The New York Liberty are maintaining their lead against their rivals the Las Vegas Aces. However, one Aces star, who is absolutely determined to make a difference today, is Kelsey Plum. The former NCAA all-time leading scorer has been scoring exceptionally well against the Liberty, even outshining the MVP A’ja Wilson, despite the latter continuing her white tee superstition. And one such patch of play between the two giant franchises caught all fan attention even though the ‘Sin City’ franchise lost Game 1 of Round 2 by 87-77.

“Leggo Kelsey Plum. She be cooking and smiling the whole time 😂,” one fan noted. Notably, the Aces were positioned at 23 points while the Liberty had inched to 32. To lessen this 9-point lead, Plum scored a driving layup that added two points to the Aces’ tally. Next, while she was noticed by the Liberty and contained, the 30-year-old passed the rock to Jackie Young to make a 26-foot three-point jumper. This again got them closer to the Liberty’s tally of 32 points as the latter failed to score in this patch. If that wasn’t enough, Plum then assisted Alysha Clark in making a 5-foot layup. All this took the score ultimately to 32-30 as the Liberty had to take a timeout to discuss their plans.

“Right now my main focus is just getting wins,” A’ja Wilson revealed the reason behind wearing only white t-shirts during her pregame appearances. The 2x WNBA Champion, from the beginning of September, had ditched her fancy clothes to push her team to a better positioning in the playoffs standings. The result of this was that Wilson won all 7 games of the regular season in which she came in white tees.

The effect was so prominent that Wilson released her own line of white tees in collaboration with Nike. Post that, the 28-year-old also emerged victorious in both the games of Round 1 against the Seattle Storm. Hence, when she came to battle against the Liberty, she again donned a white tee, this time from her recently released collection for Nike. However, Plum outshone her in the Barclay’s Center.

Up until the 5:38 seconds left in the second quarter, Plum had scored 8 points as compared to Wilson’s 6. She had also hit 2 of the three shots she had attempted from beyond the arc. Kelsey Plum wrapped the game with 24 points vs Wilson’s 21 points. Therefore, fans were happy that another Aces player was stepping up to make the game more nail-biting. And they expressed their joy on social media.

Las Vegas Aces fans ecstatic with Kelsey Plum’s step-up

“Plum is Pluming…,” even the WNBA legend Ticha Penicheiro came forward to appreciate Plum. Penicheiro had the record for the most assists by a rookie before Caitlin Clark overtook her. Hence, the appreciation coming from such an important player once again throws the spotlight on Plum. By the end of the third quarter, she had a team-high 21 points with 4 assists, Meanwhile, Wilson had 14 points with 4 assists.

“Kelsey Plum solo mission 😂 #AllInLV #LIGHTITUPNYL,” one fan humorously pointed out Plum’s role for her team in the semifinals. Notably, the point guard was singlehandedly reducing the deficit between the Aces and the Liberty. And for this, she deserved all the applause in the world.

“Kelsey Plum keeping the Aces alive,” another netizen was happy that Under Armour’s ‘Dawg’ had been helping Las Vegas stay in the game. Even during the third quarter, when the Liberty were leading by a 62-44 margin, Plum was keeping the Aces in contention by scoring two three-pointers that somewhat lessened the lead. The score then read 62-50. However, in this span, even Wilson needs to be credited since she was the one assisting Plum.

“Kelsey plum is playing alone in the seminfinal where is her team?,” one fan criticized the Aces for putting so much responsibility and pressure on Plum. As per the fan, since the No. 10 had helped the Aces narrow down two big deficits, the Las Vegas Aces’ other stars needed to step up. The MVP this season could only score 14 points up until the third quarter which reflected how difficult it was to match hoop to hoop with the Liberty’s enhanced defense. And nonetheless, Plum was doing the same. Except for her, the other Aces star making a difference was Jackie Young who had hit 17 points in the game so far.

“Kelsey Plum really wants to win this 🔥,” another social media user appreciated Plum’s hunger to win the game. Notably, the Aces had trumped New York during the Championship Finale series last season by a 3-1 margin. And hence, going for a three-peat, Plum looked confident of beating the Liberty once again by repeating her heroics. Last year during the Championship Finales, Plum averaged a whopping 21.25 points against the Liberty which would have boosted her confidence coming into this game.

While the Aces battle it out against the Liberty, fans would love to see a collective effort that might help the reigning champions emerge victorious in the 5 game series. But only time will tell if the hunger for the first ring wins or the will to make something rare happen overtakes everything.