Kelsey Plum lifts Las Vegas Aces to Game 3 victory over New York Liberty

LAS VEGAS – Becky Hammon spent most of the 2024 WNBA season looking for an edge.

The coach of the Las Vegas Aces, two consecutive WNBA champions, seeking the league’s first three-peat since 1999, wondered if his team was too tired, too distracted, too unmotivated. She couldn’t find that edge, the main one of the often-mentioned “intangible” factors, no matter where she looked – in the locker room, in training, with the starting five or the substitutes.

It seems Kelsey Plum took this personally.

Friday night at Michelob ULTRA Arena, Plum scored 20 points while growling, warbling and woofing the crowd – and the New York Liberty – as the Aces avoided elimination, winning Game 3 of their semi-final series. WNBA finals, 95-81, and forcing a tie. Game 4 on Sunday, also in Vegas. If the Aces find a way to win this one, Game 5 will be in New York on Tuesday.

And if Vegas wants to impose a winner-takes-all scenario, Plum will be in the thick of it and will probably tell everyone about it.

Easily one of the best talkers in all of professional basketball, men or women, Plum loves it when the crowd, or her competitors, get annoyed with her and start gossiping.

During the first game of that series, she met basketball super fan Spike Lee, sitting courtside at Brooklyn’s Barclays Arena. Plum scored 24 points in that loss, taunting Lee during a dead ball and imploring her to speak up, because she likes it. Friday night, in her exuberance, she went to the sidelines to greet an ecstatic and adorable young child wearing an Aces jersey.

After a first half gave the Aces a slim 53-49 lead at the break, Vegas exploded in the third quarter, outscoring the Liberty 21-6, including a 16-0 run. When Plum made a 3 – on the Aces’ offensive board – to go up 69-53 with 1:42 left in the third, the crowd of 10,369 exploded. It looked like the building could actually be filled with twice as many people.

The Liberty’s wheels then came off. New York called a timeout to stop the bleeding, but Courtney Vandersloot was whistled for a trip and then, furious at the call, a technical as she barked at the officials. A Plum free throw and 3 on the ensuing possession pushed the lead to 73-53. This could reach a 25-point advantage for the Aces.

“They competed, they had urgency, they got us out of our rhythm,” New York coach Sandy Brondello said. “They did what they were supposed to do.”

Guard Jackie Young (24 points) led all scorers, while A’ja Wilson (19 points, 14 rebounds) was her usual MVP self. Guard Tiffany Hayes, named Sixth Woman of the Year on Friday, scored 11.

The Aces were also excellent defensively, holding Liberty guard Sabrina Ionescu scoreless until the fourth quarter. She finished with only four points. Breanna Stewart led New York with 19.

In response to a comment Hammon made before the game — that she’s been waiting all season for all her guards to be clicking on all cylinders at the same time — Chelsea Gray (10 points, seven assists) said: “Man, We were waiting for this, too!”

Plum, who shoots the second most shots after Wilson and usually draws the best perimeter defender, is still the catalyst. And if outside forces don’t provide the necessary spark, Plum can create mischief of her own.

When asked after the game if she thought Hammon’s criticism of the team and its lack of upside was personally unfair, Plum gave a long and somewhat rambling response about how she “plays hard all the time.” She finished by saying, “So no offense, but that didn’t apply to me.”

Gray, sitting next to Plum, nodded curtly and deadpanned “Okay” as the room laughed.

A few minutes later, Hammon joined his players at a press conference. Gray said they were “talking about you,” before Plum stepped in to explain that according to media reports, Hammon said Plum didn’t have an advantage. Gray, incredulous, corrected Plum by shouting “team!” » Plum apologized for her misunderstanding while Hammon looked at her smiling.

“You’re sharp as a razor!” Hammon marveled as the room laughed.

Hammon, who coached eight seasons in the NBA, called Plum “competitive as hell, one of the greatest competitors I’ve ever been around, male or female…she played brilliantly tonight.”

Another thing Hammon said and continues to say: The Aces found their edge over the final 10 games of the season, and they carried it into the playoffs. But with Plum, Hammon said, “it’s always there.”

And for Aces, it’s always crucial.

Email Lindsay Schnell at [email protected] and follow her on social media @Lindsay_Schnell.