Kelsey Plum is scoring at a level that puts her in very rare company. She hasn’t had a bad game this season, and her latest outing against the Las Vegas Aces was her best yet. Coming back to face her former team, she reminded everyone why she is still one of the WNBA’s most dangerous scorers.
Plum ended the game scoring a whopping 38 points, nine assists, and four rebounds to help the Los Angeles Sparks secure a 101-95 road victory over the Aces. And with that stat line, she officially joined Caitlin Clark as the only players in the WNBA this season with five 20‑point games. It’s exactly that milestone that caught the attention of Anaheim legend Magic Johnson, part‑owner of the Sparks, who took to his X page to spotlight Plum’s rampage. As he wrote, “My Los Angeles Sparks beat the Aces on the road in Las Vegas 101-95! They were led by Sparks superstar Kelsey Plum with 38 points.”
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That short post does more than just cheer on the Sparks. By naming Plum and pointing to her 38‑point rampage, Magic shows how quickly she has stepped into the role of the league’s next high‑volume scorer. It also quietly places her right alongside names like Caitlin Clark, who are already being talked about as the faces of the WNBA’s new era.
To say that Kelsey Plum’s performance was impressive would even be an understatement if you consider the circumstances of it. The Sparks went up against the defending champions, a championship-caliber team like the Aces. And Plum dropped 38 points on them on their home court. And the fact that she did that without fellow veteran Nneka Ogwumike’s presence makes it even more impressive. As Magic Johnson also said in his post, “What makes this win so special is that they did it without a big part of their team, Nneka Ogwumike, who did not play tonight.”
While Kelsey Plum obviously shouldered the team to victory, Magic Johnson also did well to acknowledge the other Sparks players who delivered strong performances as well. “It was a total team effort. Dearica Hamby and Cameron Brink both had 16 points, and I was very impressed with Brink’s play tonight,” he wrote. He further added, “Ariel Atkins had 11 points. Rae Burrell and Erica Wheeler both scored 10 points. And Wheeler hit a big three-pointer down the stretch to seal the win for us.”
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The Sparks have now secured their third victory of the season out of the six games they have played so far. Their next game’s against the Washington Mystics on May 30. They will be hoping to continue building momentum by securing another victory.
“Most Unselfish 38 Points I’ve Ever Seen”: Lynne Roberts Praises Kelsey Plum After Explosive Performance vs Aces
Perhaps the even more impressive part of Kelsey Plum’s performance against the Las Vegas Aces was the fact that she also dished out nine assists. Doing that alongside a whopping 38-point scoring night is indeed remarkable. Lynne Roberts gave what was perhaps the perfect description of the performance during the postgame presser. “KP was unbelievable,” she said. “I mean, that’s the most unselfish 38 points I’ve ever seen. Just huge.”
When asked what exactly has been working for Plum given her red-hot form this season, coach Roberts also further praised the veteran guard. “I think Kelsey is, in a word, just competitive,” she said. “She’s competitive as hell.” In fact, Roberts believes that competitiveness goes beyond the court and also works to the benefit of the Sparks franchise itself. As she explained, “What she’s done for our org has been remarkable in terms of validation. And all the things and the players that we got in free agency. KP is a big part of that because she’s a competitor in that space too.”
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And so, for Coach Roberts, Plum absolutely deserves to be in the conversation when discussing the very best players in the league right now. In fact, she feels it is an injustice that Plum’s name is not among those conversations more often. As she said, “I personally don’t think she gets talked about enough in the best player conversations, those MVP conversations, for whatever reason. It’s kind of an injustice there.”
What makes this feel like a quiet turning point is that it’s not just the Sparks’ locker room buzzing about Plum. Magic Johnson, a name still tied to Los Angeles basketball in the way few others are, is the one publicly calling her out by performance. When someone like that links Plum to this kind of scoring streak, it nudges her story into the same space as Caitlin Clark’s breakout runs.
Right now, Kelsey Plum ranks second in scoring average with 24.6 points per game. She is also currently seventh in the WNBA with 5.8 assists per game. It’s an incredible season she’s having so far. And if she does keep this level up, it might end up becoming quite a special season for the Los Angeles Sparks, too.
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