Pieces of confetti were still resting on Chelsea Gray\u2019s shoulder.<\/p>\n
It was March in Miami, and she\u2019d just been crowned the Finals MVP after helping the Rose BC win a championship in the debut season of the Unrivaled 3-on-3 women\u2019s basketball league.<\/p>\n
But in the peak of celebrating her offseason accomplishments, the veteran point guard was asked a question that called back to the scrutiny she received amid her injury-impacted 2024 campaign with the Aces: \u201cWhat do you want people to say about Chelsea Gray now?\u201d<\/p>\n
Gray, urged to not be humble by the group of teammates surrounding the trophy next to her, hesitated before confirming she\u2019d heard all of the chatter.<\/p>\n
\u201cKeep that same energy. I got the receipts,\u201d Gray said.<\/p>\n
It almost seemed as if those receipts had taken too much real estate in the 32-year-old\u2019s mind when the Aces\u2019 2025 season began in May. Or worse, she\u2019d lost the it-factor that led WNBA legend Candace Parker to nickname Gray the \u201cPoint Gawd.\u201d<\/p>\n
But now, with the Aces extending the WNBA\u2019s longest active winning streak to eight games by defeating the Atlanta Dream on <\/a>Tuesday<\/a>, those concerns have quelled.<\/p>\n Gray has gone from taking uncharacteristic shots and having too many turnovers to consistently delivering the highlight plays that led to her signature camera reel celebration. In turn, the Aces (22-14) have moved from as low as eighth in the WNBA standings to one game back of the No. 4 spot, which comes with home-court advantage in the first round of the playoffs.<\/p>\n \u201cI think (Gray) looks like herself,\u201d coach Becky Hammon said following Tuesday\u2019s win. \u201cShe looked different at the beginning of the season because she wasn\u2019t being Chelsea Gray. She looks like Chelsea Gray now.\u201d<\/p>\n The numbers back Hammon\u2019s words up.<\/p>\n Gray, before the Aces\u2019 winning streak, was averaging 4.5 assists per game. She\u2019s averaging 7.4 assists per game since. She even tied the franchise record for assists in a game with 14 against the Dallas Wings on <\/a>Sunday<\/a>.<\/p>\n Gray also hasn\u2019t had more than two turnovers in her last five appearances.<\/p>\n Building chemistry<\/p>\n Despite those stats, Gray doesn\u2019t buy that she regressed before and is surging now.<\/p>\n She said at the beginning of the season she felt fit and fully recovered from the foot injury that caused her to miss the final game of the 2023 WNBA Finals \u2014 which the Aces still won to clinch their second consecutive championship \u2014 and the first 12 games of the 2024 campaign.<\/p>\n Gray, when asked Tuesday if she felt any different the last few games or if it was just the media, was ready with a response.<\/p>\n \u201cYeah, it\u2019s just y\u2019all,\u201d Gray said. \u201cIt\u2019s not just me, it\u2019s everybody getting to know each other, and it\u2019s on both ends of the floor. \u2026 I think there\u2019s a bit of a better flow. I\u2019m in better shape. You want to be playing your best in August and September, as a team and individually, and that\u2019s what you\u2019re starting to see from me.\u201d<\/p>\n The Aces added guard Jewell Loyd this offseason, then moved her out of the starting lineup in July in favor of forward Kierstan Bell. The team also added forward NaLyssa Smith via trade in June.<\/p>\n It took time for Gray and the rest of the group to develop chemistry.<\/p>\n Three-time WNBA A\u2019ja Wilson, who is on the receiving end of many of Gray\u2019s assists, said the Aces have been able to spend more time together since the All-Star break. They even visited an escape room together in Phoenix when they were in town for a game against the Mercury on Aug. 15.<\/p>\n \u201cWe may not have a lot of practice time, but when it comes to our plane rides, or just when we get to a city, we continue to build that camaraderie,\u201d Wilson said. \u201cAnd I think a lot of people expected it to click right off the bat, but that\u2019s just not the way it goes sometimes. We really had to get acclimated to one another.\u201d<\/p>\n Back to being Chelsea<\/p>\n Hammon\u2019s perspective is different. She believes Gray\u2019s turnaround comes from returning to what she knows best.<\/p>\n \u201cI think Chelsea knew she wasn\u2019t being Chelsea,\u201d Hammon said. \u201cShe\u2019s authentically a giver. She\u2019s authentically a leader. She\u2019s authentically someone who gives joy and gets everybody else involved. \u2026 This is the Chelsea we all know and love and the person who brings the building up to its feet.\u201d<\/p>\n That much was clear when Gray gave Wilson the confidence to shoot what turned out to be the game-winning basket Tuesday. Or when Gray had a crucial steal and block on Mercury forward Satou Sabally to seal the Aces\u2019 86-83 win in Phoenix.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s why she is so great at what she does. To have that ability to do that in clutch time, it takes a lot out of you, but she shows up every single day, and it just trickles down to us,\u201d Wilson said. \u201cI play with a lot of peace, because I have Chelsea as my point guard, and particularly in the fourth (quarter).\u201d<\/p>\n Gray, listed at 5-foot-11, even held her own defensively against Dream center Brittney Griner on Tuesday, an example of how she\u2019s contributed to the Aces\u2019 winning streak in all sorts of different ways.<\/p>\n \u201cShe guards bigs as good as anybody,\u201d Hammon said. \u201cBut when she distributes the ball \u2014 it\u2019s just interesting. Because the passes have gotten fancier, but it\u2019s been more simple plays. \u2026 We\u2019re a different team with her leading like that.\u201d<\/p>\n Contact Callie Fin at cfin@reviewjournal.com.<\/a> Follow @CallieJLaw<\/a> on X.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Pieces of confetti were still resting on Chelsea Gray\u2019s shoulder. It was March in Miami, and she\u2019d just…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":162632,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[62,67,132,68,232],"class_list":{"0":"post-162631","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wnba","8":"tag-sports","9":"tag-united-states","10":"tag-unitedstates","11":"tag-us","12":"tag-wnba"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115064332992195873","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162631","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=162631"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162631\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/162632"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=162631"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=162631"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=162631"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}