The Las Vegas Aces are off to a winning start. In their quest for a three-peat this time around, they took down the Phoenix Mercury 89-80 in their regular season opener at the Michelob ULTRA Arena. However, the experience turned out to be a little painful for the team’s No.10 Kelsey Plum. The 5 ft 8 in point guard was indulged in a rather uneasy situation while guarding against the Mercury’s small forward Kahleah Copper.

The game was evenly poised courtesy of a tremendous comeback by Phoenix in the second quarter. With the score at 38-34 in favor of the Aces, Cooper tried to close in the gap by attempting a 17-foot pullup jump shot. Unfortunately, it wasn’t a successful one and she fell down near the free-throw line knocking down Plum in the process. Soon after, as she was on the floor, her teammates A’ja Wilson, Alysha Clark, and Kiah Stokes surrounded her.

Following this, the game was halted as the officials wanted to have a closer look at the incident. A further evaluation by the officials revealed that Cooper had committed a type 1 flagrant foul with her contact to Plum’s face. Consequently, this awarded Las Vegas with 2 free throws. Anyhow, Plum wasn’t able to make the most of these opportunities and missed out on both of them.

In spite of that, her contributions were worthy enough to get the defending champions over the line.

A productive outing for Kelsey Plum

The 2× WNBA All-Star was among the top performers of the night for the Las Vegas Aces. In her 38 minutes on the court, she became the third-highest scorer by registering 19 points next to her name. Moreover, she also grabbed 3 defensive rebounds while dishing out assists. Plum also had an impactful shooting night by being 8 of 20 in field goals and 3 of 10 from beyond the arc. Combining with A’ja Wilson and Jackie Young, she scored at crucial junctures of the game to keep the Aces in the lead throughout the night.

It seems that the incident had no impact on Kelsey Plum whatsoever. She was able to turn up exactly the way everyone expected her to be. Consequently, Becky Hammon and the fans expect a great deal of things from her in the upcoming games. Only time will tell what she has to offer against her opponents this time around.