secured their spot in the 2026 playoffs<\/a>, but they can still improve their seeding. Dallas, currently on a four-game winning streak, intends to win out. But the Wings won\u2019t start the last stretch of the regular season until they meet the Los Angeles Sparks at College Park Center on Sept. 17 \u2014 18 days after their last game.<\/p>\nDallas struggled after All-Star weekend earlier this summer, going 2\u20137 out of that break before the current win streak began. Each of those seven losses came to other playoff teams.<\/p>\n
While the Wings are off this week to meet league requirements pertaining to the break, the team will return to practice Sept.8. The World Cup participants just won\u2019t be there when practice first resumes, and one of Fernandez\u2019s assistants will lead the sessions.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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Fernandez said Sunday some players will not be in the Dallas-Fort Worth area during the first week of the World Cup break. They\u2019ve all been assigned individual player development programs that will help guide them while away from the team.<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause we still have a lot to play for, and they\u2019ve got to be ready while I\u2019m away and while [Paige] is away to really have great individual workouts and very productive practices,\u201d Fernandez said.<\/p>\n
This type of intermission doesn\u2019t happen in other sports leagues. The next FIBA Men\u2019s Basketball World Cup, which will run from Aug. 27 through Sept. 14, 2027, will take place ahead of the 2027-28 NBA season.<\/p>\n
The 2026 FIFA World Cup wrapped up in mid July, about a month before major European soccer leagues typically start their seasons. The tournament began in June after their seasons had finished.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know where else you could put it in regards to timing,\u201d Fernandez said. \u201cWith [the WNBA] adding six games next year, I\u2019m guessing those games would be during this time, so we\u2019d still be playing.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Fernandez said he\u2019s not sure how the WNBA calendar will look in 2028 with the Los Angeles Olympics set that summer, but he noted it will create a similar situation as this year\u2019s World Cup.<\/p>\n
The United States Women\u2019s National Team, which also includes Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese, has had less time than other federations to practice due to the WNBA season. Players also might have a bit more wear and tear on their bodies 40 games into the schedule.<\/p>\n
\u201cEverybody\u2019s got to figure it out, find a way, dig deep,\u201d Bueckers said. \u201cYou\u2019re representing your country. There\u2019s no time to be tired.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dallas Wings guard Paige Bueckers (5) and guard Odyssey Sims (1) congratulate forward Awak Kuier (34) on a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":424314,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[732,102,104,103,88877,89478],"class_list":["post-424313","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-dallas","tag-article","tag-dallas","tag-dallas-headlines","tag-dallas-news","tag-tp-dallas-wings","tag-tp-paige-bueckers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/424313","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=424313"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/424313\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/424314"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=424313"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=424313"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=424313"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}