Kelsey Plum ended up on the wrong side of a Becky Hammon tirade.
The Aces coach ripped into her guard Tuesday night during an 88-84 Game 2 loss to the Liberty in Brooklyn, with Plum throwing up her hands at one point, as captured by X user @MrAcosta89.
Plum had a rough night, scoring just six points on 2-of-9 shooting while committing three turnovers and posting a minus-five in 27 minutes while the Aces fell into a 2-0 series hole.
Hammon later ripped her players for seemingly being more focused on outside ventures rather than defending their back-to-back championships.
“Quite frankly, we haven’t had the edge all year,” Hammon said after dropping the first two games in Brooklyn. “We found it the last month, I feel like we’ve gained a lot of ground. But the feel was different from the jump and this is why three-peating is hard, let’s be real. The whole league has been pissed off for the last eight months and my players are in commercials and this and that and be freaking celebrities, and you get distracted. That’s why it’s hard because human nature is distracting.”
The video does not make it clear when this interaction occurred, but it’s possible Hammon’s outburst correlated to Plum’s defense and carelessness with the ball.
Two particularly brutal first-half defensive sequences from Plum stood out.
Plum first played matador defense on a fastbreak that allowed the Liberty to cut Las Vegas’ lead to 27-26 in the second quarter and elicited a timeout from Hammon.
Less than a minute later, Plum basically escorted Kayla Thornton to the basket for an uncontested layup that had Hammon furious again and burning another timeout.
Hammon harped on how many lay-ups the Aces allowed after the game, with the Liberty generating 44 points in the paint compared to the Aces’ 22.
Plum also accounted for 25 percent of Las Vegas’ turnovers, and the Aces’ 12 turnovers led to 22 points.
“I don’t even think it’s close if we quit passing it to the other team and turning it over,” Hammon said. “They had 20 points at halftime off our turnovers. The amount of lay-ups we gave up was obscene, looked like a lay-up clinic. That stuff’s on us.”
The Aces now have to win both games at home and then win a Game 5 in Brooklyn to advance back to the WNBA Finals. Game 3 is set for Friday night at 9:30 p.m. ET.
“We’re not doing what we need to win basketball games, not a a high enough level,” Hammon said. “It’s not good enough.”
