Las Vegas Aces star Kelsey Plum was on the receiving end of a beratement from her head coach Becky Hammon during the team’s second consecutive loss to the New York Liberty.
In a video that circulated on social media, Hammon, 47, took direct aim at Plum, 30, pointing her finger in Plum’s face during a heated timeout in Game 2 of their second-round series against the Liberty on Tuesday, October 1. The Aces lost 88-84, falling into a 2-0 hole in their best-of-five series.
Plum finished 2-for-9 from the floor, with just six points in 27 minutes of play for the two-time defending WNBA champions.
While it’s not clear what Hammon was screaming at Plum on the bench, she made it abundantly clear how she felt about her team’s effort after the game.
“Quite frankly, we haven’t had the edge all year,” Hammon said to reporters. “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.”
No team has won three consecutive WNBA championships since the Houston Comets in 1999. Led by Cynthia Cooper, the Comets won the title in the first four years of the league’s existence from 1997 to 2000.
In her postgame comments, Hammon criticized her players averting their time and attention to off-the-court pursuits since winning their title last season.
“The whole league has been pissed off for the last eight months and my players are in commercials and this and that and being freaking celebrities,” Hammon argued. “You get distracted. That’s why it’s hard because human nature is distracting.”
Hammon also lamented her team’s propensity for turning the ball over in Game 2. Plum committed three turnovers, which tied for the team-high.
“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 interaction with her head coach was the second contentious incident in as many games for Plum.
During Game 1 of the series on Sunday, September 29, Plum got into a verbal back-and-forth with Spike Lee, who was sitting courtside at New York’s Madison Square Garden.
The interaction between Plum and the famed director and New York sports diehard went viral — but Plum played the whole thing off after the game.
“I can’t say exactly what was said, but I told him that he should talk louder,” Plum said. “But it was all well and fun and really cool that he’s here. Even last round, it was really cool that he was here.”
She continued, “I know he’s a big sports fan, so it says a lot that he’s in the building, and he respects the game. So yeah, I was just having fun.”
The series between the Aces and Liberty shifts to Las Vegas for Game 3 on Friday, October 4.
