{"id":414992,"date":"2026-08-24T01:06:12","date_gmt":"2026-08-24T01:06:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/414992\/"},"modified":"2026-08-24T01:06:12","modified_gmt":"2026-08-24T01:06:12","slug":"paige-bueckers-dallas-wings-dominate-seattle-storm-storm","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/414992\/","title":{"rendered":"Paige Bueckers, Dallas Wings dominate Seattle Storm | Storm"},"content":{"rendered":"

Paige Bueckers got the host Dallas Wings off to a rip-roaring, 11-0 Sunday start, and was instrumental in handing the Storm<\/a> their worst loss since early July, 92-70.<\/p>\n

In the first quarter it was Bueckers 18, the entire Seattle Storm 17. Bueckers outscored the visiting team on her own, on 7-of-8 shooting and 4-for-4 from deep. She matched the highest-scoring first quarter by any player in Wings history and tied the WNBA record for most made threes without a miss.<\/p>\n

\u201cPaige is really special player, tough cover,\u201d Storm coach Sonia Raman said. \u201cWe didn’t do a good enough job of executing our coverages and what we were trying to do against her.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut credit to her as well, for just making a lot of shots out there.”<\/p>\n

The Storm were headed for a more miserable blowout, down 35 early. They trailed 56-21 with 4:02 left in second quarter. The Wings then cooled off and let their foot off the gas and the Storm ended the first half on a 14-0 run. That didn\u2019t make it a game, per se, but it kept things reasonable. Seattle still trailed 56-35.<\/p>\n

During the lopsided first 15 minutes, Seattle\u2019s Flau\u2019jae Johnson contributed encouragement and solid defense. She then rounded out her game and went on a hot streak of her own. She had 12 points and five rebounds during one 10-minute stretch and ultimately led her team with 23 points.<\/p>\n

She matched her career high in three-pointers, set in July, with five on 10 attempts.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the quality of basketball that we played was decent, but we can’t have decent games,\u201d Johnson said. \u201cYou have to have great games, on every side.\u201d<\/p>\n

With a game-high three steals, the Storm said Johnson joined Lauren Jackson as the only two Storm players to record 50 steals and 25 blocks in their rookie seasons.<\/p>\n

Bueckers praised Johnson after the game, citing her sense of pride and joy while she\u2019s playing.<\/p>\n

“She\u2019s a scorer. She was born to score,” Bueckers told reporters.<\/p>\n

Bueckers finished a career-high 6-for-6 from three and with a game-high 32 points to go with four rebounds and four assists. Jessica Shepard had 11 points and 11 rebounds.<\/p>\n

Nicknames are still being workshopped, but Raman sent out the new \u201cbig three\u201d starting lineup \u2014 6-foot-4 Awa Fam, 6-4 Ezi Magbegor and 6-6 Dominique Malonga, along with Jade Melbourne (15 points) and Johnson.<\/p>\n

Malonga quickly got into foul trouble so the sample size was small, but the grouping was not effective during its time on the court. Malonga had 12 points to Magbegor\u2019s two. Fam missed all five shots she attempted from the field.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere’s moments where there’s two bigs running to the paint,\u201d Melbourne said. \u201cThere’s moments where they’re all spread out because someone thinks the next person’s going to do it.<\/p>\n

\u201cDefinitely growing pains. But it’s a scary lineup when it works. (We’re) continuing to go at it, continuing to get the reps in practice, continuing to get the in-game reps and use that to our advantage, and (it’s) something that we can roll out more.”<\/p>\n

In the Storm\u2019s most recent outing against Chicago, Magbegor was in foul trouble but the trio started rolling in the third quarter.<\/p>\n

Raman called it a work in progress.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt just takes time for them to kind of play together and see how that looks,\u201d she said. \u201cSo they haven’t had much (time), right?<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought they generated some good shots, and they didn’t all fall. There were some good plays, I think, early on with that group in together.\u201d<\/p>\n

Natisha Hiedeman<\/a> missed a second straight game with a left shoulder injury.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe’s a big part of our offense, what we’ve been doing all season,\u201d Johnson said. \u201cVeteran presence on the floor.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Storm may sit on a 7-31 record, but blowouts like this have been rare lately. Before Sunday, their last four losses had all been by single digits. The last time they lost by 20-plus points was July 2, when they dropped a 90-67 decision against the Phoenix Mercury.<\/p>\n

The last-place Storm have lost three straight and 14 of 15.<\/p>\n

The Wings (22-16) are almost certainly bound for the playoffs for the first time since 2023 and can clinch with a win Tuesday. Dallas set the team record for most regular-season wins Sunday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Paige Bueckers got the host Dallas Wings off to a rip-roaring, 11-0 Sunday start, and was instrumental in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":414993,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[102,104,103,154,12330],"class_list":["post-414992","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-dallas","tag-dallas","tag-dallas-headlines","tag-dallas-news","tag-sports","tag-storm"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/414992","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=414992"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/414992\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/414993"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=414992"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=414992"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=414992"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}