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    Kelsey Plum’s buzzer-beater helps Sparks edge Paige Bueckers, Wings
    • August 21, 2025

    LOS ANGELES — Kelsey Plum sized up her opponent and made a buzzer-beating layup, capping a wild fourth quarter and lifting the Sparks to an 81-80 win against Paige Bueckers and the Dallas Wings on Wednesday night at Crypto.com Arena.

    “I was getting downhill all game,” Plum said. “They were super physical with me, which is fine but I knew I was going to be able to get a good look, probably not all the way at the rim but something in the paint and I just felt like I didn’t want to settle and just turned the corner and floated it.”

    The All-Star guard said she more than ready to live with the results and the weight of taking the final shot in regulation.

    “I think you have to be a little psycho, you just have to not care,” said Plum, who finished with 20 points. “And it’s like hey listen, I didn’t want to give them a shot and I was going to shoot at the buzzer and live with whatever the result was.”

    Bueckers, the top overall selection in April’s WNBA draft, finished with 44 points – the highest-scoring game ever by a WNBA rookie. She shot 17 for 21 from the field (81%), including a 4-for-4 showing from 3-point range.

    “She was absolutely phenomenal,” Plum added. “She was the best player on the court tonight.”

    The Sparks led by seven points at halftime before Dallas grabbed a 66-59 lead heading into the fourth quarter, but the hosts overcame Bueckers’ monster night to improve to 17-18 overall and remain half a game behind Seattle (18-18) in the race for the league’s eighth and final playoff spot with nine games left in the regular season.

    Rickea Jackson scored 25 points and shot 6 for 7 from 3-point range to lead the Sparks, who have alternated wins and losses for the past seven games. Dearica Hamby added 13 points and nine rebounds, and Cameron Brink added 11 points and eight rebounds (four offensive rebounds) off the bench in a season-high 19 minutes, while still on a minutes restriction.

    “The mindset was just making shots if the ball is passed to me,” Jackson said. “Moving the ball. I feel like the beginning of the game on both ends we just looked like we’ve been off for a couple of days. … I feel like it was a team effort finding each other and just continuing to stick together.”

    The Sparks scored the first eight points of the fourth quarter to get back in the game, after which the lead changed hands seven times before Bueckers’ jumper with 2:50 remaining gave the Wings a 79-76 lead.

    A three-point play by Hamby 16 seconds later tied the score. Jackson received a technical foul for mixing it up with Wings rookie center Luisa Geiselsöder with 1:03 left, and Bueckers made the ensuing free throw to cap her career night and give Dallas an 80-79 lead.

    That set the stage for Plum’s game-winner, which came after a miss by Dallas’ Aziaha James with 20.5 seconds left.

    “The last play, I’m a believer in if there’s 15 seconds or less not to call timeout,” Sparks coach Lynne Roberts said. “If there’s like five seconds, yes you call timeout but if we have time to go then it takes the coaching out and players make plays and I think our players are good at playing in space and in transition, so just trusting them … just a heck of a finish by (Plum), pretty determined there to get the bucket.”

    Plum said she appreciated Roberts’ confidence in clutch time.

    “As a player, it’s a lot harder to make something happen or execute on a sideline out-of-bounds play just because the defense can set up, be physical and they have a scheme in place versus you’re kind of just coming up the court, everyone is kind of in limbo. They don’t really know what’s going on, especially the defense,” Plum said. “I think it was a really smart move by coach to just allow us to let it play out.”

    Bueckers scored 28 of her 44 in the second half for the Wings, who dropped to 9-27 and were officially eliminated from playoff contention. Maddy Siegrist added 13 points for Dallas.

    “She’s a phenomenal player, point-blank period,” Brink said of Bueckers. “She is amazing and kudos to her.”

    The Sparks missed their first nine shots from the field before Jackson made a corner 3-pointer to cut the Wings’ lead to 9-3 with 4:54 left in the first quarter. Bueckers scored eight consecutive points as the visitors built an 11-3 lead.

    “I would be confident if I were her too,” Roberts said before the game when asked about Bueckers’ 29-point game against the Sparks last week in Dallas. “We were letting her get where she’s really elite. She’s a heck of a player. She’s a star in the making and we’ve got to do a better job.”

    “We’ve just go to put pressure on her and it’s not whoever’s matched up with her. It’s not one-on-one, good luck. It’s got to be a team effort.”

    The Sparks closed the first period on a 15-5 run, capped by a Brink 3-pointer. The Sparks then outscored the Wings 15-4 to begin the second quarter and extended their lead to 39-24 after a layup by Hamby with 3:11 left in the half before Dallas answered.

    Bueckers’ attacking style helped the Wings trim their deficit to 44-37 by halftime.

    Wings coach Chris Koclanes was hoping to see Bueckers continue her hot streak against the Sparks.

    “Pick up right where she left off,” Koclanes said before the game. “Just confident to get downhill and dominate the paint. She’ll have some smaller guards on her at times where we can get her some touches closer to the basket, so just want her to remain confident and play downhill and get her touches and then continue to make simple, unselfish plays that she always has.”

    Koclanes has ties to Los Angeles. He previously was an assistant coach with the Sparks in 2023 and the USC women’s basketball team in 2023-24 before accepting the Wings head coaching position during the offseason from Dallas general manager Curt Miller, who coached the Sparks from 2023-24.

    UP NEXT

    The Sparks host the Phoenix Mercury on Tuesday at 7 p.m. in the second game of a four-game homestand.

    ​ Orange County Register 

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