The Guru’s WNBA Roundup: Bueckers Scores 44 for Dallas but Los Angeles Nips the Wings on Plum’s Shot at the Finish

By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru

No. 1 overall draft pick Paige Bueckers was a one-woman show in Los Angeles Wednesday night in the only WNBA game of the evening scoring 44 points, tops for any player this season, and equaling Cynthia Cooper’s 28-year-old record for most rookie points in a single game.

But the last word went to veteran Kelsey Plum, beating the buzzer to give the host Sparks (17-18) an 81-80 victory before a Crypto.com crowd of 13,598 to stay very much alive to crack the eight-team playoff field whose pairings will be set September 11 while sending Dallas (9-27) in a virtual 11th place tie to the elimination room joining the lottery bound duo of idle Chicago (8-26), also eliminated by the outcome,  and Connecticut (7-21).

“I'm a believer in if there's 15 seconds or less, not to call a timeout,” said sparks coach Lynne Roberts. “If there's 5 seconds, yes, call time out, but if we have time to go, then it takes the coaching out.

“Players make plays, and I think our players are good at playing in space and in transition, so just trusting them I knew it would come down to pick and roll (with Dearica Hamby and Plum). Just a heck of a finish by her and she was pretty determined to get the bucket. A win is a win.

“Paige was just unbelievable tonight. She was.”

After spending a mostly joyful night led by their stellar newcomer out of NCAA champion UConn, the crushing result for Dallas came 24 hours after the Wings announced center Li Yueru is the latest of WNBA prominent players lost for season having suffered an ACL knee injury last Friday in a previous 97-96 one-point loss to the Sparks in which Bueckers scored 29 points.

To date, only runaway first-place Minnesota (28-6) has clinched the playoffs in front of nine other hopefuls, the upper group likely to appear targeting home-court advantage scenarios while a spread of three games separates sixth place Indiana (19-16) from 10th place Washington.

Los Angeles with the win and just outside the playoff fence is a half-game behind Seattle (18-18), one behind expansion Golden State (18-17) and two ahead of Washington (16-19).

The two that miss will join the lottery field, one more than before due to the addition this season of Golden State to the league and the playoff total being still the same.

In Wednesday’s game Bueckers scored the final 13 points for the Wings, the last on a technical for an 80-79 lead with 1:03 left in regulation.

Dallas still ahead gained possession off a jump ball on the next play but committed a turnover.

The Wings still had a chance but reserve Aziaha James out of N.C. State missed an attempted game-clincher shooting beyond the arc in the corner and the Sparks got the ball.

Plum on a high screen got into the lane to take a pass from Hamby and banked the final two points for the win.

Tennessee graduate Rickea Jackson shot a career-high six 3-pointers and scored 25 points while Plum scored 20, Hamby collected 14 and Cameron Brink had 11 points and eight boards.

“We had a fun game tonight, and that's what basketball is all about, putting on for their fans, putting on a show for them,” Jackson said. “So, I just felt like both teams truly did that, and everyone enjoyed themselves and got their moneys worth tonight.”

Plum also set Sparks franchise records for season scoring (693) passing Hamby and career 3-point scoring one more than the 81 held by Kristi Toliver set in 2016.

Bueckers was 17-21 from the field, including a perfect 4-4 from deep, and was also perfect 6-6 on the line to top her earlier high of 35 on Phoenix on June 11.

The Minneapolis native, who scored 29 in last week’s meeting with Los Angeles, also passed Cooper for third for most consecutive rookie double digit scoring games at 29 just four behind the 33 held by reigning MVP A’ja Wilson with Las Vegas.

“Just my teammates getting me open, screening for me, some off ball action, trying to get some open looks,” Bueckers said of her scoring in the fourth quarter.

“I just looked for what the defense gave me, my teammates were setting open screens… and just trying to attack and be aggressive,” Bueckers said of her play the entire game.   

Former Villanova all-time scoring star Maddy Siegrist, the third overall pick of the 2023 draft, scored 13, the only other Wings player in double figures.

“We’re Right there, this group continues to scratch and claw and get in close games,” said Dallas first-year coach Chris Koclanes. “Now we have to continue to learn and win some of them.

“I love our fight and our resilience and getting Arike (Ogunbowale) back will give us another scorer. At times out there, Paige isn’t going, so where is another scorer? Where are we getting our punch from,” he continued. “So having that other scorer alongside Paige opens up the floor for everybody.

“(Paige) lets the game come to her and she takes what the defense is giving her. So, all over the floor, early on, bringing the ball up, whether she’s off the ball, how success ... getting downhill, getting pieces of the paint, and when she touches the paint, she plays her own game.

“You can’t speed her up. It's really impressive for a rookie in this league to be able to maintain her own speed. And that helps her to be able to read the defense. She sits up here (on the podium) and that's how she is. She trusts her teammates. To have somebody like that, the future leader of this organization, I’m just extremely lucky.”

The Wings can still be spoilers in the next game hosting Seattle Friday at 7:30 p.m., part of the three-game WNBA/steaming ION schedule including Minnesota at Indiana at 7:30 p.m., the second of the back-to-back for the visiting Lynx, and Golden State visits Phoenix at 10 p.m.

Los Angeles is off until Tuesday hosting Phoenix while in that span Washington visits Connecticut and hosts Las Vegas Saturday and Seattle Sunday.

Looking Ahead

New York and Atlanta, tied for second, both play on Thursday night part of the league’s four-game package streaming on Amazon Prime Video.

The defending champion Liberty, the magic number five to officially return to the post season, host Chicago at 7 p.m. at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, while the Dream hosts Minnesota at 7:30 p.m.

The visiting Lynx magic number after Tuesday’s only loss to New York in their four-game series is two for home court in an opener and five for the overall top seed.

New York expects Breanna Stewart, out since late July with a bone bruise on her right knee, to return by the end of the month while Minnesota’s Napheesa Collier, the reigning defensive player of the year and had been the front-runner for MVP, could return by the weekend after being sidelined just nearing three weeks with a sprained ankle.

A key game involved with two teams statistically tied for fourth and the last home advantage spot for the four playoff openers has Phoenix at 10 p.m. visiting Las Vegas, which is on an eight-game win streak.

The two teams only trail New York and Atlanta by a half-game.

Washington in the other game and still alive in the playoff hunt at 7 p.m. tries to avenge Tuesday’s loss to Connecticut visiting the Sun at 7 p.m.

While the home team has been suffering with its worst season record since brought to Connecticut from Orlando in 2003, though already eliminated from the playoffs the Sun are only a game short of Dallas and Chicago to be able to climb out of the basement position they’ve held all summer.