In this season of overachievement for the Dallas Wings, there are still more boxes to check to confirm their status as legitimate championship contenders.
The Wings have wins over every team except three: the Minnesota Lynx, Golden State Valkyries and Atlanta Dream.
Wednesday night, the Wings get their third and final shot at the Dream (USA Network, 8 p.m. ET).
And no, scoring a victory over every team in the league is not a prerequisite to playoff success. However, a season-long ledger that feature
at least one win over every opponent inspires confidence in a team’s ability to navigate the postseason gauntlet, proving that the team is prepared for any matchup, regardless of how the playoff bracket shakes out.
For instance, if the playoff field remained as is, the Dream, as the No. 6 seed would match up with the No. 3-seed Las Vegas Aces in the first round—and no one should be confident in Atlanta. Not only are the Aces the defending champs, but they have defeated the Dream six times in a row. Atlanta, rated as having the fifth-best title odds at 13 percent by ESPN Analytics, also has another resume blemish that raises skepticism about their championship ceiling, as they were swept by Golden State.
Neither the Valkyries nor the Wings are given current championship cred by ESPN Analytics, even as both teams sit ahead of the Dream in the standings.
Both teams, however, can continue to build resumes that, regardless of what the predictive metrics may spit out, put them in the center of any and all contender conversations.
After their winning streak was snapped by the Washington Mystics in the final game before the break, denying them from enjoying that elusive double-digit winning streak, Golden State returns to the court in the desert with opportunity to sweep the season series over the Phoenix Mercury (USA Network, 10 p.m. ET).
In the Valkyries’ home opener way back in mid-May, Janelle Salaün launched her Sixth Player of the Year campaign, leading Golden State to the 16-point win with 21 points behind a 4-for-5 effort from 3. In early June, the Valkyries held off the Mercury, powered by a near triple-double from Alyssa Thomas, thanks to matching 25-point nights from Veronica Burton and Gabby Williams.
It’s hard to see a thin Phoenix team reversing these results against a deep Golden State squad on Wednesday. The Valkyries should be right back to their winning ways.
Dallas, as alluded to above, faces a tougher challenge. Just as Golden State had Atlanta’s number this season, the Dream, at least so far, have owned the Wings.
More specifically, Rhyne Howard has owned Paige Bueckers.
Howard takes pride in her two-way player identity, and her league-leading 2.4 steals per game are proof that she puts in work on both ends of the floor. Howard, in particular, has risen to challenge when Bueckers has been on the other side.
The efficient brilliance of Bueckers, where she so often appears unbothered by any defense, has disappeared against the Dream. When the Wings lost to the Dream in late May, Paige struggled through her worst shooting night of the season, going just 3-for-13 from the field and scoring a season-low seven points. In the earlier matchup between the two teams in mid-May, Bueckers was also below her standard, scoring 15 points on 12 shot attempts.
The battle between Rhyne and Paige, of course, will influence the outcome of the game. But, there’s another factor that could, finally, help swing the result the Wings’ way: the Fudd factor.
The two games between Atlanta and Dallas came before Azzi Fudd’s breakout. She didn’t even play in the first contest, as she was sidelined with an injury. In the second game, she saw 21 minutes off the bench, scoring seven points on nine shots.
Since then, Azzi has more than acclimated to WNBA basketball, equipping Dallas with the kind of weapon who could solve their recent struggles against Atlanta. As a starter, she averages almost 34 minutes per game, providing a quieter version of the two-way play that defines Howard. Her two 3-pointers and more than 13 points per game also serve as a steady source of scoring production, achieved via ever-valuable floor spacing, for the Wings.
Plus, as proven by her four games with more than 20 points, as well as in her history-making 3-Point Contest win, she’s capable of catching fire—and then some.
In your opinion, would a Wings win over the Dream be meaningful? Is it important for Dallas, as they construct their contender credentials, to avoid a season sweep to Atlanta?
Or, rather than the big picture, should the Wings, as well as the Dream, simply prioritize starting their post-All-Star schedule off with a W? Does the desire make definitive statements about what could happen in the postseason distract from the day-to-day of the regular season, where only the next game matters?
Let’s hear your ideas in the comments.
