Sparks vs. Fire: Dearica Hamby, Nneka Ogwumike End Six-Game Skid in 106-101 Win After Kelsey Plum Trade

Kelsey Plum was shipped to Phoenix late Saturday night, which gave the Los Angeles Sparks about as much time to process it as you get between a bad text and a morning meeting. Then they walked into Moda Center on Sunday afternoon and scored 34 in the fourth quarter.

The Sparks beat the Portland Fire 106-101 to end a six-game losing streak, getting 23 points from Dearica Hamby and 22 from Nneka Ogwumike, 20 of them after halftime. Plum had been sidelined since June 21 with a leg injury, and LA is now 3-9 without her, so nobody in that locker room was exactly learning to live without her from scratch. It was still the team's first win since July 10, and the timing was almost funny.

A 16-0 Hole and a Long Climb Out

The Sparks actually punched first, going on an 8-0 run for a 10-3 lead. Then Portland answered with 16 straight in less than three minutes, and the home crowd of 13,638 got comfortable. The Fire feasted on four offensive rebounds and six LA turnovers in the opening period to go up 29-22, stretched the lead to 10 in the second, and took a 49-43 edge into the break.

The third quarter is where LA's offense woke up. The Sparks hung 29 on Portland, and back-to-back threes from Erica Wheeler and Ogwumike gave them a 65-64 lead, their first since it was 10-8. Bridget Carleton buried a three in the last minute of the period to tie it at 72, setting up a fourth quarter that had no interest in being reasonable.

The teams combined for 63 in the final 10 minutes. Wheeler's 24-foot pull-up at 4:34 made it 93-87, and Teja Oblak answered with two straight baskets to cut it to 93-91. Ogwumike and Emily Engstler traded buckets, and then Megan DiLeo's 26-footer with 1:32 left put Portland up 96-95 and blew the roof off the place.

It lasted seven seconds.

Ogwumike's Second Half, Hamby's Whole Game

Ogwumike answered from 25 feet at 1:25 to make it 98-96, then found Hamby for a layup and a four-point lead with 30.1 seconds to go. That's the kind of late-game sequence you'd expect from a veteran who only had two points at halftime and spent the next 20 minutes making up for it. She finished 8 of 18 with three threes and 10 rebounds.

Hamby was the steadier force. She went 11 of 15 from the field without taking a three, grabbed 10 rebounds, four of them offensive, and added four assists and two blocks. That's two double-doubles on one team on a day when the roster had every excuse to feel sorry for itself.

The rest of the Sparks arrived in a neat stack: Wheeler, Ariel Atkins, Rae Burrell and reserve Jihyun Park scored 12 each. Wheeler added eight assists and three steals, Atkins made all of her field goals from three, and Park shot 5 of 7 in 18 minutes. Cameron Brink chipped in seven points, five rebounds and two blocks in 21 minutes. Only eight players got into the game for LA, and six of them reached double figures.

That balance is the real story here. All eight of those players logged at least two assists, and the ball kept moving even as the game got tight: Wheeler set up Ogwumike's layup at 2:54 and her go-ahead three at 1:25. Nobody tried to replace Plum with one heroic night. They just kept passing until somebody was open, which is a pretty good plan for a team that suddenly has a lot of touches to hand out.

Portland had plenty to be annoyed about. Carleton was tremendous, drilling seven threes on the way to 24 points and 11 rebounds, and her 23-footer with 20.9 seconds left made it 102-101 after the Sparks seemed to have it wrapped up. Carla Leite scored 21 with eight assists, DiLeo added 19 points and eight boards, and Oblak gave the Fire 12 in just 13 minutes off the bench.

Seven Seconds in Portland

This was a game Portland controlled for long stretches. The Fire led for 61 percent of it, LA for just 28 percent, and the teams swapped the lead 10 times. The turning point is still easy to find. DiLeo's three gave the Fire the lead, gave the building its loudest moment and gave a team on a four-game skid a real shot at ending it. Ogwumike's reply came immediately, and Portland never led again.

From there the Sparks did what they couldn't do during six straight losses, which was finish. In the last 24 seconds, Ogwumike and Wheeler went 6 for 6 at the line. Wheeler's final four, at 19.1 and 13.2, came right after Carleton's three had made everybody nervous. Six free throws, no misses, one streak over.

The Fourth-Quarter Fireworks, by the Numbers

• 34-29: The Sparks' edge in the fourth quarter, the only quarter that really mattered.
• 33 of 39: LA field goals that came off an assist.
• 16 of 29: The Sparks from three, a sizzling 55 percent, against 15 of 37 for Portland.
• 46-36: LA's edge in the paint, with Hamby doing much of the work.

Finally, a Sparks Win to Talk About

Los Angeles moves to 11-17, 6-8 on the road, and is 2-0 against Portland this season after an 89-72 win in June. Next up is a trip to Chicago on Wednesday, and the team will have a few more days to figure out life after a trade it now has to live with for good.

Portland falls to 11-19, 6-9 at home, with five straight losses, four of them with the opponent topping 100. The second game of a five-game homestand went the wrong way, and fellow expansion team Toronto comes to town on Thursday.

The Breakup Scene

Every breakup movie has this part: the news lands, everybody expects tears and takeout, and instead our hero goes out the very next day and has the night of her life. It never fixes everything, and the second act is always harder. But there's a reason it's everybody's favorite scene. For one Sunday in Portland, LA got to enjoy it.

Stats from the official box score via ESPN. Game context as reported by the Associated Press via WNBA.com.