SEATTLE -- Somehow, the Sparks are staying alive.
The Sparks (19-20) were tired from their game against the Mystics in Los Angeles on Sunday. They were down 17 points in the third quarter against a very good Storm team. But the Sparks reached deep down, came back, and closed the game on an 11-0 run to defeat the Seattle Storm, 91-85.
Dearica Hamby and Rickea Jackson dominated in the second half. Hamby was getting inside with little pushback from the Storm (22-20) while Jackson, who was questionable coming into this game, moved a lot better on Monday than she did against the Mystics on Sunday when she was being used as more of a catch-and-shoot threat.
"I felt like it has been tough, you know, overthinking a little bit in a sense of you don't want to push too hard," Jackson said, who had a clutch block on Nneka Ogwumike with 30 seconds left. "But at the same time, if you're out there, you've got to play hard. So I've been trying to find that balance but I've been moving way better. I was able to get downhill today and not just down the perimeter."
Jackson knew the Storm was going to test her movement.
"I feel like teams been trying to see how my leg is first play of the game. They're trying to come at me, which is cute, but I feel like just got to play through it but I'm definitely feeling way better now," Jackson quipped.
Sparks coach Lynne Roberts praised Jackson for coming through.
"Rickea's been tremendous closing games out. Tremendous. And we just have so much confidence in her," Roberts beamed. "Dearica, KP (Kelsey Plum), they kind of kept us close. And then Rickea just... she's a winner and can just make plays down the stretch; she's done it for us all season."
When pressed further, Coach Roberts continued.
"I think she's just competitive as hell," Roberts said.
"Nobody can guard her," Hamby chimed in.
"Yeah, obviously the talent, right? But there's talent across the league," Roberts continued. "It's the mindset of she doesn't fear the moment and it's one thing to be able to hit the shot, to get your number called; it's another thing to want it. And I think that's what separates her."
They thought the Storm were eventually going to go cold from the perimeter.
"They were out of their bodies the first half from the three-point line and some of that we wanted to give up but we were kind of giving up open threes," Hamby said. "We just talked about at half, like, we didn't think that they could sustain that. For them to go make nine more threes than us and us to win by six, that's crazy. We just kind of stayed with the game plan of what we wanted to do and we knew that it would change for us."
Storm went 10 for 17 (.588) from the three in the first half but went cold in the second half as they went 3 for 15 (.200).
The Sparks dominated in the paint and doubled the Storm's output, 60-30.
With 2:47 left, the Storm were up, 85-80. Hamby made a lay-up to cut the deficit to three. After a Storm miss, Jackson made a short pull-up jumper to make it 85-84. Ogwumike, who had been hot from three, missed another shot behind the arc. That was followed by Hamby making another shot inside and drawing a foul to give the Sparks the lead for good.
Hamby made her 12th double-double of the season with 27 points and 11 boards. Jackson scored 23 points, which included a desperate banked three to end the third quarter and give them momentum going into the fourth. For the home team, Nneka Ogwumike had 21 points and made five threes (all in the first half). Skylar Diggins also had 21 points.
It was also fun to see a match-up between Cameron Brink (nine points, five boards) and Dominique Malonga (eight points, two blocks). Brink fouled out in 13 minutes while Malonga herself was in foul trouble in 14 minutes of play.
After impressive wins in back-to-back nights, the Sparks now have the same number of losses as Storm and hold the tiebreaker over them. The problem is that the Storm only have two games left in the season while the Sparks still have five. They're going to have to win out to ensure them a playoff spot.
And it never gets easy for the Sparks as they will be in Georgia for the next few days to face the Atlanta Dream. Twice.