LOS ANGELES, August 9 (AP) -- Alana Beard scored 22 points to lead the Washington Mystics to an 80-75 victory over the Los Angeles Sparks on Thursday night.

DeLisha Milton-Jones and Coco Miller added 12 points apiece for the Mystics (14-15), who have won four straight and nine of 12 to move two games ahead of New York for the fourth and final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference.

"The main thing tonight was that we got some assists,'' Mystics coach Wayne "Tree'' Rollins said. "We had 21 assists and, normally, we average about seven assists. So we shared the ball, which is very key.''

Beard needs only two points to reach 2,000 for her career.

"I'm proud of the way we stuck together through adversity,'' Beard said of the Mystics' 0-8 start. "This is the closest team I've been a part of. We have a great mixture of veterans and youth, and we complement each other very well.''

Taj McWilliams-Franklin and Christi Thomas each scored 14 points for the Sparks (9-20), who have lost four in a row and 18 of 22. Temeka Johnson added a season-high 13 points.

The Mystics, who trailed by as many as seven points late in the third quarter, used an 8-0 burst to take a 68-60 lead with 5:05 to play. Miller led the surge with four points.

McWilliams-Franklin made a layin with 6 seconds left to narrow the deficit to 78-75 but Milton-Jones converted two free throws with 5.2 seconds to play. The Mystics made 18 of 20 free throws.

The Sparks' Sidney Spencer missed a 3-point shot off the inbounds pass with 2.9 seconds left, and the rebound ricocheted off two teammates before going out of bounds.