Wings vs. Tempo: Paige Bueckers Scores All 22 in the Second Half as Dallas Hands Toronto a 10th Straight Loss

Paige Bueckers walked into halftime on Wednesday night with no points and an 0-for-7 line, the sort of first half that gets a star's name trending for all the wrong reasons. Twenty minutes of game time later she had 22, and her pull-up with 25.7 seconds left was the shot that finally got the Toronto Tempo out of the way.

The Dallas Wings won 94-88 at a sold-out College Park Center, ending a three-game skid and handing Toronto its 10th consecutive loss. Bueckers scored every one of her points after the break, which makes this either a comeback story or a very long warmup.

A New Lineup, a Fast Start and a Warning

With All-Star Jessica Shepard (ankle) and No. 1 overall pick Azzi Fudd (knee) out, Dallas trotted out a starting five it had not used all season, per the team: Bueckers, Odyssey Sims, Alanna Smith, Arike Ogunbowale and Awak Kuier. The new group looked fine right away. Sims hit two early 3s, Smith had nine points in the first quarter, and a 27-17 lead after one became 32-17 on a 10-0 run that crossed into the second.

Toronto answered with nine straight and kept coming, cutting it to 36-35 with 4:51 left in the half. Alysha Clark scored five straight to steady things, and the Wings took a 45-37 lead to the locker room despite their best player missing everything she looked at.

An 8-0 run that started late in the second and spilled past halftime gave Dallas some air, and then Bueckers got going. She went 4 of 4 from the field and 4 of 4 at the line for 13 points in the third. Another 8-0 burst pushed it to 62-44, the biggest lead of the night at 18, and it was 70-58 after three.

The Turning Point: Answering Mabrey

Toronto refused to leave. Marina Mabrey scored 14 of her 23 in the fourth, the Tempo put up 30 points in the quarter, and her 22-foot step-back with 4:28 left made it 80-77. For a team that came in having lost nine straight, that is a real chance.

Dallas' response took 85 seconds and settled the argument. Ogunbowale scored inside, Bueckers made two free throws, Ogunbowale converted a three-point play at 3:17, and Bueckers picked a pocket and finished the breakaway at 3:03. That was a 9-2 answer, and it made the score 89-79.

Toronto had one more charge in it. Kia Nurse hit a 23-footer at 2:02, Laura Juskaite kept finishing inside, and it was 90-86 with 1:18 to go. Ogunbowale made two free throws at 50.1 seconds, Mabrey made two of three at the other end, and then Bueckers rose up from 19 feet for a 94-88 lead. An Isabelle Harrison charge took care of the rest.

Second-Half Bueckers

After the break, Bueckers went 7 of 11 from the field and 7 of 7 at the line. She finished with 22 points, eight assists and three steals, which tied her season high in steals, according to the Wings. The interesting part was how she dug out. She stopped waiting for a jumper to bail her out and started living at the line, which is what good scorers do when the rim has been rude to them for two straight quarters.

Ogunbowale got to 21 points with only four field goals, because she went 13 of 14 at the line, season highs in makes and attempts, per the AP. She missed all five of her 3s and had five turnovers to go with five assists, and she was still plus-16. Smith had 13 points, 11 rebounds, four assists and a game-best plus-20, her second double-double of the year, per the team. Kuier scored 14 on 6-of-9 shooting, and Maddy Siegrist came off the bench with a season-high two blocks to go with seven points, four rebounds and three assists.

Toronto was missing starters Brittney Sykes and Julie Allemand, and it still made Dallas sweat. Mabrey went 7 of 15 with three 3s. Juskaite had 18 points, seven rebounds and three steals. Nurse scored 16 off the bench with four 3s in 22 minutes. Kiki Rice added 13 points and five assists while playing through five fouls. Harrison pulled down 10 rebounds with five assists but scored just four on 2-of-8 shooting.

Stats That Matter

• 0 for 7, then 7 of 11: Bueckers from the field, first half and second half.
• 23 of 26: Dallas at the line, the team's second-most made free throws in a game this year, per the Wings. Toronto went 16 of 18.
• 37-30: Toronto's rebounding edge, with 14 offensive boards fueling a 16-11 lead in second-chance points.
• 16 to 9: Turnovers, Toronto's total first. Dallas also won fast-break points 14-8.
• 42-36: The Tempo in the paint, one more category they won in a game they lost.

What It Means

Dallas improved to 20-14 overall and 10-6 at home. According to the Wings, this is only the second time in team history they have reached 20 wins, and the first time since 2023. The AP adds that the three-game slide they just ended was their longest of the season, and they also finished a 3-0 season sweep of Toronto. Next comes a Friday trip to Indiana, against a Fever team that will make them pay for a scoreless half.

Toronto fell to 10-23, including 4-12 on the road. The 10-game losing streak began with a July 14 loss to Washington, and the Tempo's last win came two days before that, 93-91 over New York on July 12. Toronto hosts Indiana on Tuesday, and getting Sykes and Allemand back would help a team that keeps doing just enough to lose.

Final Word

Every superhero origin story has the scene where the powers refuse to work. Bueckers got hers out of the way in 20 minutes, then spent the next 20 reminding everyone why Dallas builds around her. The Wings got win No. 20 with two key players on the injury report and their star shooting blanks for half the night, which is a pretty good sign for September. The Tempo get another sequel to a movie they would very much like to stop making.

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