Local News
Swanson: New Sparks star Kelsey Plum says bring the heat
LOS ANGELES — Congratulations, Kelsey Plum, it’s your team now.
If the Sparks put an end to their frustrating four-year playoff drought, it will be a credit to the team’s new leader, three-time All-Star Plum.
But if the Sparks fail for a fifth consecutive season to reach the postseason, you better believe the new face of the franchise is going to get her share of the blame.
And maybe this – signing off on the trade that delivered her from the Las Vegas Aces back to her native Southern California – will go down as one of those careful-what-you-wish-for scenarios.
Or maybe it will reintroduce us to that Kelsey Plum, the transcendent talent whose college scoring record (3,527 points) Caitlin Clark had to go through at Iowa to get to the top of that all-time ledger.
Indubitably, it’s pressure that the 30-year-old Plum is craving as she begins her Sparks’ tenure, arriving this month via the three-team deal that required L.A. to send its No. 2 overall pick in this next draft to Seattle.
And that – having the audacity to bet on her own ability – is what I want in my women’s sports stars.
“I’ve been chomping at the bit to get the opportunity to lead, and to show who I am as a player on a different scale,” Plum said during a 30-minute introductory news conference on Wednesday before about 50 reporters and photographers inside Crypto.com Arena, where every screen and scoreboard displayed a version of “Welcome, Kelsey Plum” in the Sparks’ distinctive ransom-note-looking font.
“I’ve never been more ready,” she added. “And I think some people might be surprised, but no one who really knows will be.”
For the past several seasons, Plum has been one of the most recognizable members of the Las Vegas Aces’ star-studded ensemble. The 5-foot-8 guard won two WNBA titles with that group and gained fame and acclaim on what was for several seasons the league’s most popular team.
She was a dutiful contributor, starting every game over the past three seasons and averaging more than 32 minutes per while putting up between 17.8 and 20.2 points per contest.
Now she’s atop the marquee, the most recognizable member of one of the WNBA’s original franchises, a team that Plum grew up coming to watch. She would travel the “90ish minutes, depending on traffic” from Poway with her mom to see Sparks teams that were, more often than not, good, that almost always made the playoffs and won three WNBA championships along the way.
That version of herself? The 10-year-old who declared herself destined for the WNBA draft in which she’d go No. 1 in 2017? That little girl didn’t feel too far away Wednesday. “I would say I’m still that kid,” Plum said, describing her arrival in L.A. for what the Sparks were calling “K.P. Day” a “full-circle moment.”
It felt, she said, like it was meant to be, “like God really does direct your steps, even if a lot of times you don’t really understand why or where we’re going. But then you look back and you go, ‘Oh, you had a plan the whole time.’”
Or in more dramatic terms, it’s as the Sparks’ second-year general manager Raegan Pebley put it: “This is a woman who you can trace the destiny of every drop of sweat that she has poured into this game.”
With the Aces, Plum was cast mainly as a shooting guard, because she was good at it. But she’d like to remind everyone: She made the Olympic team as a point guard, and last summer won another gold medal to match the one she previously earned in 3×3 hoops action.
It’s from that position she intends to steer the Sparks back into relevance and, she better hope, contention. And, oh, to finish the season among the WNBA’s top five in assists by distributing to her dear friend and former Aces teammate Dearica Hamby, and to the Sparks’ young frontcourt talents, Cameron Brink and Rickea Jackson.
“You only go as far as you bring people,” said Plum, dressed in all white on Wednesday like a suffragette. “My ability to help my teammates grow and put them in positions to be successful is going to be the reason we’re able to win games in this league.”
Will it work? Won’t it? I wouldn’t bet against it. Just ask the Sparks’ new coach, Lynne Roberts, whose Utah women’s college team tried to contain the former Washington Huskies star in a monumental game in 2017.
“I remember we were driving the bus over, and someone on our staff said, ‘Oh, man. Plum needs 53 to break the all-time scoring record.’ And I was like, ‘Psssh, she’s not getting 53 on us.’
“And she didn’t.
“She got 57.”
Or ask Rahshaun Haylock, the Sparks’ play-by-play announcer who served as an emcee Wednesday, recalling a USC-Washington game he called years ago: “Quiet first quarter,” he said. “But then the ref called a foul against Kelsey she didn’t like and … someone from USC was talking a little bit of noise, and Kelsey just went off. She scored 13 of the next 15 and ended up with 35 and it was a runaway.
“That was my first Kelsey Plum moment.”
The Sparks are betting that their new leading lady will deliver many more, that she’ll remind us that she’s that Kelsey Plum and these are those Sparks.
LAS VEGAS — Rickea Jackson had the hot hand for the Sparks on Wednesday night.
Jackson scored a career-high 30 points and grabbed seven rebounds, Azura Stevens had 19 points and 10 rebounds and the Sparks scorched the nets early before holding on to beat the Las Vegas Aces, 97-89, on Wednesday at Michelob ULTRA Arena.
The Aces were without three-time WNBA MVP A’ja Wilson for the final 11 minutes of the game after she left with 1:17 left in the third quarter with a head injury. She was accidentally hit in the face on a drive to the basket by Sparks forward Dearica Hamby.
Jackson shot 11 for 17 from the field, including 4 for 8 from 3-point range, and went 4 for 5 at the free-throw line to top her previous best of 25 points against Dallas last season.
Hamby scored 19 points to go with eight rebounds and seven assists for the Sparks (4-7). Kelsey Plum had 13 points and nine assists in her second game in Las Vegas since being traded to the Sparks in the offseason.
The Sparks shot 56.9% from the field, including a 9-for-20 showing from 3-point range and outrebounded the Aces 38-28.
Jackie Young tied her career high with 34 points and Chelsea Gray made six 3-pointers and added 28 points for Las Vegas (4-4), which has lost two straight games. Wilson was 2 for 12 from the field and 9 for 10 at the free-throw line to finish with 13 points, eight rebounds, five assists and four blocked shots in 28 minutes.
Young, who added eight rebounds, four assists and three steals, scored 14 straight Las Vegas points in the second quarter.
A 3-pointer by Gray pulled Las Vegas within 60-56 with 3:11 left in the third quarter, but the Sparks scored seven of the next 10 points with Jackson’s three-point play giving the Sparks a 67-59 lead with 1:12 remaining.
The Sparks led 71-65 entering the fourth quarter but opened a 14-point lead before the midway point of the period. Hamby made back-to-back shots to start a 10-2 run and Jackson’s basket finished it to give the Sparks an 86-72 lead with 5:22 left.
The Aces made a charge and used a 3-pointer from Gray and a basket by Young to move within 93-87 with 1:44 left.
Plum put the game away with two free throws with 20.1 seconds left. Plum made all nine of her free throws.
The Sparks were especially hot over the first 14 minutes, making 15 of their first 18 field goal attempts (83.3%), including 7 of 8 from 3-point range, on their way to a 39-19 lead in the second quarter. Las Vegas responded with an 11-0 run to get back in the game.
The Sparks finished with 24 assists on their 33 field goals while going 22 for 27 from the free-throw line.
The Aces shot just 37.5% from field, including 9 for 35 from behind the arc. They went 26 for 29 from the free-throw line.
The Sparks improved to 2-2 in Commissioner’s Cup play, while the Aces dropped to 1-2.
Local News
‘ICE Out of OC’: In Santa Ana, roughly 300 people protest immigration raids as National Guard watches on
Roughly 300 people gathered Wednesday evening outside the Ronald Reagan Federal Building and Courthouse in Santa Ana to protest the ongoing mass immigration raids in Orange County.
The peaceful protest began shortly after 6 p.m. and soon tripled in size as people from all walks of life congregated in front of a road closure, occupied by at least six members of the California National Guard on North Birch and 4th Street. Chants such as “ICE Out of OC” and “Trump Out of OC” could be heard throughout the group as people held up various creative signs and carried Mexican and American flags.
Donned in a cowboy hat, Navy veteran Jason Martinez, 28, stood in front of the National Guard with an American flag that read “I’m More American.” His parents were both deported in 2011, a few years before his military enlistment in 2015. “I still think this country can be great,” said Martinez. “There’s no borders up in heaven, there shouldn’t be (borders) here either,” he added.
Several people holding megaphones urged the crowd to “keep things peaceful” as at least 15 officers from the Irvine Police Department, dressed in riot gear, stood back around the perimeter of the protest. One person carried a Salvadorian flag while another waved a joint American-Pride flag.
For 28-year-old former Santa Ana resident David Vasquez, the protest was an opportunity to show support for the broader immigrant community.
The Corona resident carried a large cardboard poster with historic images depicting the displacement and mistreatment of Hispanic immigrants in America. “These people never got justice,” he said. Vasquez added that his mother was undocumented and had picked fruits and vegetables as an agricultural worker in the 90s, often for little to no pay. At times, he said his mother’s employers would call ICE to “chase out” the workers to avoid paying them.
“It feels like the federal government is trying to be as dramatic as possible to elicit a response from people,” said 30-year-old Kelsey Leach from Orange. “It’s important to come out and nonviolently exercise our First Amendment rights.”
The sound of engines revving and cars honking in support echoed in the background.
By TIM REYNOLDS AP Basketball Writer
INDIANAPOLIS — Every time the Indiana Pacers have lost a game in the last three months, they have come back to win the next one.
Even in the NBA Finals – against a huge favorite who the Pacers now have in some trouble.
Bennedict Mathurin scored 27 points off the bench, Tyrese Haliburton finished with 22 points, 11 assists and nine rebounds, and the Pacers retook the lead in the NBA Finals by beating the Oklahoma City Thunder, 116-107, in Game 3 on Wednesday night.
“This is the kind of team that we are,” Pacers coach Rick Carlisle said. “We need everybody to be ready. It’s not always going to be exactly the same guys that are stepping up with scoring and stuff like that. But this is how we’ve got to do it.”
Pascal Siakam scored 21 for Indiana, which enjoyed a whopping 49-18 edge in bench points. The Pacers, who lost Game 2 in Oklahoma City, improved to 10-0 since mid-March in the game immediately following a loss.
“So many different guys chipped in,” Haliburton said.
Jalen Williams scored 26 points, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander added 24 and Chet Holmgren had 20 for the Thunder, who led by five going into the fourth.
Game 4 is back in Indiana on Friday night.
“We had a lot of good stretches of the game,” Thunder coach Mark Daigneault said. “But they had more good stretches than we did – and outplayed us over the course of 48 minutes.”
History says the Pacers are in control now; in the 41 previous NBA Finals that were tied at a game apiece, the Game 3 winner went on to hoist the trophy 33 times – an 80.5% clip.
Advantage, Pacers.
It was back-and-forth much of the way. There were 15 ties; to put that in perspective, there were 13 ties in the five-game entirety of last year’s Finals between Boston and Dallas. The last time there was a Finals game with more ties: Game 1 between Cleveland and Golden State in 2018, which was knotted 17 times and included a 51-point effort from LeBron James before the Warriors held on in overtime.
TJ McConnell finished with 10 points, five assists and five steals for Indiana; since all those stats started being charted, nobody had ever come off the bench and done all that in an NBA Finals game.
“We just had guys make plays after plays,” Haliburton said. “Our bench was amazing.”
The Thunder were 61-2 when leading going into the fourth quarter in the regular season. They’re 1-2 when leading going into the fourth quarter in this series. Indiana – at home in an NBA Finals game for the first time in 25 years, with Caitlin Clark, Reggie Miller, Oscar Robertson and many other stars in the crowd – simply owned the final 12 minutes.
Oklahoma City, often playing against full-court pressure after allowing the Pacers to score, missed nine of its final 10 shots from the floor. That ugly stretch started after a Williams floater pulled the Thunder within a point of the Pacers with 5:58 remaining.
The Thunder’s only basket down the stretch was a midrange pull-up by Gilgeous-Alexander, but that was the league MVP’s only field goal in the fourth quarter. He was held to three points on 1-of-3 shooting with no assists in the final frame.
“They were aggressive,” Gilgeous-Alexander said of the Pacers’ defense. “I’m not sure how many points they had, but it felt like when they scored, we’re going against a set defense, and it’s always harder against a set defense.”
Indiana outscored OKC 32-18 in the fourth, holding the Thunder to 35% shooting with the game and control of the series on the line.
“There’s a lot of areas we can clean up,” Holmgren said. “Everybody who stepped out there can be better.”
FAMILIAR TERRITORY
Game 1, a loss on the opposition’s final shot. Game 2, an easy win. Game 3, another loss to fall behind in the series again.
This formula is not the one that would be considered optimal by the Thunder, especially in the NBA Finals. But if there is some consolation for the overall No. 1 seed in these playoffs, it’s this: the Thunder have been in this exact spot before and found a way to prevail.
That resiliency will be tested yet again.
“I thought it was an uncharacteristic night in a lot of ways for us,” Daigneault said. “We got to learn from it and then tap back into being who we are in Game 4. If we do that, I think we’ll have a much better chance to win.”
It was not very Thunder-like in Game 3. They blew a fourth quarter lead for the second time in the series and gave up 21 points off turnovers.
“We’ll watch it. It wasn’t all bad,” Daigneault said. “But we definitely have to play our style and impose our will for more of the 48 minutes if we want to come on the road and get a win.”
There are uncanny similarities between the first three games of this series and the first three games of the Western Conference semifinal matchup between Oklahoma City and Denver.
• In Game 1 of the West semifinals, Aaron Gordon hit a 3-pointer with about 3 seconds left to give the Nuggets a win in Oklahoma City. In Game 1 of the NBA Finals, Haliburton hit a jumper with 0.3 seconds left to give the Pacers a win in OKC.
• In Game 2 of the West semifinals, the Thunder evened things up with an easy win. In Game 2 of the NBA Finals, the Thunder evened the series with an easy win.
• In Game 3 of the West semifinals, Denver – at home for the first time in that series – played from behind most of the night before fighting into overtime and eventually getting a win for a 2-1 series lead. In Game 3 of the NBA Finals, Indiana – at home for the first time in the series – trailed for much of the first half before eventually getting a win for a 2-1 series lead.
The Thunder dug their way out of that hole against the Nuggets. And now, the same task awaits – with an NBA title at stake.
“I wouldn’t say that now is the time for emotions, to be thinking about how you’re feeling, emotional this, emotional that,” Holmgren said. “You kind of have to cut that out and look at the substance of what it is. We have a great opportunity here and the great thing is we have another game coming up, Game 4.”
GUEST LIST
Clark – wearing a yellow T-shirt emblazoned with the famed “In 49 other states it’s just basketball. But this is Indiana” saying along with a finals logo – was seated with Indiana Fever teammates Aliyah Boston and Natasha Howard for the game, in the same end of the court as the Pacers’ bench.
In addition to Hall of Famers Robertson and Miller, both seated near the court as well, former Pacers Mark Jackson, Dale Davis were also on hand. Former Indianapolis Colts running back Edgerrin James and Alex Palou, the winner of this year’s Indianapolis 500, were also in the arena. Palou arrived for the game in a pace car from Indianapolis Motor Speedway, which was lit up in gold for the evening as a Pacers tribute.
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