Dearica Hamby scored 20 points, Rickea Jackson added 19 and the last-place Los Angeles Sparks closed the WNBA season with a 68-51 win over the playoff-bound Minnesota Lynx on Thursday night.
The Sparks (8-32) ended an eight-game losing streak and stopped Minnesota’s seven-game winning streak.
The second-seeded Lynx (30-10) are home against seventh-seeded Phoenix in the best-of-three opening round on Sunday afternoon.
Kia Nurse added 12 points for the Sparks.
The Lynx rested All-Star and Olympian Napheesa Collier, 3-point sharpshooter Kayla McBride and forward Dorka Juhasz, and had their worst offensive output of the season.
No player reached double figures for the Lynx as they shot 28.6% (16 of 56) from the field and had 17 turnovers.
Diamond Miller and Alissa Pili led the Lynx with eight points while Natisha Hiedeman had seven and Myisha Hines-Allen, Bridget Carleton, Alanna Smith and Courtney Williams all had six.
The Sparks took the lead early and kept it. They had a 16-point lead in the first half but settled for a 38-30 advantage at the break.
It was 53-44 heading into the fourth quarter. Williams completed a four-point play with 7:39 remaining to pull Minnesota within 53-48, but L.A. scored the next 13 points for a 66-48 lead with under three minutes remaining. Nurse had three of her four 3-pointers in the surge and Rae Burrell added another.
The Sparks went 2-14 after the Olympic break and will have the best odds in the WNBA draft lottery.
WNBA playoffs begin Sunday
The WNBA playoffs are set with the Atlanta Dream getting the eighth seed on Thursday night.
The postseason begins Sunday with four best-of-three matchups. The Dream face the top-seeded New York Liberty. The Minnesota Lynx, the No. 2 seed, will host the No. 7 seed Phoenix Mercury while the No. 3 Connecticut Sun will welcome the No. 6 seed Indiana Fever and sensational rookie Caitlin Clark.
The final opening round matchup is the two-time defending champion Las Vegas Aces, the No. 4 seed, hosting the fifth-seeded Seattle Storm.
Las Vegas is trying to become the first team to win three titles in a row since Houston won four straight in the first four seasons of the WNBA — from 1997 to 2000.
The better-seeded team will host the first two games of the series with a potential decisive third game to be played at the site of the lower-seeded squad.
Three of the eight playoff positions came down to the final day of the regular season.
The final playoff spot came down to the last day of the regular season. Atlanta needed a victory to clinch a spot and the Dream did just that by beating New York 78-67. The Liberty had already clinched the top seed. Connecticut knocked off Chicago 87-54 to secure the No. 3 seed.
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