by Arlington, Texas (AP)-Paige Bueckers was just about everything that hoped for the Dallas wings as the number 1 general choice in the WNBA concept, matching Caitlin Clark from a year ago as a Rookie All-Star starter while he would should be a heavy load for a rebuilding team.
The former UConn star also succeeds for her most predictable test: dealing with losses if she didn’t have much experience with it at the university.
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In addition to managing losing, Bueckers helped to answer the response. Although they just lost from Phoenix with 30 points after beating the Mercury in their previous match, the wings 5-3 have been since blowing an 11-point lead in the last four minutes of a loss of 88-84 at Las Vegas that dropped them to 1-11.
“Credit to Paige,” said Chris Koclanes, a Rookie himself as head coach. “Her mentality and her intention in the mental side of the game, she is resilient. She is not discouraged at all. She is there, she is positive. She knows that there is a larger vision and that you have to go through part of these difficult things early to eventually get where you want to go.”
Bueckers missed four of the losses during the recovery of a concussion and then a disease. She was also the second night of a back-to-back with a painful right knee, and the wings won for the first time without her.
A triple associated press all-American during a UConn career covered by the first national championship of the legendary program in nine years, Bueckers lost 13 times in four seasons with the Huskies. She is 10 in less than two months with the wings.
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“Just stay disciplined in your habits and not change who you are based on the results, but stick to your process and how you do things,” said Bueckers. “Regardless of winning and losing, just enjoy coming to work every day. It was nice to enjoy the process. You never want to get used to losses, but you don’t want to be used to being result -oriented.”
Clark, the first overall choice last year by Indiana, is a captain in only her second All-Star performance, and the bid of Bueckers makes it three years in a row to have a Rookie starter. Clark’s teammate with the fever, Aliyah Boston, did it in 2023.
Bueckers leads the wings – and all wnba -smokies – when scoring (18.7 points per match), assists (5.7) and steals (1.8), which means that she is well on their way to a new Clark performance from a year ago: Rookie of the year.
Although the wings last season fell to 9-31-Slechts a year after winning a play-off series for the first time since they moved to the Dallas area in 2016, they still had 2024 All-Star Game MVP Arike Ogunbowale in their background.
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Bueckers fit perfectly as a facilitator in addition to one of the elite scorers of the competition, but it has been clear to be a scoring option that is equal to Ogunbowale, who has missed the past two games with a thumb injury.
“I ask her to do a ton now,” said Koclanes about his 23-year-old star. “If she brings the ball on the floor every time and then also score and also facilitate. How she can deal with it that has just been extremely impressive.”
The wings have overhauled this past out of season most of the rest of their selection. The first -year managing director Curt Miller is now, after recently sent Nalyssa Smith, one of the acquisitions, to Las Vegas for a first round of 2027.
There is no doubt that the wings are planning to build around Bueckers.
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“I think her biggest gift is that she makes everyone around her better,” said Miller. “She is a modest superstar. She has just had a remarkable start with a lot of pressure. And from a very long collegial season where you, chase, chase your national championship, you cannot imagine how the weight must have felt on its shoulders.”
Repeating another thing that Clark did can be difficult for Bueckers. The fever recovered from a 1-8 start to make the play-offs last year before he was swept by Connecticut in the first round by Connecticut in a best-of-three series.
A bid after the season will probably go back to .500, and the schedule of the following month has numerous play -off contenders, including three meetings with the title defender New York Liberty.
There is almost a week -long break there, but not for Bueckers. She will be at the All-Star game in Indianapolis on July 19. She will not consider that recognition as the only form of validation.
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“I don’t live until someone else’s expectations or what to look like,” said Bueckers. “I just go outside and play every game and any possession as it is. And the results can vary. So anyway on a certain night, you live with the results.”
According to those words, she lives like a Rookie.
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AP WNBA: https://apnews.com/hub/wnba-basketball
