{"id":447804,"date":"2026-09-25T22:02:15","date_gmt":"2026-09-25T22:02:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/447804\/"},"modified":"2026-09-25T22:02:15","modified_gmt":"2026-09-25T22:02:15","slug":"paige-bueckers-steps-onto-wnba-playoff-stage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/447804\/","title":{"rendered":"Paige Bueckers steps onto WNBA playoff stage"},"content":{"rendered":"

ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) \u2014 Paige Bueckers put her arms in the air with her hands together, a smile accompanying the prayer-like motion when the Dallas Wings star finally made a shot after a rare scoreless first half.<\/p>\n

The reigning WNBA Rookie of the Year<\/a> knew she had missed her first seven shots in a random mid-August game<\/a> against a team on a nine-game losing streak.<\/p>\n

It illustrated the self-awareness Bueckers has shown as a pro, from the rookie No. 1 overall pick learning how to cope with losing<\/a> in much larger doses to the second-year leader helping navigate the ups and downs for a contender.<\/p>\n

Now she’s ready for her WNBA playoff debut Sunday against the Golden State Valkyries.<\/p>\n

\u201cVery excited,\u201d Bueckers said. \u201cIt\u2019s what you play for to be able to play in the postseason, to play for something that means so much. To be able to do it with this squad, I’m looking forward to it.\u201d<\/p>\n

In that 94-88 victory over Toronto last month, Bueckers made all four shots in a 13-point third quarter and ended up leading the Wings with 22 points. Dallas ended a three-game losing streak that was part of the most challenging stretch of the season, with eight losses in 11 games.<\/p>\n

On either side of that funk, the Wings had six-game winning streaks that are the longest since the club moved to the Dallas area 10 years ago.<\/p>\n

How Bueckers copes with losing<\/p>\n

Those two streaks alone gave the Wings more than the 10 victories they had while Bueckers was on her way to top rookie honors last year for a team that tied for the league’s worst record.<\/p>\n

The 34 losses a year ago were twice as many as the combined number of her four seasons at UConn, where she won the 2025 national championship before Dallas drafted her No. 1 overall.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery season has its journeys and its ups and downs and the waves of success and the waves of failure,\u201d Bueckers said. \u201cI think it\u2019s so easy throughout a season to lose confidence or let that waver. Continue to stay dedicated on getting better every single day and not be result-driven, as I\u2019ve learned last year and I learned throughout my entire life. It\u2019s just staying steady throughout the season as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bueckers led all rookies in scoring at 19.2 points per game and assists at 5.4. Both of those numbers are up this year, to 20.9 and 5.9.<\/p>\n

That’s good news and bad news for first-year coach Jose Fernandez, who hoped to let the versatile Bueckers play off the ball more but instead had to lean on her to run the offense.<\/p>\n

Bueckers also pushed her rebounding average over four and is one of just three players in league history to average at least 20 points, four rebounds and five assists per game in a season. Diana Taurasi did it 13 years ago, and Arike Ogunbowale did it for Dallas in 2024, the year before she became Bueckers’ teammate.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe plays with so much energy and vigor and love for the game,\u201d Fernandez said. \u201cShe just makes everybody around her better, and you can tell how much she cares about winning. She’s just special. She wants to win at everything.\u201d<\/p>\n

Reconnecting with Fudd<\/p>\n

Bueckers lost so much as a rookie, the Wings ended up with the No. 1 pick again and drafted her former UConn teammate, Azzi Fudd. Their reconnection was cut short when a sore knee sidelined Fudd<\/a> and she ended up having season-ending surgery.<\/p>\n

Fudd played 30 games, the first six off the bench before she joined Bueckers in the starting lineup for good.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had a good sample size this season,\u201d Bueckers said. \u201cOf course, it\u2019s a missing piece that we\u2019re gonna have moving forward (in the playoffs). Can\u2019t really replicate her shooting ability, her spacing ability, but also what she does defensively for us. Looking forward to her getting healthy and being back healthy on the floor next year, but just staying present right now.\u201d<\/p>\n

A hot and hectic finish<\/p>\n

The Wings won seven of eight to finish the regular season, a hot streak interrupted by a nearly three-week break when Bueckers played her first major tournament with the senior national team.<\/p>\n

The U.S. won gold at the FIBA World Cup in Berlin, and Bueckers played all four games in eight days once the season resumed.<\/p>\n

\u201cThings like that have pros and cons,\u201d Bueckers said. \u201cWe\u2019ve been able to stay in shape and stay in game-ready shape, but mentally wise, we didn\u2019t really get a break. So we\u2019ve constantly been in game flow. But also finding rest, finding ways to recover, getting back into the routine, my body\u2019s feeling good.\u201d<\/p>\n

General manager Curt Miller, who has been on the Team USA staff in the past, didn’t have any doubt Bueckers could handle the hectic finish because he saw how she prepared for the start. Bueckers worked on building strength in the offseason, and Miller thought it showed during the fourth quarters of games.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe really does have the keys to this franchise now,\u201d Miller said. \u201cAnd it\u2019s fun. I know we all are greedy and we want to be as good as we can quickly, but it takes steps. Really pleased with Paige\u2019s growth between year one and year two. Some of it is very obvious, but a lot of it is subtle.\u201d<\/p>\n

Growth in the playoffs is the next step.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) \u2014 Paige Bueckers put her arms in the air with her hands together, a smile…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":447805,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[556,555,150,152,151,557,223,154,27],"class_list":["post-447804","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arlington","tag-app-professional-sports","tag-app-sports","tag-arlington","tag-arlington-headlines","tag-arlington-news","tag-associated-press","tag-news","tag-sports","tag-texas"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/447804","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=447804"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/447804\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/447805"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=447804"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=447804"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=447804"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}