Sunday night featured the two teams that started the WNBA’s journey thirty years ago. But as harmonious as the pre-game brunch and a friendly tip-off between Lisa Leslie (Los Angeles Sparks) and Kym Hampton (New York Liberty) were, the game brought the same level of feisty energy on the floor. In one of the moments where the Sparks snatched away the 98-97 victory from Liberty, attention shifted to the host team’s Kelsey Plum.
With 2:28 remaining in the second quarter and the Liberty leading 47-38, Breanna Stewart attempted a three-pointer. As the ball rebounded, Leonie Fiebich jumped over the rest of the players to grab it. But as she came down, Plum was holding onto her left hand. As Fiebich shrugged her off, the referee assessed a loose-ball foul on Plum.
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As soon as the point guard realized, she tried to make sense of it all with the referee. She tried to tell them how Fiebich had been boxing out with her the entire night, but she wasn’t getting called. In all honesty, Plum trying to be aggressive made some sense.
Up to that point, Fiebich was the primary defender on Plum. The German is listed at 6-ft-4 while Plum is only 5-ft-8 — the size advantage was already making this matchup one-sided. But while trying to be aggressive, Plum was assessed her second foul, and Fiebich went on to make her two free throws to extend Liberty’s lead to ten points. However, Plum was certainly facing some rough physicality tonight as she had already made 9 of her 12 points by then, and assisted with another six points. See for yourself:
In the first quarter itself, Plum came out of the floor and had to get her left leg taped up, from the thigh to the calf. New York went on an 18-7 run in that part alone.
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They were repeatedly using their size advantage to trap her with double teams and make it more difficult for her to pass the ball. The Liberty used all their physicality to pressure the Sparks’ guard into making poor passes and stifle her shooting. While Plum had only one turnover, the visitors made her work every possession. And it certainly affected her.
She ended the 98-97 win with just 12 points on 5-14 shooting while going 1-7 from three, along with 7 assists.
But even beyond Plum, the Sparks weren’t too happy with the officiating throughout the game, with Dearica Hamby arguing for foul calls multiple times.
For the LA point guard, her injury was also a major factor in this game. In the second half, the wrapping on Plum’s left leg increased, but the guard continued to play. Fortunately, it did not matter when the final whistle sounded as the Sparks rallied from a 19-point deficit to win the game on Nneka Ogwumike’s buzzer beater.
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It was poetic that Ogwumike, the 14-year veteran and the WNBPA leader for the last two CBAs, scored the winner in the 30th Anniversary game with legends in the crowd.
“That would be called God. If you don’t believe in God, that’s exactly what that is,” Kelsey Plum told Justin Russo after the game.
The Sparks improve to 8-8 and snap their two-game losing streak with this win. Now, Plum and Co. need to hunt for consistency as they face one of the more relentless teams this year, the Toronto Tempo, on Thursday. They have the pieces to perform a lot better than they currently are. But Plum’s recovery might decide which direction this team goes next. New York will continue their road game stretch in Las Vegas this Tuesday.
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