ARLINGTON — She made a brief appearance pregame, with a hoodie covering her head and a Cava bag in tow, but Dallas Wings standout rookie Paige Bueckers did not see the floor — or even the sideline — on Saturday as the Wings fell 94-83 to the visiting Chicago Sky at College Park Center.
The clash with the Sky — the Wings’ second since losing 97-92 to Chicago (2–4) on Thursday — was supposed to feature another faceoff between Bueckers and Angel Reese, two of the WNBA’s biggest young stars. But the Wings (1–6) announced Friday that Bueckers had been placed under concussion protocol and would miss at least Saturday’s game and Tuesday’s contest with the Seattle Storm.
Bueckers, drafted No. 1 overall by the Wings last month, was averaging 14.7 points, 4.7 rebounds and 6.7 assists per game before her injury and recorded 15 points, five rebounds, eight assists and three blocks on Thursday. The UConn product also started every Wings game before Saturday, when the Wings debuted a new starting lineup that added Villanova alum Maddy Siegrist (11 points, 8 rebounds) to the fold.
The new rotation gave the Wings an idea of who they could be without Bueckers on the floor, but the product was much the same for Dallas, which before Saturday, had seen four of its five losses come by eight points or less. But the Wings, who posted their worst loss since the season opener, definitely missed the star rookie.
“[We weren’t] playing with a true point guard in that lineup, so you had all sorts of different people bringing the ball up,” Wings coach Chris Koclanes said. “It’s just a little clunky at times.”
In the announced sellout against the Sky, which drew a sizable number of Chicago fans, the Wings fell into the same pattern: getting down and coming back, but being unable to finish.
After a competitive first quarter that saw the Wings trail the Sky by one point, Dallas found itself on the wrong side of a 10-0 run in the second quarter.
The subsequent rally, spearheaded mostly by Kaila Charles (11 points, 4 rebounds) and NaLyssa Smith (team-high 20 points), helped Dallas crawl out of what was an 8-point hole and even claim the lead at one point, but the Wings couldn’t close out the half on top.
Down 46-43 at halftime, the Wings found themselves in a third quarter hole, too. They trailed the Sky, on a 7-0 run, 61-53 with 3:46 remaining in the third before DiJonai Carrington (16 points, 3 rebounds) ended Dallas’ scoring drought , but her flagrant 1 foul with 1:31 remaining in the third quarter sent Ariel Atkins (26 points) to the free-throw line for two shots. Chicago ended the penultimate quarter up seven and outscored Dallas 28-24 in the fourth.
“The intangible things,” Koclanes said on how the Wings can be on the other side of close games. “I truly believe that the more they stay together in [the locker room] and we figure that part out, that will equate to wins on the floor.”
Wings All-Star guard Arike Ogunbowale, who dropped 37 points in Dallas’ loss to the Sky on Thursday, managed 15 points, but she finished 5-of-16 shooting and 1-of-5 from three. That performance and Smith’s 20-point outing wasn’t enough to stop the Sky, whose two wins this season are both over Dallas.
The Wings will be without Bueckers for at least one more game. But even once the rookie returns, Dallas, which went 9-31 last season, will have to find answers soon.
“We’ve just got to go out every single night and put our heart on the line,” Smith said. “Nobody wants to go out there and lose every night, so we’re trying every night to win. We’re going to put it together.”
