Kelsey Plum, Dearica Hamby sound off on ‘pick your poison’ attack

LOS ANGELES – A three-game losing streak is not something a team wants to start off a new season, and the Los Angeles Sparks kept that from happening, grabbing a 99-95 win against the Toronto Tempo on Friday. Helping lead the way for the Sparks was Kelsey Plum and Dearica Hamby who combined for 46 points as two of the team’s three leading scorers.

Kelsey Plum and Dearica Hamby have been teammates for eight seasons now going back to their days with the Las Vegas Aces. They’ve developed a potent chemistry in the pick and roll with Plum as the ball-handler and Hamby as the roller, and that chemistry has carried over with the Sparks.

Following the Sparks’ win against the Tempo, both Hamby and Plum discussed how their chemistry has continued to grow, and how important it is for the team’s offense.

“I think it’s pick your poison, and especially on the backside. We also have three elite scorers so we kind of emphasized that it may not be there as much this year, but we’re going to get it on the reverse side, reverse side, so keep playing through it,” Hamby said during her postgame press conference. “Obviously our chemistry is our chemistry, I know her probably better than anybody.”

The Sparks built a double-digit lead in the first half, including an early 21-2 lead in the first quarter alone. But the Tempo rallied to get back in the game, including keying in on the Plum-Hamby pick and roll and making things a little more difficult for Hamby in the paint.

For Plum, she emphasized that the duo might actually have more opportunities with the two-player game than they initially anticipated. The Sparks added other scoring options during the offseason, but sometimes the tried and true bread and butter is the best. Old reliable if you will.

“I think that especially in the first half, we kind of had it going. I thought they did a good job on her [Dearica] in the second half of trying to make sure that they were flooding the paint. And we got more threes, so that’s what happens,” Plum said after the game. “Dearica’s an All-Star player and we’re gonna be able to connect. Throughout the game, the defense has changed, you just got to make the right play. That’s what playing on a great team is.”

Plum led the way for the Sparks with a team-high 27 points, scoring 15 of those in the fourth quarter as the Sparks held off a late Tempo rally. She also added nine assists and three steals while shooting 10-of-16 from the field and 4-of-8 from 3-point range.

Hamby was the team’s third leading scorer with 19, behind Nneka Ogwumike’s 20. She also finished with seven rebounds and four assists while shooting 8-of-10 from the field and a perfect 3-of-3 from the free-throw line.

The duo have been the Sparks’ lone All-Stars the past couple of seasons, Hamby in 2024 and Plum in 2025. With the Sparks’ new additions, most nights it’s going to be a ‘pick your poison’ type of conundrum for opposing defenses like Hamby said. And there will be plenty of nights where the Plum-Hamby duo causes major headaches for opposing teams.

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