Kelsey Plum Archives - Page 3 of 7

Becky Hammon knows how hard it can be to win, even if the Las Vegas Aces sometimes make it look easy.

As Hammon nears the end of her second season as head coach of the Aces, she still has yet to lose more than two consecutive games. And her team kept that streak alive Thursday, snapping a two-game losing skid with an 84-75 defeat of the Washington Mystics.

For the reigning champions, those two straight losses made reigning WNBA MVP A’ja Wilson feel like “we’ve lost 30 in a row,” she said after the win. Wilson finished with a game-high 26 points.

“Being great every night is hard,” Hammon said. “It’s hard, and they work their butts off every night to put on a great show every night. We’re spoiled watching their greatness.”

Individual players, too, know how hard it can be to win, and they know when they can do a better job. Kelsey Plum wasn’t her best scoring-wise against the Mystics (12 points, 10 assists), but that doesn’t mean she wasn’t still getting the job done – and she’s taking ownership over her struggles leading up to the win.

“For me, I’m better than what I’ve showed for the last seven or eight games,” Plum said. “We’ve had some slippages, and I feel like a lot of that is on me because I have to play the right way.”

On Saturday, the Las Vegas Aces suffered a rare defeat.

The Aces lost to the Mystics 78-62 in what was just their fifth loss of the season. Late in the contest, coach Becky Hammon could sense what was coming and made a strategic move, pulling her starters with 3:04 remaining.

“We didn’t have any legs,” Hammon told the media after. “We weren’t winning that game.”

Hammon said she had considered resting some key players before the game, acknowledging that the Aces are “just tired.”

Las Vegas went into halftime with a slim 30-27 lead. Things began to unravel in the second half, as the Mystics outscored the Aces 25-18 in the third quarter. Las Vegas couldn’t put up a counter effort in the fourth quarter, and so Hammon made the move.

Guard Kelsey Plum scored 21 points on 46 percent shooting for the Aces, but the rest of the team struggled. Las Vegas shot a season-low 30.8 percent from the field and 20.7 percent from long range. A’ja Wilson, who tied a WNBA single-game record with 53 points last week, scored just 14 points on 4 of 12 shooting.

“We didn’t do what we needed to do to win this game,” Plum said. “Give credit to them, but we’ve got to pack this one up and move on.”

Plum added: “This is not the end of our season, you know what I’m saying?”

The Aces (30-5) remain the top team in the WNBA with five games remaining in the regular season. Hammon’s team can get back on track Monday against the New York Liberty on the road.

On Tuesday night, A’ja Wilson made history.

The Las Vegas Aces forward scored 53 points to tie the WNBA single-game scoring record in the team’s 112-100 win over the Atlanta Dream. Even teammate Kelsey Plum, also an elite scorer, was floored by Wilson’s performance.

“I really feel like we’re watching just a generational talent,” Plum told reporters afterward. “What we’re seeing right now is historic, and it’s just beginning. This is one of the greatest players of all time.”

Wilson shot 16-for-23 from the floor and 20-for-21 from the foul line in the win.

She matched former WNBA center Liz Cambage, who scored 53 points for the Dallas Wings against the New York Liberty on July 17, 2018. Before Cambage, guard Riquna Williams became the first WNBA player to score at least 50 points in a game when she scored 51 for the Tulsa Shock against the New York Liberty in 2013.

Wilson’s tour de force pushed her points total this season to 735, the most in Aces history, surpassing Plum, who scored 726 in 2022. The outburst came just 11 days after the two-time MVP set her previous career high of 40 points.

Aces coach Becky Hammon echoed Plum’s sentiment when speaking of Wilson.

“She runs like a deer, jumps like a cat and catches as if she were Spider-Man,” Hammon told reporters. “She is just special. Her real gift is in her humility and grace and how she handles herself and her teammates. She is a phenomenal superstar.”

Wilson and the Aces are in the midst of a four-game road trip, which continues Thursday against the Chicago Sky. Las Vegas holds the best record in the league at 29-4 with seven games remaining in the regular season.

LAS VEGAS — A’ja Wilson and Chelsea Gray had Michelob Ultra Arena in the palm of their hands on Saturday.

With the ball wedged behind the backboard, Wilson grabbed a mop used for wiping sweat off the court and went to retrieve it. Then, as she said after the game, the music took over her body.

Wilson started to dance, and Gray joined in. As they moved in unison, the crowd cheered and laughed. It was one of the most genuine and vocal reactions from the crowd at the WNBA All-Star Game, and it had nothing to do with basketball.

The Aces duo took a mundane moment and made it magical.

Yo, we are crying!

Ball got stuck, but first @_ajawilson22 and @cgray209 had to take a dance break before gettin’ it down 😂😂😂@ATT #WNBAAllStar pic.twitter.com/pTjpGgtDXI
— WNBA (@WNBA) July 16, 2023

Over the last two seasons, Las Vegas has captured the attention of the basketball world. And as excitement surrounding the sport increases, the Aces are at the center of it.

“Since I came into the league until now, the increase in media attention, national games, social media has been tremendous,” said Aces guard Kelsey Plum, drafted first overall in 2017. “And I think it’s just going to continue to grow.”

The 2022 playoffs, in which the Aces took home the WNBA title, resulted in the most-watched WNBA postseason in 20 years. This year at the All-Star break, the league is on pace to register the most-watched season in history. Attendance is up 27%, TV viewership is up 67%, and the 2023 All-Star Game hosted in Las Vegas was sold out. It also clocked in as the most-watched All-Star Game in 16 years, with 850,000 average viewers tuning into ABC.

The Aces as a team are also making their mark on the growth of the game.

Halfway through the regular season, Las Vegas is firmly in first place at 19-2. They had four players voted into the All-Star Game — Wilson, Gray, Plum and Jackie Young — and Wilson served as a captain for the second season in a row after garnering the most fan votes. The Aces are also averaging the highest attendance in the league this season, welcoming over 9,000 fans per game, according to Across the Timeline.

“I think that we have some generational talent on this team,” Plum said. “And I also feel like we have some generational personalities. And I think that people connect with people. So growing the game is something that I think is important to us individually and collectively as a team.”

"Why wasn't I invited to the party?" 😂@_ajawilson22 pic.twitter.com/AIaQ771n3L
— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) July 16, 2023

On the court, the Aces have created one of the best teams in history. Their starting five includes four former No. 1 draft picks: Wilson, Plum and Young were selected by the franchise, while the fourth, Candace Parker, joined the squad in the offseason as a free agent. The fifth starter is Gray, who signed with the Aces in 2021 free agency and has since made herself invaluable, earning 2022 Finals MVP after a breakout playoff performance.

Coaching the team is Becky Hammon, a WNBA legend herself who went on to serve as Gregg Popovich’s assistant coach in the NBA before taking over the Aces organization and winning a title in her first season.

“I think with someone like Becky as well at the helm, it brings even more attention,” Plum said. “Las Vegas is like a perfect melting pot, and I think that it’s taken off in a way that’s been super beneficial to the game and to the league. And I think you see other organizations stepping up as well.”

Hammon heads up the Aces on the sidelines, but when it comes to the team’s public image, Wilson leads the way.

The 26-year-old has deals with companies like Ruffles and Starry that help her build her brand. But more than that, it’s Wilson’s personality that draws fans.

Her dance mid All-Star game was just a snapshot of who Wilson is. In press conferences, she professed her love for Bojangles, joked about her team not following curfew leading up to the game, and answered questions while holding assistant coach Tyler Marsh’s baby. When he started crying, Wilson looked into the media room and said: “Where are this baby’s parents?” The remark, as a Wilson joke usually does, elicited laughs from the media.

Wilson holds the attention of every room she’s in, and the same holds true on a basketball court.

She’s been instrumental in the Aces’ success, and there’s been plenty of it.

A'ja Wilson has become the lifeblood of the Aces team on and off the court. (Brian Babineau/NBAE via Getty Images)

The two-time MVP has been dominating the WNBA since 2018, when she was named Rookie of the Year after a standout career at South Carolina. For her career, Wilson is averaging 19.2 points, 8.5 rebounds and 1.8 blocks per game.

Las Vegas has finished in the top four of the WNBA standings in each of the last four seasons, and looks primed to finish on top again in 2023. They advanced to the Finals in 2020, appeared in the semifinals in 2021 and won the title in 2022.

“We win,” Wilson said. “It’s easy to cheer on a team when they’re winning. And that’s what it’s gonna take, for people to see us as winning the games, playing the right way and making it entertaining. So, when it comes to growing the league or the game, whatever you want to say, I think we do it in a way that’s like, ‘It’s us.’”

While the Aces are at the forefront of the league’s growth, they aren’t the only team that has a hand in it.

The most-watched game this season so far was between the Dallas Wings and the Los Angeles Sparks, and the most-attended contest was Brittney Griner’s return to Phoenix, when the Mercury took on the Chicago Sky.

The Aces have a personality that’s hard to ignore and is unique to their franchise. The other 11 teams, Wilson says, have their own thing.

“It’s going to look different for different teams, different cities,” she said. “But that doesn’t mean, like, don’t watch it or it’s not as entertaining. It is, it’s there. Give it a chance. And I think that’s what we do. We just go out there and be us.”

Eden Laase is a Staff Writer at Just Women’s Sports. Follow her on Twitter @eden_laase.

The WNBA All-Star weekend’s Orange Carpet did not miss.

This 2023 All-Star Game is taking place in Las Vegas, with the city’s fans serving as gracious hosts – cheering on the participants in the skills challenge and 3-point contest Friday and selling out the game itself Saturday. And Friday night featured another time-honored tradition: the Orange Carpet.

“It’s crazy to think yesterday was just Thursday,” Aces star and 2022 WNBA MVP A’ja Wilson said. “I feel like All-Star weekend started yesterday, but it obviously starts today. We’re going to have a lot of fun and entertain.”

For Wilson, it’s been fun getting to show off the city of Las Vegas and the growth that the women’s game has experienced since the team won its first title last season.

“We’re home, we’re here, and we’re happy to show everyone how we get down here in Vegas,” she said.

Chelsea Gray noted that it’s “pretty cool” to be at All-Star weekend with her Las Vegas teammates. “I know the vibes are going to be great,” she added.

And for Brittney Griner, the opportunity to be back at the All-Star Game is one she cherishes. The Phoenix Mercury center, who spent 10 months wrongfully detained in Russia in 2022, called it “a great feeling to be here.” She also added that she’s looking forward to playing on Team Stewart on Saturday.

“Being here right now, it’s a little surreal, a little bit,” Griner said. “Just taking it in.”

From New York Liberty star Sabrina Ionescu looking as sharp as she shot the ball in the 3-point contest to Indiana Fever rookie Aliyah Boston showing off her Adidas fit, check out highlights from the Orange Carpet.

Sabrina Ionescu, New York Liberty

(Grace Beal/NBAE via Getty Images)

Satou Sabally, Dallas Wings

(Grace Beal/NBAE via Getty Images)

Kelsey Plum, Las Vegas Aces