” Roberts said before the game, “and then when they need you, you step up. She’s done a tremendous job.”

Trailing the Storm (16-16) by 17 in the first quarter, Plum, who still hadn’t scored yet, tore into a one-on-five fast break, freezing the defense with a hesitation at the arc and a glide into the basket for an and-1.

Seconds later, Plum created another opportunity off an extended right elbow, drilling a three-pointer in Erica Wheeler’s face.

Sparks guard Kelsey Plum, right, drives against Seattle guard Brittney Sykes in the fourth quarter Sunday.

(Luke Hales / Getty Images)

It was the spurt of momentum the Sparks (15-16) needed to overcome a sputtering start.

Playing the entire first half, Plum went from the table-setter to shot-maker in the second quarter — springing Rae Burrell for a corner three before splashing a triple to tie the score 29-29 early in the second quarter.

Azurá Stevens and Cameron Brink were strong in the key early, but the Sparks clanked jumpers, dribbled into traffic and watched offensive possessions die on the rim in addition to committing eight first-quarter turnovers. So Roberts rolled the dice on a smaller look — swapping her paint patrol of Stevens and Brink for guards Julie Vanloo and Burrell.

Plum and Julie Allemand kept the smaller unit in constant motion, whipping passes from wing to wing and slicing open lanes for Burrell and Rickea Jackson, while Vanloo, Allemand and Plum cashed in from beyond the arc. Roberts rode that group into the second quarter, and they eventually whittled the deficit.

When the final buzzer faded, players were still grinning through hugs, and the crowd’s enthusiasm continued — excitement for a Sparks team that had yanked itself out of the fire.

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

The ball clanged off the front rim, appearing 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 whole arena hostage, the ball dropped. Hamby fell with it, her teammates swarming to lift her as Crypto.com Arena erupted for what was perhaps the Sparks’ finest half of basketball of the season in a 99-80 stomping of the Washington Mystics.

Hamby’s arena-triggering triple capped a solo 10-point scoring spree and a 20-minute performance where the ball zipped across the hardwood, the defense suffocated and every Spark had their fingerprints on a rout of the WNBA’s seventh-best team.

By the end of the first half alone, Hamby had piled up 18. Plum chipped in 14. Jackson poured in nine and Stevens poured in eight. Facilitating it all, Allemand dealt eight assists. And — in what didn’t reflect itself on 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 pass of the night, she orchestrated a play that would lead to Julie Vanloo finding a wide-open Sania Feagin in the paint, capping off a clinic in ball movement.

When Burrell stole her second pass of the night, she took matters in her own hand, going coast to coast for an and-1 layup in the paint.

And each time, it seemed as though everyone profited off the Bunny. Her contagious energy seemed to leak on to each of her teammates, who sliced through gaps on offense and brought out the clamps on defense to limit the Mystics (11-11) to just 12 points in the second quarter.

In the process, Sonia Citron and Kiki Iriafen — the Mystics’ rookie duo who will compete in the All-Star game this Saturday — were held to a combined two points.

Meanwhile, Plum — the Sparks’ All-Star — seemed to have a dress rehearsal Thursday night, tuning up her shot ahead of Friday’s three-point contest and Saturday’s All-Star Game.

Plum opened the night on a tear — nine points on a perfect 4-for-4 start, including one from beyond the arc. With cutters carving up the defense and her bigs sealing space down low, she shifted gears into facilitator mode as well, racking up six assists by game’s end.

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 double-digit buffer.

It was the kind of offense they’d been chasing all season.

Cuts darted through closing doors, warping the Connecticut’s defense into knots, and the Sparks’ monster frontcourt threw its weight around and pounded out a 57-point stampede.

Rickea Jackson, with her wiry strength and burst, knifed past defenders as Dearica Hamby mixed bruising post work with feather-soft finishes and Azurá Stevens — the most versatile of the bunch — filled every gap. And as Jackson and Hamby created real estate down low, the Sparks’ backcourt dished out 22 assists.

Kelsey Plum even caught a groove in the third. Rae Burrell clawed her way into the lane for jabs that jolted her Sparks back to life.

With touches flowing from sideline to baseline, the Sparks kept their half of the scoreboard flashing in a wire-to-wire 92-88 victory over a flailing Sun squad.

There wasn’t much time to breathe at Crypto.com Arena on Sunday afternoon, whether decked out in white and purple or black and orange.

Not when every possession felt like a pendulum swing — the Sparks (6-14) surging and the Sun (3-18) countering with Bria Hartley’s steady hand on the perimeter and Saniya Rivers’ muscle inside.

Clinging to a fragile five-point lead, Julie Allemand elevated what could’ve been the dagger with 48 seconds left — a shot that would’ve ballooned the lead to eight.

Instead, it went to a jump ball, Jackson got charged for a personal, and Rivers went to the free-throw line. Drowned in the noise of a frenzied Crypto.com Arena, the rookie scored on only one of her two shots, keeping it a two-possession game.

Hamby could only find iron on the next possession.

Coming out of a Connecticut timeout, Stevens rebounded a 26-foot heave from Hartley that clanged off the rim. Hartley fouled Stevens.

True to her steady hand, Stevens buried both free throws to secure the win.

It has been more than a year since Cameron Brink suited up for the Sparks, and excitement is building around the return of one of the team’s biggest stars.

Sidelined by a torn ACL and meniscus, Brink has steadily progressed through drills and contact work since training camp.

Head coach Lynne Roberts, who spoke with her last week, said Brink is making significant progress and is champing at the bit to get back on the court.

There’s no set timeline, as the team remains cautious about pushing her too hard during recovery. At this point, her return depends on when team doctors and Brink agree she’s ready.

“I want to know as much as you do about when she’ll be back — and I don’t,” Roberts said. “It’ll be sooner rather than later, but soon could be a couple of weeks or it could be a month. I don’t know.”

Dearica Hamby, who is close with Brink, said she has seen “the commitment it takes not to give up and show up and pour into herself and her teammates — and being optimistic about getting back.”

Mounting frustrations

Through 17 games, the Sparks are 5-12 — just one win better than their start last season — but there’s confidence they can eventually turn the tide with a healthier roster.

Still, the process has been frustrating, not just because of the losses, but because of how many of them unfolded.

“If we don’t show up and play collectively, with a spirit, we’ll get beat,” Roberts said. “We’ve learned the hard way, too many times this year. Chicago was a good example — we had that game and just fell apart. Really frustrating.”

The return of Odyssey Sims, who missed time for personal reasons, and Julie Allemand, fresh off a EuroBasket championship, has brought renewed optimism.

“Part of the team I signed up to coach is getting close to being back,” Roberts said.

Hamby said the frustration is felt “individually and collectively, at each level — upper staff, lower staff.”

“We’re going to take those frustrations and build off them so we can learn from them to be better,” she added.

The road ahead doesn’t get easier. The Sparks now face a tough three-game trip against the defending champion New York Liberty, the Indiana Fever with a potentially returning Caitlin Clark and the WNBA-leading Minnesota Lynx.

With making the playoffs still a goal, the team currently sits 11th in the standings, as the gap continues to widen between contenders and those on the outside looking in.

Burrell practices

Rae Burrell is off crutches for the first time in six weeks after suffering a knee injury in the season opener.

Initially given a six- to eight-week timeline for recovery, Burrell returned to practice right on schedule and has begun working toward game action. The team is easing her back now that the broken bone in her knee is fully healed.

“We don’t want to throw her into the fire right off the bat,” Roberts said. “Today was her first day out there, but no contact was allowed.”

Roberts said Burrell’s reintroduction probably will move quickly based on updates from the training staff. She will travel with the team and is expected to absorb more contact starting with tomorrow’s practice.
Depending on her progress, her return to the rotation could come as early as Saturday against the Fever.

“She’s amped up,” Roberts said. “She doesn’t look tired like the rest of them — got bounce in her legs. She’s ready to roll. So it’d be good to get her back there, bringing athleticism and length to our perimeter.”