LOS ANGELES — Sparks guard Kelsey Plum scored 17 of her game-high 28 points in the third quarter to lift her team to a 91-78 victory over the Chicago Sky on Sunday afternoon at Crypto.com Arena.
“I really want to win,” Plum said. “I know this system ask a lot from me in terms of creating but then also trying to score and finding that balance. It’s not easy right. I’m not going to get it right all the time but I don’t give a damn about the points. I’m here to win.”
At her best, Plum scored 11 straight points, which made it 65-57 with 4:25 left in the third. She made five 3-pointers in the third. The Sparks led 76-64 going into the fourth quarter. The All-Star guard, who was acquired via a trade with the Las Vegas Aces during the offseason, also had eight assists.
The Sky went on a 10-0 run between the end of the third and the beginning of the fourth, which cut the Sparks’ lead to 76-71 with 7:06 remaining. The Sparks, who finished with 13 made 3-pointers, responded with an 8-0 run, and extended their lead to 84-71 with 4:59 to go.
Sparks forward Azurá Stevens added 18 of her 24 points in the second half. The 6-foot-6 post played grabbed eight rebounds.
“We haven’t come out after halftime with the best energy so we’ve been really trying to focus on that,” Stevens said. “I think with KP leading the charge everybody just came out confident in the second half. We’re really hard to guard when we’re doing that.”
Odyssey Sims scored 11 of her 12 points in the first half. Dearica Hamby added 10 points, eight assists, six rebounds and six steals.
The Sparks improved to 2-3 overall and earned their first home win this season. The Sparks shot 48.1% from 3-point range.
“We played 40 minutes and wins are hard to come by in this league,” Sparks coach Lynne Roberts said. “You can play a good 40 minutes and the other team still is going to make it uncomfortable but we had 24 assists on 31 made baskets. That’s the stat of the game for me but we also had 12 steals. We were really good defensively. They were locked in.”
The home team used Sunday’s contest to snap a three-game losing streak with a renewed focus despite barely any time to practice, while playing three games in a five-day span.
“It’s a lot of film and a lot of accountability in that regard,” Roberts said before the game.
“We have to play with urgency for 40 minutes,” Roberts continued. “It’s mindset. It’s film. It’s talking about it. It’s game planning, but it’s 99% mental when you play this many games.”
Meanwhile, Sparks forward Rickea Jackson missed her third straight game after suffering a concussion against Minnesota on May 18. Forwards Rae Burrell and Cameron Brink were also sidelined with knee injuries. Jackson, Burrell and Brink were all in attendance and supported their team from the bench.
The Sky (0-3) were led by All-Star forward Angel Reese with 13 points and 12 rebounds. Kamilla Cardoso had 12 points and six rebounds. Courtney Vandersloot and Rebecca Allen both had 11 points.
“They have the size advantage inside but that knife cut both ways, they’ve got to guard us,” Roberts explained pregame.
The Sparks, who played 9 of their 10 active players in the first quarter, led 21-19 heading into the second quarter.
However, the Sky went on a 7-0 run and promptly took a 26-21 lead with 8:41 left in the second.
Hamby’s potential three-point play tied the game at 31 with 5:28 left in the second. She missed the free throw.
Sims’ 3-pointer put the Sparks up 34-33. Another Sims 3-pointer put the Sparks back up 37-35 with 3:01 left before halftime. Plum’s stepback 3-pointer made it 41-35 with 2:26 to go before halftime.
The Sparks led 43-39 at halftime. The Sparks shot 42.4% from the field on 14 of 33 shooting early, including 5 of 13 from beyond the arc. They shot 66.7% from the free throw line, draining 10 of 15 attempts.
The Sparks bench had eight points in the first half. They did not score in the second half.
Sky forward Kia Nurse, who played for the Sparks last season, tied the game at 48 with 7:13 left in the third quarter. A corner 3-pointer by Stevens put the Sparks up 51-48. Sparks rookie guard Sarah Ashlee Barker’s 3-pointer made it 54-50. Barker finished with a career-high nine points.
The Sparks outscored the Sky by a 33-25 margin in the third and led 76-64 heading into the fourth quarter.
UP NEXT
The Sparks will host Atlanta (3-2) on Tuesday at 7 p.m.
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