Moments before tipoff between the Dallas Wings (27-17) and the Seattle Storm (8-36) at Climate Pledge Arena on Wednesday, a key piece of the Wings’ playoff puzzle was put into place some 2,400 miles away. With the Atlanta Dream’s 83-65 win at the New York Liberty, Dallas secured the seven seed in the WNBA playoffs, which start on Saturday. Even though the Wings’ 102-91 win was rendered somewhat immaterial, the Wings felt like
But after Monday’s 87-86 fourth-quarter collapse at the Phoenix Mercury,
Dallas was in the mood for some get-right in the final regular-season game of the year. The Wings made 13 of their first 20 field goal attempts in the first quarter to sprint out to a 29-10 lead and took a 29-12 lead after one.
Jessica Shepard led the way with 10 points on 5-of-6 shooting for Dallas in the first, while Paige Bueckers filled up the stat sheet with six points, five rebounds and three assists to whet the appetite after her 30-point, seven-assist explosion two nights earlier.
Bueckers killed a 15-4 second-quarter run by Seattle with a three-point play over Awa Fam to keep the Wings in front 38-31 midway through the second. But Dallas turned the ball over on back-to-back possessions late in the second, and what was once a 19-point lead withered to just five, 47-42, when Fam hit her third 3-pointer of the first half with 45 seconds left before halftime.
Dallas took a 49-42 lead into the half.
Arike Ogunbowale, who had a miserable game in Monday’s loss at Phoenix, bounced back nicely in Seattle on Wednesday. She knocked down her second 3-pointer of the game on the Wings’ first possession of the third quarter to extend Dallas’ lead to 52-42. She cleaned up a broken possession three minutes later to keep the lead at 10, up 59-49, with 6:30 left in the third, and the Wings took a 76-63 advantage into the fourth.
Shepard completed her sixth triple-double of the year with her 10th rebound midway through the fourth. She now leads the WNBA in triple-doubles this season after coming into the year with just one to her credit. Shepard shot 9-of-12 from the field in the win and would appear to be a shoo-in for the Most Improved Player award.
Shepard (20, 12 assists, 11 rebounds), Bueckers (25) and Ogunbowale (23) combined to score 65 points in the win, while the young Seattle trio of Fam (22), Dominique Malonga (29) and Johnson (21) fought the Wings every inch of the way down the stretch. Fam’s 22 is a new season and career-high mark. Bueckers’ first 3-pointer of the game came with 58 seconds left to play and put Dallas up 100-91. Kuier did her part, too, defending the rim and nailing four 3-balls of her own in the win.
Bounce back
Ogunbowale was everything on Wednesday that she desperately wanted to be on Monday for the Wings. She was efficient, hitting 8-of-15 from the field in the win. Her contested runner in the lane with just over a minute left in the third quarter gave the Wings a 74-61 lead.
After a 2-for-8, seven-point performance on Monday, Ogunbowale burned and turned the page in Seattle, going off for 23 points and six assists in the win.
Ogunbowale reached the 20-point mark on Dallas’ first possession of the fourth quarter, on a three-point play inside completed on Shepard’s ninth assist of the game. Ogunbowale hit another tough fadeaway in the lane little more than a minute later to extend the Dallas lead to 84-69. She was a big part of the Wings’ ability to keep the Storm at arm’s length down the stretch two nights after they let the Mercury come back on them.
Finding Flau’jae
Rookie guard Flau’jae Johnson averaged 11.4 points per game across the first 11 games of her WNBA career. But over the last 17 coming into Wednesday’s matchup, the star out of LSU has increased her scoring average to 17.4.
Her size and strength at guard are traits that have bothered Dallas all year long. Combine that with the Storm’s size and skill along the front line, with Fam and second-year star Dominique Malonga, and the Storm were never going to be as easy to put away as their 8-35 record coming into the game would suggest.
Johnson and Fam ignited a 15-4 Seattle run early in the second quarter to bring the Storm to within six, down 35-29, with 5:20 left in the first half. Johnson finished with 12 points and four rebounds in the first half. She had a perimeter jumper blocked by Awak Kuier midway through the third, but stuck with the play and drove for a contested layup seconds later to pull Seattle to within 51-45.
Johnson came off a screen from Malonga with 2:25 left in the third and rose up over Aziaha James for a hoop and the harm to pull the Storm to within 57-68, giving her 19 points on 8-of-15 shooting to that point in the game. Johnson finished with 21 points and six boards in the loss.
First-round playoff opponent
Who will the Wings play in the first round of their first playoff berth since 2023? That will be decided on the last night of the regular season. If the Golden State Valkyries win their final regular-season game at the Los Angeles Sparks, they will stay in second place in the WNBA standings and will host the Wings in Game 1 of a three-game series on Saturday.
But if Golden State somehow loses, the Las Vegas Aces will have a shot to climb into the two seed with a win at the Mercury late on Thursday. This is notable, because the Wings looked outmatched in two of their threer regular-season matchups against the Valkyries, while they won two of three this year against the Aces.
