Dearica Hamby gets brutally honest on reason for Sparks' struggles

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2 days ago

The post Dearica Hamby gets brutally honest on reason for Sparks' struggles appeared first on ClutchPoints.
Chicago Sky guard Hailey Van Lith (2) drives to the basket against Los Angeles Sparks forward Dearica Hamby (5) during the first half at Wintrust Arena.The Los Angeles Sparks' current losing streak hit four games, and they started off their current road trip at 0-2. One particularly concerning trend in those two road losses in particular was how the Sparks lost. Through the first three quarters of those two games, the Sparks have played well only to fall apart in the fourth quarter. For Sparks veteran forward Dearica Hamby, she believes she knows the reason as to why the team continues to have struggles late in games.
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When the game gets tight in the fourth quarter and the opposing team starts making a run, Dearica Hamby feels like the Sparks' struggles are exacerbated by resorting to one-on-one play a little too often.
'Panicking. I don't think anybody has ill intention, but just trying to play hero ball. Obviously people have had success at it at certain points,' Hamby said following the team's recent loss to the Chicago Sky. 'We got to be more mentally tough to continue to play through that and continue to, like Coach [Roberts] said, do the things that were working in the first half and not resort to hero ball.'
'And quite honestly, we got to shoot better,' Hamby continued. 'We can't have our starting five at times, and it's not just this game, but continue to shoot not efficient shots.'
During the Sparks' latest loss, 97-86 against the Sky, they held a 69-67 lead at the end of the third quarter before being outscored 30-17 in the final period. The previous loss, 82-66 against the Minnesota Lynx, they only trailed 57-54 heading into the fourth quarter before being outscored 25-12.
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As the Sparks have struggled to maintain consistency throughout the season thus far, head coach Lynne Roberts believes some of the team's offensive woes late in games stems from their inability to get defensive stops in crunch time.
'We gave up 30 points, so it puts so much pressure on our offensive to make shots. We got to be able to get stops in the fourth quarter, same thing against Minnesota,' Roberts said. 'I think offensively, we got away from what was working, just too much one-on-one. We had a big lead, and it wasn't from going one-on-one. We've got to fix that and have some trust in the system and in each other and make sure we're getting great shots down the stretch.'
The Sparks have one more game remaining on this current road trip, Thursday evening against the Indiana Fever. They will then return home on Sunday, June 29 for rematch against the Sky.
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