Kelsey Plum spent a lot of time complaining about the referees at last Wednesday’s Lynx-Aces game. She raised the issue of uneven officiating in a halftime sideline interview: The Lynx “go on all their screens.” But by the time the postgame press conference began, the Vegas guard had changed her tune somewhat. “She cheated me,” Plum said, trying to explain Minnesota guard Courtney Williams’ 22-point performance that night. “She did amazing tonight, and when you get beaten, you’ve got to give other people credit.”
That’s one reason not to read too much into that game, and it’s also why I felt uncomfortable using it to make some broader point about the Las Vegas Aces’ defense, which dominated last season but has disappointed so far in 2024. Sometimes the other team just shoots well. The Lynx shot 11-19 from behind the arc in their 98-87 win on Wednesday. Williams did indeed cook the plum, but as head coach Becky Hammon pointed out afterward, Williams almost exclusively takes “long, off-the-dribble twos” that teams can give up on. Minnesota punished every poor defensive rotation — the same thing they’ve done to 10 other teams. That probably says less about the Aces and more about the Lynx than it does about them.