LA Sparks 2024 Olympic Recap: Another winless day in Paris

The games continue and the losses are piling up as Dearica Hamby and Team USA lose another 3x3 match and Li Yueru and China get blown out in 5x5 action.

With the Los Angeles Sparks’ Kia Nurse, Stephanie Talbot, Li Yueru and Dearica Hamby all participating in the Olympic games, we’ll be covering how the women are doing in Paris daily.

Here’s today’s recap of the action.

Team China 5x5

Yueru had arguably the best game of her life vs. Spain, but it still resulted in a defeat. In the second group game, China didn’t fare any better, losing to Serbia 81-59.

The Sparks center didn’t put up gaudy numbers this time but was productive, scoring eight points on 4-8 shooting along with 11 boards in her 24 minutes of play. Her biggest weakness against Serbia came at the free throw line, where she went 4-8 from the charity stripe.

Serbia controlled the contest throughout, but China stayed competitive through the first half.

In the second half, Serbia established its dominance. By the fourth quarter, they were able to completely shut down the Chinese offense and a single-digit advantage quickly became a blowout win.

With two losses and a point differential of -23, they are seriously at risk of being eliminated in the group stage of this competition.

Team USA 3x3

Hamby had a strong performance for Team USA in 3x3 action against Azerbaijan, leading the team in both points and rebounds.

She scored seven points on 5-8 shooting and grabbed five boards. No other player for Team USA played more than Hamby, who clocked in 8:13 minutes out of a possible ten.

Unfortunately, that performance did not result in a victory, as Team USA lost 20-17. This is their second loss and makes their gold medal defense all but over.

The game was even throughout and Hamby, in particular, made some key baskets down the stretch to put Team USA in position to win.

With the score even at 17 and under a minute to go, Tiffany Hayes of Azerbaijan made a critical layup to gain the lead with six seconds left. Hailey Van Lith took a desperation 2-point shot, but it didn’t go down and Azerbaijan hit a pair of free throws to end the game.

The 3x3 team will try to salvage this Olympic run on Thursday with two games on the schedule. The first matchup will be against Australia at 4 a.m. PT and the second versus Spain at 12:30 p.m. PT.

So far, no Los Angeles Sparks players have won a single game at the Paris Olympics.

You can follow Edwin on Twitter at @ECreates88.