Kelsey Plum did not have her best night during the loss that led to the Aces falling into a 2-0 hole against the Liberty in their playoff series, and Becky Hammon let her hear it during a break in the action based on a video of the Las Vegas star receiving a pretty brutal tongue lashing.
All four teams that advanced to the second round of the WNBA Playoffs this year moved on with a two-game sweep of their opponents. That includes the Las Vegas Aces, who didn’t have much trouble dispatching the Atlanta Dream but knew they were facing some stiffer competition against the top-seeded New York Liberty.
The Liberty pulled out to a 1-0 lead on Sunday with an 87-77 win, as the Aces were unable to take advantage of a 24-point performance from 2024 WNBA MVP A’ja Wilson as well as the 21 points fellow superstar Kelsey Plum was able to contribute to the cause.
Las Vegas was obviously hoping to bounce back from the loss and even the series on Tuesday night, but they’ll now have to win three games in a row if they want to advance to the Finals after dropping the second game by a score of 88-84.
Wilson once again showed why she’s considered the best player in the league with another 24 point performance, but Plum was almost a non-factor in a contest where she posted just six points while going 2-for-9 from the field and committing three turnovers (she was also only on the floor for around 26 minutes after recording 37:02 on Sunday).
Aces head coach Becky Hammon had plenty of reasons to be frustrated thanks to how her team looked during the loss, and Plum ended up on the receiving end of a fiery tirade while sitting on the bench during a timeout while presumably being called out for failing to play to her standard.
Becky Hammond has going absolutely apeshit on Kelsey Plum during this last timeout pic.twitter.com/J7fsjjBAot
— Mr. Acosta (@MrAcosta89) October 2, 2024
The Liberty will have the chance to put the series away and punch their ticket to the WNBA Finals when the series heads to Las Vegas on Friday night.