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.
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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?
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Coach Lynne Roberts awarded that label to Rae Burrell before Tuesday night’s showdown, adding that “she brings life and energy” to the squad.
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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.
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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.
This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
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