LAS VEGAS – Kelsey Plum wasn’t herself. Projectile vomiting during the Las Vegas Aces’ opening game of the WNBA playoffs will have that effect.

But the guard also knew she had to overcome her underperformance, and found herself figuring out the path the next day in a special environment.

“I was sitting at a sushi bar,” Plum said at a subsequent press conference. “And I was like, ‘You know what, I’m going to throw Game 1 out the window.'”

A’ja Wilson, who was sitting next to Plum, stared at her Aces teammate, looking a little sick herself.

“After you threw up, did you go get sushi?” Wilson said.

“Hey,” Plum replied, “it worked.”

Plum and the Aces did indeed beat the Seattle Storm in the first round. But the semifinals were a different story for the two-time defending WNBA champions. The New York Liberty led 2-0 after winning the first two games at home in the best-of-five series. But whether it was Plum going through a high-profile divorce and helping the Aces overcome their most regular season losses in five years, or Las Vegas chasing a three-peat amid injuries and off-field controversy, it season was determined by tuning. the noise.

Now the Aces must win three in a row against the Liberty, starting with Friday’s Game 3 in Las Vegas (9:30 p.m. ET, ESPN2). No WNBA team has ever rallied to win a series when down 0–2. And Las Vegas has lost five straight to New York this year, including three regular-season games.

Plum and the Aces hope they can regain their magic in Las Vegas. But whatever the outcome of this season, Plum said she’s glad she fought through it.

“I’m proud that I showed up this year,” Plum told ESPN. “The fact that I’m playing basketball now is a great achievement. Obviously we really want another championship. But I also feel like I’ve already won. Everything else is like house money.”

As passionate and outgoing as Plum is, she would prefer her private life to remain private. But that wasn’t to be.

“Going through a very public divorce is something I didn’t expect,” Plum said of the dissolution of her marriage to former NFL player Darren Waller. “It felt like the rug was pulled out from under me. I think people look at me and think, ‘Oh, she’s super cool.’ But this one really broke me.

“I deleted social media from my phone. I got a new phone and I don’t have many people’s numbers. I turned off the TV and just started reading my Bible. I’m just saying that emotionally, I’ll be feeling this already very long.”

Plum credits those closest to her, including her Aces teammates, for helping her.

“I’m just grateful that I have great people around me to help me pick up the pieces,” Plum said. “But what I’m most proud of is that all the ups and downs haven’t taken away my joy.”

She said this is the happiness she still gets from basketball. Even in a 27-13 season where things didn’t go as well as the 2023 34-6 season, Plum is grateful for the routine and camaraderie.

“The most important thing is making sure she understands that we’re always here,” said Wilson, who, like Plum, was the No. 1 pick in the WNBA draft. ‘I have her back, no matter what. It may be the dark days that we have all experienced and may look different for each of us, but we get it.

“I’ll be there every step of the way. Whether that’s getting on her nerves, leaving her alone for a bit, coming to visit her.’

Their seven seasons of playing together, including on the U.S. Olympic team, make their communication second nature.

“I feel like we definitely have our own language,” Wilson said. “We know how to get under each other’s skin, but at the same time make each other better.”

Like the Aces, Plum has had its ups and downs in these playoffs. She scored just 2 points on 1-of-8 shooting in Game 1 vs. Seattle. After sushi and a mind reset, she had 29 points on 11-of-15 shooting to lead the Aces to a Game 2 victory that secured the series.

In Game 1 against New York on Sunday, Plum had 24 points and shot 9-of-17. In Game 2, she was one of the targets of coach Becky Hammon’s ire during a timeout, finishing with just 6 points after going 2-of had become -9.

The Aces have talked a lot about how this year has been more challenging than the past two seasons, both of which ended with championships. Las Vegas was without point guard Chelsea Gray for the first 12 games as she rehabilitated the foot injury that kept her out of last year’s title-winning Game 4 of the WNBA Finals.

Las Vegas was 6-6 when Gray returned, and the Aces then started to look more like themselves. Yet their offensive efficiency, defensive reliability and championship aura have not remained consistent.

Hammon attributes this in part to the rest of the league working hard to catch the Aces and how hard it is to stay hungrier than teams like New York, which has never won the championship.

Now the Aces must find that hunger themselves. For Plum, this means digging deep into the reserves she has built up over the years.

As successful as her college career at Washington was — she took the program to its first Final Four in 2016 and set the NCAA career record in 2017 — she remembers having to do a lot of self-reflection about balancing who she was as a person as a player.

When Plum thinks back to her WNBA rookie season as the No. 1 pick in 2017 — for a late-season franchise in San Antonio before heading to Las Vegas the following year — she shakes her head. She didn’t know where she fit on a team that wasn’t sure where it was going.

“It just felt like quicksand,” Plum said.

During Plum’s first three seasons in the WNBA, she averaged 8.5, 9.5 and 8.6 points. In 2020, she tore her Achilles tendon and missed the season, which she calls a blessing in disguise because she recharged while rehabbing. In 2021, Plum came off the bench for the entire season and earned her sixth Player of the Year — an award she never wanted. She was determined to start over.

While training in late 2021, Plum received a call from new Aces coach Hammon, who had taken over for Bill Laimbeer. Plum had a sometimes rocky relationship with Laimbeer: she appreciated the things he taught her, but not always his tone.

Hammon told Plum that her first impression of the team was that Plum had worked off the bench. Plum came away from that call too furious to even finish her training.

“I remember hanging up the phone,” Plum said, “and thinking, ‘I’m going to walk into training camp like a man possessed. I’m going to push everyone to the ground and make it very clear that this is my spot. ”

Hammon laughs when he remembers it, because Plum did just that. She has started and averaged 20.2, 18.7 and 17.8 points while being an All-Star the past three seasons. She won Olympic gold in 3×3 in 2021 and in 5-on-5 this year.

“I don’t think she felt appreciated before,” Hammon said. “I’ve tried to put a lot of trust in her and help her grow. Not just as a basketball player, but off the court. She’s had so much growth, through some really tough things. She’s just really grown into this beautiful person.” .”

Iowa’s Caitlin Clark achieved Plum’s NCAA record in February to much acclaim. At the time, Plum seemed almost disconnected from her place in history. But she then explained that she didn’t remember it as a joyful time. It was too much about achieving numbers and not about the essence of why she plays.

That’s what Plum said she always wants to hold on to. The Aces now have their backs against the wall. But no matter what happens, Plum knows she has overcome the many challenges.

“You go through things in life and you build this level of resilience,” she said. “Sometimes you say, ‘Why is this happening?’ But then you realize that if you haven’t experienced things before, you can’t handle them now.”