One of the WNBA’s hottest teams will continue its push toward playoff eligibility when the Los Angeles Sparks play host to the New York Liberty on Tuesday.
The ninth-place Sparks are 9-2 since July 13, including a victory at New York on July 26. They will attempt to reach .500 for the first time since May 20.
On Sunday, the Sparks (15-16) earned a 94-91 home victory over the Seattle Storm after Dearica Hamby finished off a 3-point play with 5.6 seconds remaining. Hamby scored seven of Los Angeles’ final nine points and finished with 19, while Kelsey Plum had 20 points and seven assists.
“As you can see with the run we have been on, we’re better when I’m doing both,” Plum said about scoring and playmaking. She is delivering a career-best 6.1 assists per game this season. “In this league, you just have to stay (in games), and then it’s a one- or two-possession game and anything can happen.”
Cameron Brink scored 14 points off the bench in her highest-scoring game since returning from more than a year away following knee surgery. She made 5 of 6 shots from the floor with five rebounds.
The Liberty (20-11) saw a three-game winning streak end Sunday in an 83-71 loss at home to the Minnesota Lynx. The defending champions are 0-2 against the Lynx this season, with both defeats coming since July 30.
Five Liberty players scored in double figures in Sunday’s defeat as Natasha Cloud led the way with 14. New York shot just 42.4 percent from the floor. It was just under the team’s 45.3 percent mark on the season, which is third best in the league and just behind the Sparks (46.1).
In their 101-99 home loss to the Sparks on July 26, the Liberty gave up 35 first-quarter points and chased the game the rest of the way. Sabrina Ionescu scored 30 points in that loss but was held to 10 against the Lynx on 4-of-15 shooting and 0 of 6 from 3-point range.
“Just understanding that if something is not open, there is another action out of it,” Ionescu said of the team’s recent 3-5 stretch. “A lot of times, we try to get each other going and sometimes force the pass instead of continuing to let (the game) come to us.”
New York is at the beginning of a key three-game road trip that ends at Minnesota on Saturday. That game is the start of consecutive matchups against the Lynx, with another at home next week.
–Field Level Media
