A scary moment briefly interrupted the Dallas Wings
' latest game in what should've been a routine outing against the Connecticut Sun
. During the game, star Paige Bueckers
and a teammate collided, sparking injury concern for the Wings early.
During the first quarter, Paige Bueckers and Alanna Smith
ran into each other, causing a nasty collision that left both hitting the floor. Wings reporter Myah Taylor explained what happened in a post on X.
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"Alanna Smith and Paige Bueckers collided on the court," Taylor posted to X
. "Bueckers is still in the game, but Smith walked off the court."
Indeed, Smith headed off the court and into the locker room, sparking worry among Wings fans online, as she seemingly injured her ankle.
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However, good news soon followed. Taylor later reported that before the halftime break, Smith had returned to the bench and soon checked back into the game, getting back in form.
It was a solid outing from the forward, who played 17 minutes and logged seven points and two rebounds. Smith also put up a solid defensive effort on the Sun's forwards, holding Diamond Miller
to just eight points on 2-14 shooting as well as 0-6 from three-point range.
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Paige Bueckers, for her part, played well too, logging 15 points on 6-13 shooting, along with six assists and two rebounds, helping lead the team to a comfortable 97-71 win over the struggling Sun.
This isn't the first unfortunate collision that Paige Bueckers has been a part of this season. On July 20th, against the Los Angeles Sparks
, Bueckers ran into Sparks center Nneka Ogwumike
with 3:33 left in the fourth quarter. The sequence looked serious, as Bueckers hit her head on the floor and was taken out of the game.
For Smith, the injury came in the middle of a bounce-back stretch for the forward. After joining the Wings in a major free-agency move after a breakout 2025 season that saw her named the Co-Defensive Player of the Year alongside A'ja Wilson, she struggled to make an impact early in the season. She was replaced in the starting lineup just seven games into the season after a disastrous month of June.
"By the end of June, she had yet to post a double-digit scoring game, had more turnovers than assists, and recorded six blocks in 15 games," The IX Sports reporter Drake Keeler wrote in an August 19 report.
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Through the first 21 games of her season, she averaged just 4.1 points and 3.0 rebounds per game on 40.5% from the field and 21.1% from three. However, since entering the month of August, she has completely turned her season around. Over 11 games this month, she has averaged 9.6 points, 5.8 rebounds, and 0.9 steals per game on 51.2% from the field and 32.3% from three.
Her improved play has also seen her return to the team's starting lineup, starting all 11 games that she has played in August.
In the middle of the improving stretch, Smith made it clear that she wanted to keep the upward trend going, refusing to put a "ceiling" on her play.
"I'd love to play better than what I'm playing right now," she told reporters postgame on August 12. "So hopefully it's onwards and upwards for not only myself, but the entire team too."
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Dallas currently sits at 24-16, tied with the New York Liberty
and the Washington Mystics
in the standings, but holding the #8 seed due to tiebreaker rules. The team now hopes to stay solid after returning to play following the break for the FIBA World Cup, with their first game back set to be a showdown against the Los Angeles Sparks on 17 September.
Meanwhile, only time will tell if Smith can climb back to the heights that she reached during her time with the Minnesota Lynx
, but if August is any indication, she has started to ramp up at the best time possible, with Paige Bueckers and Dallas set to appear in the playoffs for the first time in three seasons.
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