Wings vs. Storm: Shepard's Triple-Double and Bueckers' 25 Cap Dallas' WNBA-Record 17-Win Turnaround

Ten wins last season. Twenty-seven this season. Somewhere, a Dallas Wings fan is printing that on a T-shirt, and after Wednesday night, nobody can argue with it.

The Wings beat the Seattle Storm 103-91 at Climate Pledge Arena in the regular-season finale for both teams. Paige Bueckers scored 25 points, Arike Ogunbowale added 23, and Jessica Shepard went for 20 points, 11 rebounds and 12 assists for what the AP called her WNBA-leading sixth triple-double of the season. Dallas also locked up the No. 7 seed for the playoffs, thanks to Atlanta's win over New York earlier in the evening.

Dallas Comes Out Flying

The Wings treated the first quarter like a layup line. Leading 13-8, they reeled off 11 straight points to make it 24-8, and they were up 29-12 after one. Seattle went 0 for 6 from deep in the period, according to the Wings, while Dallas shot better than 60% from the floor.

Shepard was the engine of that start. According to the team, no one in WNBA history had ever filled a single quarter with double-digit points, five or more rebounds and six or more assists until she did it here. That is not a quarter. That is a full night's work for most people, done in 10 minutes.

Seattle Punches Back

To the Storm's credit, they did not fold. Seattle won the second quarter 30-20, and the team said the Storm's shooting percentage in that period was the highest by any Wings opponent in a single quarter this season. Bueckers kept Dallas in front with 15 first-half points, and the Wings took a 49-42 lead into the break.

Dallas reasserted itself after halftime, winning the third quarter 27-21 to go up 76-63. The Wings shot well again and played the entire third without a turnover, per the team.

The Fourth-Quarter Fright and the Answer

Then the Storm made it weird. Dallas led 90-71 midway through the fourth when Seattle went on an 11-0 run, capped by a 26-foot running jumper from Jade Melbourne, to make it 90-82 with 4:19 left. The AP counted it as a 17-4 burst that eventually pulled Seattle within 94-88 on Natisha Hiedeman's layup with 2:01 to play.

That is when Dallas went to the long ball. Awak Kuier drilled a 24-footer off an Ogunbowale feed at 1:36 to make it 97-88. Hiedeman answered with a three-point play, but Bueckers pulled up from 25 feet off a Shepard pass with 57.8 seconds left for a 100-91 lead, and Maddy Siegrist's and-one layup put the final stamp on it.

Bueckers, Shepard and the Assist Machine

Bueckers was efficient and everywhere: 25 points on 9-of-15 shooting, a perfect 6 of 6 at the line, seven assists, five rebounds, two steals and two blocks. According to the AP, it was her third straight game with at least 20 points and five assists, and the team said it was the 26th time this season she reached 20 points.

Shepard's triple-double came on 9-of-12 shooting, and she turned the ball over only twice while running so much of the offense. Ogunbowale scored 23 on 8-of-15 shooting with six assists and no turnovers, and the team said it was her 18th 20-point game of the year. Kuier added 14 points with four 3-pointers, which the team called a career high, and three blocks.

The ball movement was the real flex. Dallas finished with 32 assists on 39 baskets, a season high according to the team and the WNBA-leading sixth time the Wings have reached 30. They shot 57% from the field, 9 of 18 from deep and 16 of 19 at the line.

Seattle Had Its Moments

Dominique Malonga led the Storm with 29 points and eight rebounds on 11-of-18 shooting, though she went 6 of 12 at the line. Awa Fam scored a season-high 22, per the AP, including 4 of 7 from 3-point range. Flau'jae Johnson added 21, and Hiedeman finished with 10 points and 14 assists. That is a genuinely fun group to watch. It just was not enough on this night.

The Turning Point

Kuier's 3 with 1:36 left. Seattle had scored on seemingly every possession for four minutes, and a 19-point lead had shrunk to six. Dallas needed someone to make a shot without flinching, and Kuier stepped into a 24-footer like it was a pregame warmup. The Storm never got closer than six again.

Stats That Matter

• 32: Dallas assists, a season high per the team.
• 29-12: The Wings' first-quarter lead.
• 20-11-12: Shepard's triple-double line.
• 17: The Wings' improvement in wins from last season, a WNBA record for single-season turnaround per the AP.
• 4-0: Dallas' season series record against Seattle.

What It Means

Dallas finishes the regular season 27-17, including 11-11 on the road, and according to the team, that sets franchise standards for total wins and winning percentage (.614). The AP called the 17-win improvement the best single-season turnaround in league history, and the team added that coach Jose Fernandez now owns the record for the biggest turnaround by a first-year head coach.

The Wings also won seven of their last eight, as the AP noted, and their only loss in that stretch came Monday at Phoenix, an 87-86 defeat after Dallas had led by 14. They swept Seattle 4-0, which the AP said was the franchise's first sweep of the Storm. As the No. 7 seed, Dallas will face the No. 2 seed in the first round, and per the team, that opponent will be either Golden State or Las Vegas once Thursday's games are final.

Seattle closes at 8-36, including 6-16 at home, and finishes the season on a five-game losing streak.

Closing Take

Going from 10 wins to 27 is the kind of glow-up that usually requires a training montage and a power ballad. Dallas did it with a star guard in Bueckers, a scorer in Ogunbowale who still gets buckets in bunches, and a post hub in Shepard who keeps stuffing box scores like she is trying to win a fantasy league single-handedly. The Wings are not just happy to be in the playoffs. On nights like this, they look like a team nobody near the top of the bracket should want to see.

Stats from the official box score via ESPN. Game details as reported by the Associated Press and the Dallas Wings' official game recap.