ARLINGTON, TX — The Dallas Wings (22-16) let loose an all-out aerial assault to start Sunday's game against the Seattle Storm (7-32), and never looked back in their 92-70 win at College Park Center. With another win on Tuesday, the Wings would clinch a playoff spot for the first time since 2023.
"We want to play every game like it's a playoff game," Bueckers said. "But we can't play like we're trying to make the playoffs. We have to play to our identity. Obviously the stakes are higher, but when you focus on that you lose sight of where you are in the present."
The Wings flew out to an 11-0 lead behind two Paige Bueckers 3-pointers and another from Awak Kuier in the game's first 2:41. Arike Ogunbowale, coming off a season-high 32-point performance in Thursday's 91-85 win over the Indiana Fever , joined the 3-point party midway through the first to extend Dallas' lead to 19-8. Bueckers nailed her third two possessions later, forcing a timeout from Storm head coach Sonia Raman and pushing the early lead to 14.
The Wings shot a blinding 6-of-8 (75%) from 3-point range and 12-of-20 (60%) from the field in the first quarter. Bueckers would hit a fourth 3-ball before the first quarter was out, then found Maddy Siegriest open up ahead on the break for her second assist of the game to put Dallas up 31-14. The Wings took a 34-17 lead after one behind 18 points from Bueckers.
After extending the lead to 35, going up 56-21 on Bueckers' fifth 3-pointer of the game with four minutes left in the second quarter, the Wings gave a little of it back, but still went into the locker room with a 56-35 lead after surrendering a 14-0 run to end the first half.
Everything was falling for the Wings in the first half. Bueckers went 4-of-4 from 3-point range in the first quarter then made it 5-for-5 with another from the right baseline four minutes before halftime, which extended the Dallas lead to 56-21. Kuier and Ogunbowale each connected on their first attempt, then Ogunbowale hit a second midway through the second.
When we say everything was falling, even late shot clock bids from Sug Sutton with a bigger defender's hand in her face found their way at the bottom of the net. Sutton stepped back for one with 5:30 left in the first half that put the Wings up 48-21 at the time.
"We're trying to go on a run," Sutton said. "I'm just trying to help the team as much as i can."
The Wings shot 33-of-66 (50%) from the field in the win and maintained the hot hand from deep for most of the game as well, shooting 11-of-23 from beyond the arc (47.8%).
Bueckers connected on her sixth and final 3-pointer of the game with 4:29 left in the third to extend Dallas' lead to 25, up 71-46 at the time. She exited the game with 32 points on 12-of-16 shooting a minute and change later. She tied a WNBA record for made 3-pointers in a game without missing on Sunday.
After taking a 21-point lead into halftime, which at that point had been whittled down from 35 points, the Wings continued to give back small chunks at a time in the third. The lead hovered around 20 for most of the quarter before the Storm cut a little further.
Flau'jae Johnson nailed back-to-back 3-pointers of her own in the final minute of the third to trim the Dallas lead to 73-58 going into the fourth quarter. Still, to start the fourth, Wings head coach Jose Fernandez left the reserve unit in the game, plus Kuier. He seemed bound and determined to get the starters the rest the score earlier in the game dictated they would get.
"[Johnson] has a dog mentality," Bueckers said. "She's aggressive. She's consistent in who she is every single night. Plays both sides of the floor, and she's a scorer. She was born to score."
Johnson, a rookie, finished with a team-high 23 points and six rebounds for Seattle in the loss.
That unit responded, though, pushing the lead back to 20 when Siegrist found Kuier cutting inside for an easy hoop, making it 81-61 with just over six minutes to play. Alanna Smith drove for a bucket in traffic plus the foul, and converted the three-point play to give the Wings an 84-63 lead, and that was all she wrote in a straightforward, wire-to-wire win.
"Everything we want is ahead of us," Fernandez said. "I'd love to continue to have that kind of first quarter and first half. It'd mean we're playing our best basketball going into the playoffs, and if you can bottle that up…"
