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.
Bueckers, the top overall selection in April’s WNBA draft, finished with 44 points – the highest-scoring game ever by a WNBA rookie.
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 one game behind in the race for the league’s eighth and final playoff spot with nine games left in the regular season.
Rickea Jackson scored a team-high 25 points to lead the Sparks, who have alternated wins and losses for the past seven games. Plum finished with 20 points, and Dearica Hamby had 13 points and nine rebounds. Cameron Brink added 11 points and eight rebounds off the bench in a season-high 19 minutes.
The Sparks scored the first eight points of the fourth period 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.
Bueckers scored 28 of her 44 in the second half for the Wings, who dropped to 9-27. Maddy Siegrist added 13 points for Dallas.
The Sparks missed their first nine shots from the field before Jackson’s corner 3-pointer 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,” Sparks coach Lynne 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.”
However, 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 Dearica Hamby with 3:11 left in the half before Dallas answered.
Bueckers’ attacking style helped the Wings cut the margin to 44-37 by halftime.
Wings coach Chris Koclanes hoped 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.
Sparks head coach Lynne Roberts on guarding Paige Bueckers while pushing for the playoffs with 10 games left in the regular season.
Coach Roberts said the team’s defense needs to be better as the the Sparks look to win more games than they lose during the homestretch. #WNBA pic.twitter.com/qTfbxd7p1R
— John W. Davis (@johnwdavis) August 21, 2025