“She could’ve got it,” said Ogunbowale, whom Bueckers tied for the record. “We actually had a lot of missed layups from her passes, but I think she’ll break it at some point soon.”
Bueckers said jokingly in response: “In the locker room, I was going down the whole entire line of teammates letting them know that they smoked one for me. But I think it was all planned to be able to share that with Arike.”
In addition to the star guard’s career-high in assists, she also scored 18 points and committed one turnover against the Sparks. For the 7-3 Wings, currently 2–0 in Commissioner’s Cup play, Bueckers is averaging 18.3 points, 3.6 rebounds and 6.2 assists per game. She’s shooting 49.3% from the field and 40.9% from 3.
Bueckers, embracing the point guard role in her sophomore season, ranks eighth in the WNBA in points per game and eighth in assists.
“I think Paige is such a great decision maker,” Wings coach Jose Fernandez said Friday after the win over the Sparks. “Paige is going to get everybody’s best defender night in, night out. Now, she’s playing primarily at the point guard spot. … She just makes really, really good reads.”
“Passing is something she’s phenomenal at, she’s been good at since I met her in high school,” Fudd said Sunday after practice in Arlington. “She has some of the best court vision [and] basketball IQ of anyone that you’ll ever meet.
“At least for me, she knows where I’m going to be before I even get there.”
But as is customary for Bueckers, she credits her teammates for her playmaking abilities.
“My teammates just did a really good job of getting people open, of screening, of cutting, of moving without the ball and just making the game easy for me,” Bueckers said after her record performance against the Sparks. “And they hit really tough shots too. Assists just means giving to your teammates.”