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Dallas Wings guard Paige Bueckers set a WNBA single-game rookie scoring record with 44 points Wednesday night in Los Angeles. But it wasn’t quite enough for the victory as Sparks guard Kelsey Plum hit a shot just before the buzzer to give L.A. an 81-80 win at Crypto.com Arena.
But the loss didn’t diminish Bueckers’ amazing night. She shot 17-of-21, making her the first player in WNBA history to shoot at least 80% from the field while scoring 40 or more points.
Despite Bueckers’ efforts, the rest of the Wings combined to shoot 31% (12-of-39). Bueckers accounted for 55% of her team’s points, the fifth-highest percentage of any player in WNBA history and the highest since 2004, when Houston Comets forward Tina Thompson had 35 of her team’s 62 points (56%).
Bueckers, who has been known for her efficiency since her days at UConn, talked about how it has carried over to the WNBA.
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“It’s a lot of repetition in practice,” Bueckers said. “And learning and growing, watching film of how you can get to your spots, how you can attack, how you can use your teammates screening for you, attacking in transition and when teams switch on screens. Just reading the possession.”
Bueckers also made all six of her free throws and all four of her 3-pointers. She also credited her use of the midrange game.
“I truly think basketball has gotten away from it — it’s mostly layups and 3s,” she said. “Teams don’t know how to guard it. So I think it’s an advantage when you can score in the midrange.”
Bueckers’ 44 points, the most scored by anyone in the WNBA this season, are tied for third most in history of the franchise, which previously was called the Shock in Detroit and then in Tulsa, Oklahoma, before moving to Dallas in 2016. Center Liz Cambage holds the franchise record with 53 points for Dallas in 2018.
Houston guard Cynthia Cooper had 44 points in her first season (1997) in the WNBA, which was also the WNBA’s inaugural season. Cooper was then a 34-year-old who already had played professionally more than a decade overseas.
The previous WNBA rookie record for points in a game was 40 by Los Angeles’ Candace Parker in 2008. Like Bueckers, Parker was a No. 1 pick and won MVP and Rookie of the Year that season. Bueckers is part of a strong draft class, but she is a virtual lock to be the 2025 Rookie of the Year.
“I mean, I’m as much a fan as anybody else,” Dallas coach Chris Koclanes said of Bueckers. “She takes what the defense is giving her all over the floor. She just plays at her own pace. You can’t speed her up. It’s really impressive for a rookie in this league to be able to maintain her own speed and tempo. I think that helps her to be able to read the defense.”
Bueckers was asked to put her big game in perspective, especially considering the serious injuries she overcame during her UConn career.
“People have gotten to see the struggles … the injuries, the ups and downs,” she said. “For people to continue to follow me and still believe in me, it really means a lot. I’ll never take that for granted.”
The Sparks (17-18) are still in the hunt for the postseason, which they have missed the past four years. Dallas dropped to 9-27 on the season and has been eliminated from playoff contention. But Bueckers said she and the Wings still have something to play for.
“I’ve always prided myself in the team winning, so that’s obviously the main goal,” she said. “I’m most proud of this team and the way we fight. This team just means so much to me. Just the way we invest. We love each other. It could be easy for us to be [9-27] and be miserable and hate coming to work, but we show up for each other. We’re learning and growing together. What we’re building here, it just makes me so happy.”
