PHOENIX – The Las Vegas Aces got off to a slow start to the 2024 WNBA season. They were 6-6 at one point and dealt with chatter as to whether or not their reign atop the WNBA was close to an end. But the Aces have since regrouped and as per Kelsey Plum, the reason for the team's slow start is simple, they were missing Chelsea Gray.
During a media availability session over WNBA All-Star Weekend in Phoenix, Kelsey Plum gave a hilarious retort to the suggestion that the Aces were in trouble earlier in the season.
“When you take out a player like Chelsea Gray, we've been constructed like a cake and when you take out the sugar from the cake, it's like cornbread,” Plum said. “So that's what everyone saw the first ten games. Cornbread that had no honey butter on it. We just needed to get our ingredients back together, that's really all that was.”
Chelsea Gray missed the Aces' first 12 games of the season, making her 2024 debut on June 19 against the Seattle Storm. Gray came off the bench for her first two games back and had been on a minutes restriction, but she's been back in the starting lineup and provided a meaningful difference.
Since Gray has returned to the lineup, the Aces have gone 10-2 and have two separate win streaks of six and four games. They've shot up to the top of the Western Conference standings and trail both the Minnesota Lynx and Storm by only a half a game. Gray's numbers haven't quite come around yet, she's been averaging 7.3 points, 2.8 rebounds and 3.8 assists while shooting 39 percent from the field and 24 percent from the three-point line, but her mere presence makes the Aces that much better.
Aces contingent set to represent USA at the Olympics
Following WNBA All-Star Weekend, Team USA will travel to Paris, France for the 2024 Olympics. Among Team USA will be four Aces players in A'ja Wilson, Chelsea Gray, Kelsey Plum and Jackie Young. Wilson and Gray were on the 2020 Olympic team, and this will be Plum and Young's first 5×5 Olympic experience. They were both a part of the inaugural 3×3 competition team.
But with such a talented roster making the trek to Paris, it's not certain whether or not all four players will spend much time on the court together. During her media availability session over WNBA All-Star Weekend, Gray spoke about what it means chemistry-wise for all four players to be on the team.
“Our personalities on the bus and our conversations and nicknames and everything, that doesn't change in our conversations that we have. But on the court we're kind of building chemistry with everyone else as well,” Gray said. “I don't know how many times that it's going to be the four of us on the court at the same time, so we're kind of building chemistry with everyone else.”
Wilson echoed that sentiment while acknowledging that building chemistry is going to have come rather quickly against national teams that have been playing together for far longer.
“We compete against each other all the time on the court, we probably know everyone's stuff and where they want to go and where they're successful in,” Wilson said. “We just have a good feel and good gel in our locker room already because of the type of character people that we have.”
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