Wings vs. Storm: Paige Bueckers Goes 6-for-6 From 3 as Dallas Moves One Win From a Playoff Spot

Paige Bueckers scored 18 points in the first quarter on Sunday. The Seattle Storm, all of them combined, scored 17. If you only have time for one sentence about this game, that's the one.

Bueckers finished with 32 points and never missed from deep, going a perfect 6 for 6 from 3-point range, and the Dallas Wings flattened the Storm 92-70 at College Park Center in Arlington. Jessica Shepard added 11 points and 11 rebounds, and the victory was the Wings' 22nd of the season. Seattle never led. Not for a second. It was the kind of Sunday afternoon that makes you check whether the other team's bus was on time.

Thirty-Five Up, Then a Weird Finish to the Half

Dallas scored the first 11 points of the game, and the rout was on before most of the 6,251 in attendance had settled in. The Wings piled up three runs of at least eight points in the opening quarter alone, built a 34-17 lead after one and kept going. In the second quarter, they ripped off two more 11-0 runs, and by the 4:02 mark the scoreboard read 56-21. That 35-point margin was the high-water mark, and it arrived with more than 24 minutes still to play.

Then something strange happened: Dallas stopped scoring. Seattle took the last 14 points of the half while the Wings went more than four minutes without a basket or a free throw, and the Storm headed to the locker room down 56-35. It didn't change the outcome, but it did give the Storm something to talk about in the locker room.

Flau'jae Johnson kept that small fire going after halftime. She scored 11 in the third quarter as Seattle went 5 of 11 from deep and won the period 23-17, trimming the gap to 73-58. Dallas had six turnovers in the quarter, per the team, and the lead looked less like a coronation and more like a chore. Any thoughts of a real comeback ended in the fourth, when Dallas won the period 19-12 with Bueckers, Shepard and Arike Ogunbowale all resting.

Bueckers Was Not Interested in Missing

Bueckers' line is a little absurd: 32 points in 26 minutes on 12-of-16 shooting, 6 of 6 from 3, 2 of 2 at the line, four rebounds and four assists. In that opening period she went 7 of 8 from the field and 4 of 4 from deep, and the 18-point quarter tied the most any Wings player has scored in a first quarter, according to the team. She had 23 by halftime.

The six triples without a miss put her in rare company. The Wings say only four other players in WNBA history have made six 3s in a game without missing: Tamika Catchings in 2002, Maya Moore in 2011, Kristi Toliver in 2012 and Stefanie Dolson in 2024. Fun footnote: Dolson played 11 minutes for Seattle on Sunday and had a front-row seat. Dallas also says this was the fifth 30-point game of Bueckers' career, the third-most in franchise history.

Shepard quietly did the dirty work. Her 21st double-double of the season extended her own Wings single-season record, the team said, and her 11 boards pushed her past 400 rebounds on the year, making her the fastest Wings player to get there at 36 games. Maddy Siegrist and Sug Sutton each scored nine off a bench that produced 24 points, and Sutton's plus-22 led everyone.

Seattle's Fight, and Seattle's Problem

Johnson deserves real credit. She scored 23 points and made five 3-pointers, matching her career high per the AP, and she added six rebounds and three steals. Jade Melbourne had 15 and Dominique Malonga 12.

The rest of the frontcourt gave Seattle almost nothing. Awa Fam went 0 for 5 and did not score, Ezi Magbegor had two points on 0-of-4 shooting, and as a team Seattle shot 34%, taking 39 3s and making 12. The Wings' notes point out that Malonga, Fam and Magbegor combined for just 14 points. The Storm also lost the fast-break battle 20-5. Seattle was without Natisha Hiedeman (shoulder), while Dallas played without Azzi Fudd (knee) and Aziaha James (leg).

It Turned at the Opening Tip

Honestly? The opening tip. Dallas' first 11 points set the terms, and Bueckers' 18 in the first quarter made sure no one forgot them. The Wings shot .600 from the field and .750 from 3 in that period, according to the team, and their 17-point lead after one was the second-largest first-quarter margin in team history. When a team leads for 98% of the game and the only suspense is whether the star will miss a 3, the turning point was the national anthem.

Five Numbers, All Bad for Seattle

• 6 of 6: Bueckers from 3-point range.
• 18-17: Bueckers' first-quarter points versus Seattle's entire team.
• 20-5: Dallas' fast-break advantage.
• 23-12: Wings assists against Storm assists.
• 34%: Seattle's shooting, on 25 of 74.

One Win From the Playoffs

At 22-16, Dallas has won two straight, following Thursday's 91-85 win over Indiana. The Wings can clinch a playoff spot with a home win over Portland on Tuesday, per the AP, and the team notes it would be their first postseason berth since 2023. They are also 3-0 against Seattle this season, after a 79-56 win in June and a 112-110 win later that month.

Seattle falls to 7-31. The Storm have now lost three straight and 14 of their last 15, and they are 2-18 on the road. They get a home date with Toronto on Wednesday.

The Pickup Game Villain

Every pickup run has that one person who walks in, says nothing and ruins everybody's afternoon from long range. Bueckers ran that script for 26 minutes on Sunday. The difference is that her team is now one win away from taking the act to the playoffs.

Stats from the official box score via ESPN. Records and milestones as reported by the Associated Press and the Dallas Wings.