Dallas Wings guard Paige Bueckers reached one other milestone in her standout rookie season Wednesday night time, scoring 21 factors and including seven assists in an 88–85 loss to the Atlanta Dream.
The efficiency pushed Bueckers to 400 profession factors and 100 assists, making her simply the second participant in WNBA historical past to hit each marks inside her first 22 video games. She joins four-time champion and two-time MVP Cynthia Cooper, who initially set the document in 1997. Cooper entered the league as a seasoned veteran, whereas Bueckers has matched the mark as a real rookie.
Bueckers scored 9 factors within the fourth quarter towards Atlanta, attacking the Dream’s drop protection and profiting from the on-ball defender going below screens at instances. The aim was to generate extra rim stress than in earlier outings to create a gradual benefit. She did simply that, attending to the rim for a number of and-ones in clutch time.
“Just a bit little bit of separation on screens. My teammates have been doing a very good job of screening and getting me open,” Bueckers stated. “They performed largely drop your complete sport, so if I obtained a bit little bit of benefit—and the posts have been hitting threes—it sort of pressured them to should play to that, which opened up the lane a bit bit. I simply tried to be aggressive, assault the rim, and get to the free throw line.”
Bueckers is averaging 18.3 factors, 3.9 rebounds, 5.5 assists and 1.8 steals per sport, whereas capturing 45.2 % from the sphere and 34.6 % from 3-point vary. She leads all WNBA rookies in factors, assists and steals, and ranks amongst league leaders in off-the-dribble leap shot makes an attempt with 7.3 possessions per sport — trailing solely Caitlin Clark (7.8) and Marina Mabrey (7.4). Amongst her targets is to deal with getting ot the rim extra whereas balancing her mid-range sport.
“A mixture and steadiness of each, I really feel like,” Bueckers stated. “Not over-penetrating an excessive amount of, however I do really feel like I can get to the paint and rim extra, draw contact, and get to the free throw line. However I’ve all the time beloved my midrange leap shot, and I don’t assume that’ll ever change. Simply looking for a greater steadiness of each.”
Wings head coach Chris Koclanes stated Bueckers’ means to stress the paint made a noticeable distinction. It’s an space of the sport he’d wish to see her proceed to embrace.
“She obtained to the rim extra,” Koclanes stated. “The pull-up is all the time going to be there, however we talked at halftime about placing extra stress on the paint. With [Brittney Griner] out within the third, that modified issues. However I appreciated the way in which Paige blended it up and stored attacking.”
Bueckers’ milestone ties her with one of many WNBA’s all-time greats, however below vastly completely different circumstances. Cooper, 34 on the time, had already performed professionally abroad for a decade. Bueckers, 23, entered the league simply months after main UConn to a nationwide title.
Bueckers was named WNBA Rookie of the Month and stays the main candidate for Rookie of the 12 months. With 16 video games already behind her, the Wings could also be simply 8-20, however she’s on tempo for one of the productive rookie campaigns in league historical past, and maybe extra information to come back.
