Sparks’ Kelsey Plum followed up career-best performance with her worst output of 2026 originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
On Saturday, Kelsey Plum set a new career high with 43 points in a thrilling overtime win over the Phoenix Mercury in the WNBA Commissioner’s Cup.
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On Monday, Plum endured a brutal nine-point game as the Los Angeles Sparks suffered one of their worst losses of the season.
So it goes in Los Angeles, where the Sparks are a .500 team and have one of the league’s worst defenses to pair with the explosive Plum-led offense.
MORE: Kelsey Plum and Kahleah Copper put on a duel for the ages in historic Sparks-Mercury showdown
Plum and the Sparks were never really in the game and trailed by as many as 24 points as they suffered a 78-58 loss to the Golden State Valkyries at Chase Center.
Granted, the Valkyries are a buzzsaw. Golden State has the WNBA’s No.2 defense by efficiency, and Monday marked the Valkyries’ sixth win already by at least 10 points.
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Plum, the WNBA’s leading scorer coming in, wasn’t comfortable at all in her 29 minutes. She shot just 3-of-10 from the floor and fouled out of the game with 4:25 remaining.
Plum had an offensive rating of just 74 during her 29:19 of game time, on a night when nothing really went right for Los Angeles. The Sparks shot only 33 percent as a team and never led.
The Sparks really will have to find some stability and consistency on the defensive end in order to end a playoff drought that began in 2021.
With so much competition around them, it won’t be easy for Plum and company.
