{"id":112993,"date":"2025-08-27T05:07:07","date_gmt":"2025-08-27T05:07:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/112993\/"},"modified":"2025-08-27T05:07:07","modified_gmt":"2025-08-27T05:07:07","slug":"dearica-hambys-25-points-arent-enough-as-sparks-fall-to-mercury","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/112993\/","title":{"rendered":"Dearica Hamby’s 25 points aren’t enough as Sparks fall to Mercury"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Execution, intensity, and pacing defined Tuesday\u2019s matchup at Crypto.com Arena, where the Sparks<\/a> (17-19<\/a>) faced the Phoenix Mercury (23-14) in their third meeting of the season, with the Sparks losing for the third time to the Mercury, 92-84<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Before the game, Sparks coach Lynne Roberts emphasized the importance of focus on both ends of the floor.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor us offensively, it\u2019s going to come down to pace and being willing to execute,\u201d Roberts said. \u201cYou have to execute with intensity and intention.\u201d<\/p>\n

With 40.5 seconds left in the third quarter, things got chippy on the court when Rickea Jackson slipped and limped off, sidelined for the remainder of the quarter.<\/p>\n

Sparks forward Dearica Hamby\u2019s scoring run early in the second quarter helped the Sparks briefly take the lead. After hitting a jumper to tie the score at 24, Hamby drew a foul and hit one of two free throws to put Los Angeles ahead 25-24. She finished with 25 points and eight rebounds. <\/p>\n

But the Sparks couldn\u2019t hold the advantage for long. The Mercury led 48-40 at halftime and maintained control throughout.<\/p>\n

Satou Sabally paced Phoenix with 19 points and three rebounds. Kahleah Copper added 18 points and three assists, while Alyssa Thomas had a triple-double with 12 points, 16 rebounds and 15 assists.<\/p>\n

Despite strong performances from Jackson (21 points) and Hamby, the Sparks couldn\u2019t break through against Phoenix\u2019s balance and depth.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Execution, intensity, and pacing defined Tuesday\u2019s matchup at Crypto.com Arena, where the Sparks (17-19) faced the Phoenix Mercury…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":112994,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[24796,48944,26137,4281,73733,4232,18740,13544,9532,17589,68329,31878,23629,73734,99,11484,434],"class_list":["post-112993","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wnba","tag-assist","tag-dearica-hamby","tag-intensity","tag-los-angeles-times","tag-matchup","tag-mercury","tag-phoenix","tag-point","tag-quarter","tag-rebound","tag-rickea-jackson","tag-spark","tag-sparks","tag-sparks-coach-lynne-roberts","tag-sports","tag-tuesday","tag-wnba"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112993","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=112993"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112993\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/112994"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=112993"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=112993"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=112993"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}