The Sparks visit the Dream for two games in three days with playoff implications for each.\u00a0Through Sept. 2, the Sparks stand one game behind Indiana for eighth, one and a half games back of Seattle for seventh, and trail Golden State by two contests, holding the tiebreaker over both the Fever and Storm.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Sparks shook up the playoff picture Monday after rallying from 17 points down to defeat the Storm 91-85 in Seattle. Dearica Hamby and Rickea Jackson combined for 50 points to lead the Sparks to victory, with Los Angeles dominating 60-30 in the paint.<\/p>\n
The three-time WNBA champions rank second in the league in points per game and field-goal percentage, trailing only top-seeded Minnesota in each. Additionally, Los Angeles ranks third in three-point percentage.<\/p>\n
Atlanta entered Wednesday in a three-way tie for second place in the WNBA standings. The Dream are 7-3 in their last 10 outings, most recently securing a 17-point victory Monday in Connecticut. Rhyne Howard scored 23 points, while Brionna Jones recorded a double-double.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Led by Jones on the boards, the hosts lead the league in rebounds per game (36.3).<\/p>\n
The History: Sparks vs. Dream<\/p>\n
The Sparks visit College Park Arena for their 45th meeting with the Dream, marginally trailing the all-time series 24-20. Atlanta has won the last four matchups dating back to May 5, 2024.<\/p>\n
The squads last met May 27 in a close matchup at\u00a0Crypto.comArena, where the Dream pulled out an 88-82 win. Los Angeles was without Cameron Brink and Rae Burrell, while Jackson played limited minutes off the bench. The Sparks shot 44.8% from the field and 42.1% from three-point range in the contest and collected 12 steals, tied for their second-most in a game this season.<\/p>\n
Dearica Hamby recorded a season-high 28 points (10-for-15 FG, 8-for-9 FT) along with eight assists and four steals her last time out against Atlanta. The 11th-year veteran is putting together an All-WNBA campaign, averaging 18.2 PPG and 7.2 RPG.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Kelsey Plum contributed 27 points on 50% shooting, five assists and four steals. The three-time All-Star has already set the Sparks single-season records for points scored, three-pointers made, free throws made and 20+ point performances. The Washington alumna is seven assists from breaking the franchise single-season assists record and is averaging 19.9 points, narrowly trailing Lisa Leslie’s record 20.0 in a Sparks season.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Allisha Gray notched a team-high 25 points (7-for\u20138 FG, 2-for-2 3PT, 9-for-9 FT) against Los Angeles in May. The ninth-year guard has also made 93 three-pointers this season, ranking third in the league.<\/p>\n
Rhyne Howard has been a reliable complement to Gray, averaging 16.8 PPG to her teammate’s 18.6. Coming off a strong performance against the Sun, the former No. 1 overall pick and three-time All-Star continues to showcase her talent.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Sparks visit the Dream for two games in three days with playoff implications for each.\u00a0Through Sept. 2,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":116064,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[629],"tags":[49,48,82,630],"class_list":{"0":"post-116063","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wnba","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-sports","11":"tag-wnba"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116063","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=116063"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116063\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/116064"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=116063"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=116063"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=116063"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}