Plum’s record game for Aces stands out the deeper you dig

Kelsey Plum may not care about stats, but her career-high and franchise-record scoring outing against the Minnesota Lynx on Sunday stood out according to several metrics.

The All-Star guard scored 40 points on just 18 shots against Minnesota. Her performance beat the team’s previous record of 39 points in a game held jointly by A’ja Wilson — who accomplished the feat in an overtime game — and Danielle Adams.

“They played a ton of zone. I just got really good looks,” Plum said. “My teammates kept finding me. The ball, like coach (Becky Hammon) said, was popping, and we got stops in our defense and were able to run.”

Plum scored 40 points on 77.8 percent shooting (14-for-18), the most efficient performance with 40 or more points in a single game in WNBA history. She also had four assists and two rebounds, went 6-for-9 from 3, was perfect from the free-throw line (6-for-6) and was plus-26 in just under 31 minutes.

Plum credited the play of her teammates for giving her opportunities to score.

“I thought everyone was in a flow state,” she said. “Everything was seamless and efficient. We just have hoopers, man, and you’ve got to guard all of them.”

The Aces (17-2) return to Michelob Ultra Arena at 7 p.m. Tuesday to play the Phoenix Mercury (4-14).

Plum’s advanced metrics back up her stellar performance. True shooting is a stat intended to judge a player’s scoring efficiency by just one number. Instead of measuring shooting efficiency like field-goal percentage, true shooting percentage is the measure of points scored divided by the number of the player’s possessions in which she attempted to score, with free throws factored in.

For context, Aces All-Star guard Chelsea Gray had a 72.68 true shooting percentage during her playoff run on her way to winning WNBA Finals MVP in 2022, according to Across the Timeline. Her true shooting in each game landed between 60.21 percent and 78.57 percent during the final two rounds of the playoffs.

Plum’s true shooting percentage against the Lynx was 96.9 percent.

Effective field-goal percentage is another statistic built to judge shooting efficiency. It adjusts the normal field-goal percentage by adding weight for 3s.

Aces reserve guard Riquna Williams holds the second-highest scoring outing in WNBA history. On Sept. 8, 2013, she scored 51 points, including eight 3s, for the Tulsa Shock against the San Antonio Silver Stars, the Aces’ predecessor. Her effective field-goal percentage for the game was 75 percent.

Plum’s effective field goal percentage against the Lynx was 94.44 percent.

While the former Washington guard scored the first 40-point game in franchise history, it’s far from the first in the WNBA this season. Plum’s performance was the seventh 40-point game in the league this season. New York Liberty forward and All-Star captain Breanna Stewart has already done it twice.

The Aces had front-row seats for another 40-point game when Connecticut Sun forward DeWanna Bonner caught fire for 41 points against them June 8. She was also an efficient 5-for-7 from 3.

Points per possession is another scoring efficiency metric that takes turnovers into account. Essentially, it measures how efficiently players score when they have the ball. Bonner had only two turnovers in her big game against the Aces and averaged 1.63 points per possession.

Plum’s points per possession against the Lynx was 1.77.

“A lot of people sometimes average 20 (points) with 20 shots,” Gray said. “She had 40 with 18 (shots). That’s unbelievable.”

Contact reporter Andy Yamashita at ayamashita@reviewjournal.com. Follow @ANYamashita on Twitter.