The Dallas Wings cling to their hope for a better seed in the upcoming playoffs but will have to beat the Seattle Storm on the road on Wednesday in the teams’ final regular-season game to have a chance to improve their standing.
The Wings (26-17) squandered a chance to cement at least the seventh seed in the postseason when they coughed up an 11-point fourth-quarter lead and lost 87-86 to the Mercury in Phoenix on Monday. The defeat snapped Dallas’ six-game winning streak.
“It’s something we’ve talked about all year, about how every possession matters on both ends of the floor,” Dallas coach Jose Fernandez said after Monday’s loss. “We’ve got to string together some stops and stay dialed in.”
Dallas and New York are tied for seventh place with one game remaining, with the Wings holding the tiebreaker if the two remain knotted at season’s end. Both are a half-game behind the Washington Mystics (26-16), who play two teams eliminated from the playoffs — Connecticut and Chicago — to end their season.
Paige Bueckers led the Wings Monday with 30 points while Jessica Shepard added 17 points and 19 rebounds but missed three free throws in the game’s final minutes.
“We can’t be fouling and we can’t give up layups with the game on the line,” Bueckers said. “We just have to be better, more locked in. (We need) to be more disciplined in our game plan and stick to that and defend without fouling.”
Bueckers now has 853 points in 41 games on the season, setting a franchise record formerly owned by current teammate Arike Ogunbowale in 40 games in 2023.
Seattle (8-35) closes out a disastrous season in which it has dropped 18 of its past 20 games and is guaranteed to finish in last place. The Storm’s 35 losses are already the most by a team in WNBA history.
The Storm’s most recent outing was a 98-77 defeat in Las Vegas to the defending champion Aces on Sunday. Rookie Flau’jae Johnson scored a career-high 29 points to go with six rebounds, six assists and four steals. Dominique Malonga added 25 points and eight boards for Seattle, which shot just 39.4% overall and only 29.4% after halftime.
“Our effort was really good and those two players carried the bulk of the scoring for us,” Storm coach Sonia Raman said after the loss to the Aces. “There is a really bright future for this team and we just have to continue to give out young players the reps together to keep working and improving. I’ve seen a lot of positives.”
Johnson has been Seattle’s leading scorer in 13 games this season, including the past six.
The Wings have won all three games against Seattle this season.
–Field Level Media
