Kent Bewley's News Story Collection

On Tue, Aug 25, the Dallas Wings hosted the Portland Fire in a game at the College Park Center in Arlington, Tex. Following a tough first few weeks of the month and losing Azzi Fudd to a season-ending knee injury, the Wings had fallen to eighth place in the WNBA standings. But with a couple of recent wins against the Indiana Fever and Seattle Storm, Dallas was one win away from clinching its first playoff berth since 2023. It was a big chance for Paige Bueckers to earn her first career chance at playing in the WNBA playoffs and she was coming off a high-scoring performance against Seattle where she scored 32 points and made all six of her three-point shots. Along with the return of Jessica Shepard from an ankle injury and the defensive dominance of center Awak Kuier, the Wings were looking quite dangerous entering the clinching game against Portland, whom they defeated on Jul 22 and lost against on Jun 13.

The game started with an early push by Dallas, which gained a 12-3 lead in the first four minutes of action. The Wings kept that edge and were up by nine at the end of the first quarter. The Fire got within four points of the lead a couple of times in the second quarter, but Dallas kept pushing the lead back up with excellent offensive efficiency and solid defense. Arike Ogunbowale was helping lead the charge in scoring along with Bueckers and Shepard. A few big three-point shots made by Kuier, Alanna Smith and Alysha Clark helped the Wings get to 50 points at the end of the first half and they were up by 13 points heading into the break.

The lead only grew for Dallas at the beginning of the second half and in the third quarter Ogunbowale and Bueckers raised the lead up into the 20s. The lead remained large in the fourth quarter as the Wings were breezing on their way to a playoff berth over Portland, which was the last non-playoff team still in contention for a spot entering this game. A big three-pointer made by Bueckers and a couple of baskets by Ogunbowale and Shepard put this game to rest. The Wings won 96-78 in winning their 23rd game of the season, which set a franchise mark for them as a Dallas team. With their playoff berth now clinched, the Wings will now look to improve their playoff seeding in the final five games of the regular season.

Bueckers led the way in scoring with 22 points and she had 11 assists to have a double-double. All the other Dallas starters scored in double-figures, as Shepard scored 21 and had 9 rebounds and six assists, Ogunbowale netted 17 on the scoreboard, Kuier had a double-double with 12 points and a dozen rebounds along with five blocks, and Smith scored ten points and grabbed five rebounds. The Fire had six players score in double-figures, being led by Bridget Carleton and Karlie Samuelson scoring 14 points each.

The Wings will play one more game before the scheduled three-week break for the 2026 FIBA Women’s World Cup in Germany, which Bueckers will be taking part in while playing for Team USA. Dallas hosts the Connecticut Sun on Aug 30 before the break and the final four games on their schedule will occur in mid-to-late September with games against the Los Angeles Sparks, Phoenix Mercury(two in a row) and Storm(regular season finale in Seattle). Dallas is competing for playoff positioning and looking to improve their mark of being the eight seed. With them being only a half-game behind the Washington Mystics and New York Liberty in the standings, the Wings can improve their position to sixth place potentially in the final five games. They are three games behind the third-place team in the Western Conference in the Las Vegas Aces, who are barely ahead of the Atlanta Dream and Indiana Fever for third overall in the WNBA standings. For now, the Dallas Wings will be heading to the playoffs for the first time in the Paige Bueckers era. Time will tell who they will face in the First Round.