The Golden State Valkyries fought valiantly in Ballhalla on Friday night in their WNBA regular-season debut, but Los Angeles Sparks guard Kelsey Plum—herself the former NCAA all-time scoring leader—made sure the newest WNBA expansion team would take the “L” at home in front of a for-real packed arena. Plum posted first-ever 37-point/6-assist/5-steal game in the history of the league in an 84-67 win for L.A.

Ironically, ESPN decided to run a basic AP wire story for this result, which didn’t even mention Plum’s historic achievement. Other more-honest media outlets gave Plum the credit she deserved, of course, but not the “Worldwide Leader in Sports”—which is clearly in bed with another WNBA agenda for now. That is an agenda we won’t be addressing again for another month, when a quarter of the season is over. Be patient.

Thus, on Sunday Surmising tonight, we’re going to breakdown the good and the bad about the Valkyries’ debut while acknowledging Plum’s achievement at the same time. Every historic moment in the WNBA deserves its moments in the sun, and the Golden State organization’s ability to get over 18,000 fans for the first game in its existence was impressive. A quick glance at the photo for this piece shows the butts in seats.

The atmosphere was electric, in contract to the awkward preseason game, which did not fare as well in multiple ways. But the Vs turned it around for the regular season: despite being much less talented, the home team was down by only six points entering the fourth quarter of its league debut. That’s not bad, all things considered. Yes, Golden State ran out of gas in the end, but the team had moments of genuine fun.

Unlike the one home exhibition game, the Valkyries actually held a lead in this one, coming out of the first period with a 20-19 edge. That in itself was impressive, The team box score reveals some problems, of course, but that is to be expected with a typical expansion team that was for some reason denied the chance to pick first overall in the WNBA Draft last month. Shooting 36.5 percent from the floor is not a good thing.

The Vs also shot just 25.7 percent (9 for 35) from three-point range. That’s terrible, and it means you should take much fewer threes as a team, especially when you’re hitting 50 percent (14 for 28) from two-point range—and an incredible 92.3 percent (12 for 13) from the free-throw line. Basic math will tell you that if you attempted half as many threes and shot twos instead, you’d have scored, potentially, 18 more points.

That’s the problem with the modern game: chucking threes when you shouldn’t. Golden State out-rebounded Los Angeles by a 33-27 margin, including a 9-3 on the offensive glass. That is your stretch, Valkyries, so stop shooting bad threes by the bushel unless you’re hopelessly behind. And they never really were until the middle of the fourth quarter, really. But that’s just one side of the equation Plum unbalanced.

Defensively, Golden State held L.A. to 46-percent shooting from the floor, which is decent enough. However, they could not stop the Sparks’ best player, who was 11 for 19 overall, including 4 for 6 from three-point range. Add the fact that Plum was a perfect 11 for 11 from the free-throw line, and you can see the issue: Plum is a superstar who played all 40 minutes in this game, and the Valkyries couldn’t stop her at all.

Against the best players in the league, Golden State will be helpless in the same way. Against teams that have multiple stars on their rosters, the Vs are going to be in real trouble. When forward Cameron Brink comes back from her knee injury, for example, the Sparks will be even better. The Valkyries have no stars, and even though G Tiffany Hayes posted 19 points and 9 rebounds, she’s not even close to being dominant.

Besides, no matter what Golden State did on offense—and it wasn’t a lot—they couldn’t play defense well enough, either. So those are the waters for the Vs from here on forward; they will be lucky to win 10 games in this 44-game season. However, there is always hope for the future in playing some teams just as raw and rough this year and then looking to improve the roster every offseason from here on out. It could be … fun.