Despite the Los Angeles Sparks’ gritty 88-83 road win over the Phoenix Mercury to keep their playoff hopes alive, the Seattle Storm spoiled the celebration by securing a victory of their own Tuesday to clinch the final postseason spot.<\/p>\n
Cameron Brink and the Sparks refused to let their season end quietly. Brink finished with four points, six rebounds and two steals.<\/p>\n
Kelsey Plum added 17 points and five assists, while Dearica Hamby posted a near double-double with 25 points and nine rebounds. Rae Burrell contributed 20 points as the Sparks improved to 21-22.<\/p>\n
With the win, Los Angeles improved to 21-22 and kept its postseason hopes flickering momentarily \u2014 but the Sparks were officially eliminated from contention, when the Seattle Storm clinched the final playoff spot with a one point win over the Golden State Valkyries. Los Angeles became the last team eliminated from the 2025 WNBA postseason.<\/p>\n
Still, the road win in Phoenix was a testament to the team’s resilience down the stretch.<\/p>\n
Phoenix, meanwhile, was led by Satou Sabally’s 24 points, while Alyssa Thomas posted a triple-double with 10 points, 11 rebounds and 10 assists. Kahleah Copper added nine points and four rebounds for the Mercury, who fell to 27-16 but remained locked into fourth place in the WNBA standings with the playoffs looming.<\/p>\n
The Mercury outpaced the Sparks in the first quarter behind five points from Copper, jumping out to a quick 25\u201319 lead heading into the second. But in the second quarter, the Sparks responded with a strong push, led by a dominant showing from Burrell, and took a 45\u201344 lead into halftime.<\/p>\n
After the break, both teams traded buckets in a tightly contested third quarter. Los Angeles found momentum behind a spark from Plum and Julie Allemand and the sparks clung on to a one point lead heading into the final 10 minutes.<\/p>\n
In the fourth, both teams traded blows in a tense, back-and-forth finish. Hamby delivered in the clutch for the Sparks and led the way to an 88-83 win.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Los Angeles wraps up its season at home with one final challenge\u2014a matchup against A’ja Wilson and the surging Las Vegas Aces.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Despite the Los Angeles Sparks’ gritty 88-83 road win over the Phoenix Mercury to keep their playoff hopes…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":146155,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[99,434],"class_list":["post-146154","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wnba","tag-sports","tag-wnba"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146154","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=146154"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146154\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/146155"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=146154"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=146154"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=146154"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}