julie allemand

The Sparks defeated the Dallas Wings 91-77 on Sunday at Crypto.com Arena to keep their faint playoff hopes alive heading into the final week of the regular season.

Julie Allemand finished with 21 points, a career-high five steals and four assists, and Rae Burrell had 13 points as the Sparks went on a 16-0 run in the fourth quarter.

The Sparks (20-22) must win their final two games against Phoenix and Las Vegas and have Seattle lose to Golden State on Tuesday to make the postseason.

The Sparks led for nearly the entire game, capitalizing on 10 three-pointers, 12 steals and six players scoring in double digits.

Dallas, however, went on a 19-2 run at the beginning of the third quarter and managed to briefly lead twice.

Amy Okonkwo hit a three-pointer with 8.9 seconds left in the third quarter to give the Wings (9-34) a one-point lead. But the Sparks didn’t waste time responding, with Allemand hitting a three-pointer before the buzzer that put the Sparks ahead for good.

The Sparks then pulled away in the fourth quarter, with Burrell scoring 11 points.

Momentum shifted in the third quarter as the Wings went on a 19-2 run in the beginning of the quarter.

Dallas managed to take a one-point lead late in the third quarter before Allemand hit a three-pointer before the buzzer that put the Sparks ahead for good. Burrell scored 11 points in the fourth quarter to help the Sparks pull away.

Azurá Stevens had 13 points and 11 rebounds, and Dearica Hamby finished with 15 points and 13 rebounds. Kelsey Plum had 12 points and Rickea Jackson contributed 11 points.

Dallas rookie Paige Bueckers finished with 18 points, seven assists and six rebounds for Dallas. Myisha Hines-Allen had 15 points, 13 rebounds and seven assists. Maddy Siegrist added 13 points and four rebounds for the Wings.

Less than 10 days ago, the Seattle Storm and the Sparks battled deep into a second overtime — the first of the 2025 WNBA season — wringing every drop of drama out of Climate Pledge Arena. On Sunday night, the same stakes were at play as the teams tried to strengthen their playoff chances.

The intensity didn’t let up till the final horn. With 5.6 seconds left, Dearica Hamby roared into the paint and scored on a driving layup to put the Sparks ahead for good. After the Storm missed their final chance to win, pandemonium spilled onto the floor — Sparks players leaping into one another’s arms, fans hollering over the hardwood, chanting “Hamby” in celebration of the Sparks’ 94-91 victory.

In addition to Hamby’s last-minute heroics, Kelsey Plum proved vital to helping the Sparks win for the ninth time in 11 games. She finished with 20 points, seven assists and six rebounds.

Sparks coach Lynne Roberts has painted Plum as a shape-shifter — able to twist her game into whatever the game demands.

“That’s what your best players should do — get everybody else involved and make sure we’re flowing,” Roberts said before the game, “and then when they need you, you step up. She’s done a tremendous job.”

Trailing the Storm (16-16) by 17 in the first quarter, Plum, who still hadn’t scored yet, tore into a one-on-five fast break, freezing the defense with a hesitation at the arc and a glide into the basket for an and-1.

Seconds later, Plum created another opportunity off an extended right elbow, drilling a three-pointer in Erica Wheeler’s face.

Sparks guard Kelsey Plum, right, drives against Seattle guard Brittney Sykes in the fourth quarter Sunday.

(Luke Hales / Getty Images)

It was the spurt of momentum the Sparks (15-16) needed to overcome a sputtering start.

Playing the entire first half, Plum went from the table-setter to shot-maker in the second quarter — springing Rae Burrell for a corner three before splashing a triple to tie the score 29-29 early in the second quarter.

Azurá Stevens and Cameron Brink were strong in the key early, but the Sparks clanked jumpers, dribbled into traffic and watched offensive possessions die on the rim in addition to committing eight first-quarter turnovers. So Roberts rolled the dice on a smaller look — swapping her paint patrol of Stevens and Brink for guards Julie Vanloo and Burrell.

Plum and Julie Allemand kept the smaller unit in constant motion, whipping passes from wing to wing and slicing open lanes for Burrell and Rickea Jackson, while Vanloo, Allemand and Plum cashed in from beyond the arc. Roberts rode that group into the second quarter, and they eventually whittled the deficit.

When the final buzzer faded, players were still grinning through hugs, and the crowd’s enthusiasm continued — excitement for a Sparks team that had yanked itself out of the fire.

When Julie Vanloo drew her second traveling violation before halftime, the crowd’s disapproval rose in unison.

On the floor, with tempers simmering on the Sparks’ bench, a delay-of-game whistle drew another round of jeers from the Crypto.com Arena crowd.

The calls weren’t the only sources of frustration for the Sparks — the team also was trailing the last-place Connecticut Sun by 10 points.

Still, the flare-up might have been what the Sparks needed to rally to a 102-91 victory over the Sun to earn their eighth win in nine games.

“Since the beginning of the season, I’ve been optimistic about what this team would look like and why I want to be here and why I want to continue to be here,” Dearica Hamby said. “[This team is] one of the fastest teams I’ve been with. … We’re not done yet, we’ve got a lot more to accomplish.”

After their deficit swelled to 13 points late in the second quarter, the Sparks (14-15) went on a 14-0 run, trimming the Sun’s lead to 51-49 by halftime.

In the third quarter, Hamby helped the Sparks keep pace with the Sun (5-24). Hamby racked up six points, an assist and a defensive rebound over four minutes.

A three-pointer by Rae Burrell late in the third quarter gave the Sparks a 66-64 lead. The Sun managed to tie it in the fourth quarter before a Cameron Brink three with 8:06 left gave the Sparks the lead for good.

Sparks teammates (from left) Rickea Jackson, Cameron Brink and Rae Burrell react during the fourth quarter Thursday.

(Luke Hales / Getty Images)

“We’ve hung in there and, as I’ve said, didn’t lose sight of the big picture when we had all those injuries and a lot of adversity,” Sparks coach Lynne Roberts said. “We’ve had a lot of adversity in that sense, and took some tough losses. But it’s a great group. They’re good people and they want this team to do well.”

Julie Allemand was a consistent force throughout the game, finishing with 10 points, 11 assists and 11 rebounds to become the 22nd player in WNBA history to record a triple-double.

“She was just dialing today, she was really good,” Roberts said. “It was impossible in the second half to take her out of the game. … She was just unbelievable.”

From the opening quarter — when Allemand flashed her handle with a flurry of steps, an in-and-out dribble and a hard drive before dishing to Rickea Jackson for a three-pointer at the extended elbow — the Allemand Act didn’t let up.

She proved to be an essential floor general for the Sparks, as the Sun held leading scorer Kelsey Plum to just one point in the first half.

“KP didn’t have a great offensive first half,” Allemand said. “I’m trying as a point guard to see what I need to do to help this team — if it’s scoring, if it’s rebounding, playing defense, offense, depending how [to] fuel my teammates on the court, and I think that’s what I did today.”

Hamby finished with 21 points, five rebounds and four assists and Jackson scored 20 points. Plum surged in the second half to finish with 18 points and Burrell had nine points off the bench.

With Brink back proving to be strong on both ends — she finished with 11 points, five blocks and two rebounds — the Sparks turned Crypto.com Arena’s boos into all cheers by the end of the game.

Dearica Hamby lined up for one of those last-second launches as the first-half clock dipped toward zero.

The ball clanged off the front rim, appearing short — until backspin carried it to the back iron for a second bounce.

With Julie Allemand holding her knees and Kelsey Plum already prancing away, the ball kissed the rim twice more. And, finally, after a two-second pause that held the whole arena hostage, the ball dropped. Hamby fell with it, her teammates swarming to lift her as Crypto.com Arena erupted for what was perhaps the Sparks’ finest half of basketball of the season in a 99-80 stomping of the Washington Mystics.

Hamby’s arena-triggering triple capped a solo 10-point scoring spree and a 20-minute performance where the ball zipped across the hardwood, the defense suffocated and every Spark had their fingerprints on a rout of the WNBA’s seventh-best team.

By the end of the first half alone, Hamby had piled up 18. Plum chipped in 14. Jackson poured in nine and Stevens poured in eight. Facilitating it all, Allemand dealt eight assists. And — in what didn’t reflect itself on the box score the way it did on the hardwood — the Energizer Bunny chimed in with four.

Energizer Bunny?

Coach Lynne Roberts awarded that label to Rae Burrell before Tuesday night’s showdown, adding that “she brings life and energy” to the squad.

When Burrell picked off her first pass of the night, she orchestrated a play that would lead to Julie Vanloo finding a wide-open Sania Feagin in the paint, capping off a clinic in ball movement.

When Burrell stole her second pass of the night, she took matters in her own hand, going coast to coast for an and-1 layup in the paint.

And each time, it seemed as though everyone profited off the Bunny. Her contagious energy seemed to leak on to each of her teammates, who sliced through gaps on offense and brought out the clamps on defense to limit the Mystics (11-11) to just 12 points in the second quarter.

In the process, Sonia Citron and Kiki Iriafen — the Mystics’ rookie duo who will compete in the All-Star game this Saturday — were held to a combined two points.

Meanwhile, Plum — the Sparks’ All-Star — seemed to have a dress rehearsal Thursday night, tuning up her shot ahead of Friday’s three-point contest and Saturday’s All-Star Game.

Plum opened the night on a tear — nine points on a perfect 4-for-4 start, including one from beyond the arc. With cutters carving up the defense and her bigs sealing space down low, she shifted gears into facilitator mode as well, racking up six assists by game’s end.

And this time, the Sparks (8-14) didn’t let their scoring avalanche slip through, cruising into the All-Star break with a wire-to-wire double-digit buffer.