{"id":54145,"date":"2025-08-02T04:16:09","date_gmt":"2025-08-02T04:16:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/54145\/"},"modified":"2025-08-02T04:16:09","modified_gmt":"2025-08-02T04:16:09","slug":"paige-bueckers-lack-of-help-evident-as-the-fevers-balanced-offense-bests-the-wings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/54145\/","title":{"rendered":"Paige Bueckers\u2019 lack of help evident as the Fever\u2019s balanced offense bests the Wings"},"content":{"rendered":"

The imbalance between Paige Bueckers<\/a>\u2019 points and her teammates\u2019 output was evident yet again. In the Dallas Wings\u2019 88-78 loss to the Indiana Fever<\/a> on Friday, Bueckers had 22 points. None of her teammates cracked double digits.<\/p>\n

The issue was especially noticeable with the rest of the starters. In the first half, Bueckers scored 15 points, while the other four starters combined for only 12. The starters, excluding Bueckers, had 23 points by the final buzzer.<\/p>\n

On the other end of the court at the American Airlines Center, the Fever\u2019s Kelsey Mitchell, Natasha Howard and Aliyah Boston were within one point of each other by the end of the first half, evening the load.<\/p>\n

Related:Paige Bueckers does her part, but Wings fall short against Caitlin Clark-less Fever<\/a><\/p>\n

Sports Roundup<\/p>\n

Get the latest D-FW sports news, analysis and opinion delivered straight to your inbox. Plus, Kevin Sherrington’s A La Carte.<\/p>\n

Mitchell pulled ahead, finishing the game with 23 points. Unlike the Wings though, only one Fever starter finished the game with fewer than 10 points.<\/p>\n

Myisha Hines-Allen and Aziaha James each had nine points off the bench, making them Dallas\u2019 second-highest scorers of the night.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust trying to be that instant offense off the bench, being that energetic, repeat,\u201d James said after the game. \u201cJust doing what I have to do, trying to get the ball in the basket.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bueckers and Arike Ogunbowale<\/a> are the only two Wings starters averaging above 8.0 points a game this season, with 18.3 and 16 respectively. Dijonai Carrington is the only player coming off the bench who meets that same quota, averaging 10.7. <\/p>\n

Starting versus coming off the bench has recently been a contentious topic for the Wings. Carrington said two weeks ago that coming off the bench felt \u201csort of in a sense\u201d like her role was being diminished \u201ca little bit.\u201d<\/p>\n

Against the Fever, Carrington had 4 points, 3 rebounds and 1 assist. She shot 25% from the field in just over 16 minutes.<\/p>\n

Wings coach Chris Koclanes<\/a> said that deciding minutes was something that he puts a lot of thought into.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou want to try to establish a rhythm and normality with your subbing and rotations, and you go into every game thinking that that\u2019s going to be the case,\u201d Koclanes said after the loss. \u201cAnd then the game unfolds and things change.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the fourth quarter, Koclanes kept Arike out when he noticed that Bueckers, Hines-Allen and James \u201cgot it rolling.\u201d<\/p>\n

James, who logged 16 minutes, said she doesn\u2019t struggle finding her rhythm coming off the bench.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou just always gotta stay ready,\u201d James said. \u201cYou never know what\u2019s going to happen, you never know where the game is at, who needs to be in the game.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Wings<\/a>Paige Bueckers does her part, but Wings fall short against Caitlin Clark-less Fever<\/a><\/p>\n

Dallas is still winless this year against Indiana, but brought the WNBA to American Airlines Center for the second time this season.<\/p>\n

\"Indiana<\/a>Is Caitlin Clark playing today? Wings-Fever set for AAC rematch in Dallas<\/a><\/p>\n

For the second time, the anticipated Clark-Bueckers matchup on the WNBA stage in North Texas will have to wait. <\/p>\n

Find more Wings coverage from The Dallas Morning News here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The imbalance between Paige Bueckers\u2019 points and her teammates\u2019 output was evident yet again. In the Dallas Wings\u2019…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":54146,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[39387,2832,14744,2834,2833,99,13469,434],"class_list":["post-54145","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wnba","tag-american-airlines-center","tag-arike-ogunbowale","tag-chris-koclanes","tag-dallas-wings","tag-paige-bueckers","tag-sports","tag-wings","tag-wnba"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54145","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=54145"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54145\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/54146"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54145"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=54145"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=54145"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}