{"id":651331,"date":"2026-05-19T00:24:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-19T00:24:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/651331\/"},"modified":"2026-05-19T00:24:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-19T00:24:09","slug":"sparks-news-kelsey-plums-ability-lynne-roberts-says-is-wnbas-best","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/651331\/","title":{"rendered":"Sparks news: Kelsey Plum\u2019s ability Lynne Roberts says is WNBA\u2019s best"},"content":{"rendered":"

LOS ANGELES \u2013 The Los Angeles Sparks<\/a> grabbed their first win of the season last Friday, avoiding an 0-3 start, and it was star guard Kelsey Plum who helped lead the way<\/a>. She finished with a team-high 27 points, 15 of those coming the fourth quarter as the Sparks held off a late rally by the Toronto Tempo. Plum also had nine assists, and it\u2019s her ability to find that balance between playmaking and scoring that Sparks head coach Lynne Roberts believes sets her apart.<\/p>\n

On Sunday, prior to the Sparks\u2019 second consecutive game against the Tempo, Lynne Roberts explained why she believes that Kelsey Plum is the best one-on-one player<\/a> in the WNBA.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe\u2019s a talent. I think she\u2019s the best one-on-one player in the league in terms of crediting her own shot or shots for others. Her shooting ability makes her a really tough guard. And then her skill, she\u2019s just crafty and so she\u2019s figuring out how to lead this group with her playmaking either for herself or others,\u201d Roberts said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought she did a good job Friday, she was kind of getting everybody involved. And in the fourth quarter she kind of took over. I think that\u2019s the perfect scenario of using her passing ability or skill, but when the team needs her to go get buckets, she\u2019s able to do that. I think she can play the point or the two.\u201d<\/p>\n

Prior to Plum joining the Sparks last season, she shared the backcourt alongside Chelsea Gray with the Las Vegas Aces. Gray was the point guard, arguably the best in the league, while Plum played off-guard. With the Sparks, Plum initially began the season at point guard.<\/p>\n

During her introductory press conference, Plum set a goal of finishing in the top-five in the WNBA<\/a> for assists. She ended up doing just that, essentially tying with Sabrina Ionescu and Jordin Canada for No. 5 with 5.7 dimes per game. But the Sparks\u2019 weren\u2019t able to truly unlock their offense until Roberts inserted Julie Allemand as the on-ball playmaker with Plum settling back into her familiar shooting guard role.<\/p>\n

This season, Plum has gone back to the primary point guard role amid the Sparks\u2019 acquisition of Ariel Atkins, a more natural off-guard. The past two games, however, with Atkins sidelined due to being in concussion protocol, Plum\u2019s playmaking ability has come back into focus.<\/p>\n

Her on-one-one creation was instrumental in the win last Friday, and she nearly delivered an encore. Despite the loss to the Tempo on Sunday, Plum scored 10 points in the fourth quarter as she attempted to will the team to consecutive wins. She blew past opposing defenders and got the basket, scoring at will.<\/p>\n

Following Friday\u2019s win, Plum credited her playmaking to her teammates gaining more comfortability with the Sparks\u2019 system. She plans to continue harnessing that balance between scoring and facilitating, leaning in to whatever the team needs the most.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s funny, I think the first game on film I had like 18 potential assists and we only made two shots, and the next game was like 16. So to be honest, I\u2019ve been playing the same way, we just made them,\u201d Plum told reporters. \u201cThat\u2019s just basketball \u2026 we\u2019re just trying to find our rhythm and things, but I thought we did a got job of just catching and shooting, not putting it down on the ground.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn this system, once you start getting comfortable, shots become a little big easier, you kind of know where to expect them. And then it\u2019s a lot more of a flow \u2026 My goal is to play like this the whole year in terms of just trying to be very patient and just take what the defense gives us.\u201d<\/p>\n

LOS ANGELES \u2013 The Los Angeles Sparks grabbed their first win of the season last Friday, avoiding an 0-3 start, and it was star guard Kelsey Plum who helped lead the way. She finished with a team-high 27 points, 15 of those coming the fourth quarter as the Sparks held off a late rally by the Toronto Tempo.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LOS ANGELES \u2013 The Los Angeles Sparks grabbed their first win of the season last Friday, avoiding an…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":651332,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[10504,3029,581,99,434],"class_list":["post-651331","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wnba","tag-kelsey-plum","tag-los-angeles-sparks","tag-reporting","tag-sports","tag-wnba"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/651331","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=651331"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/651331\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/651332"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=651331"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=651331"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=651331"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}