At the onset of the Dallas Wings-Los Angeles Sparks contest Wednesday night, we did not immediately know an all-timer was in store. Paige Bueckers was a couple hours away from setting the WNBA rookie single-game scoring record with 44 points on a maniacal 17-of-21 shooting line. She missed two midrange jumpers, a layup and a desperate lefty floater, all of which nearly rolled in. She made all of her 3-point attempts and free throws in, unquestionably, one of the greatest shooting displays of all-time.
But there were early signs. With the score still 3-0 Dallas, Bueckers pushes the ball past the screen and to her right, catching up to it and 1–2’ing into a leaning 3-pointer from the top of the key. Julie Allemand flies into, then out of her airspace. Splash.
Bueckers, a basketball pragmatist whose guiding belief is that the technically correct decision is the right one, is also one of the greatest shooters alive. She knows more than 23.2 percent of her shots should come from three. So, even though she hasn’t taken a shot yet, nor broken a sweat, Bueckers sees Dearica Hamby dropped well below the arc and cans what is decidedly not her preferred look.
More.
Next time down, she catches the ball at the left elbow, with her back turned toward Kelsey Plum, about 17 feet out from the hoop. Bueckers, like the rest of us, knows she is tall while Plum is not. She simply turns over her left shoulder, fades and swishes a jumper against a fellow No. 1 pick. Bueckers doesn’t need to sign “too little,” the words are practically flashing above Plum’s head.
Good start from Paige Bueckers in this one pic.twitter.com/KcJX2Bmph8
— Steve Jones Jr. (@stevejones20) August 21, 2025
A minute later, Bueckers curls off a pindown screen. Even though Hamby is vacating the lane to recover to the screener, our golden child does not drive the lane. She just pulls up and shoots it.
Now, I could clip this play and mention it in conjunction with Bueckers’ 12 percent rim frequency. How much will her shot diet have to change to unlock true mastery? is a fascinating question, but she’s 3-of-3 and the ball hasn’t touched the rim. Just smile. Exhale.
One Sparks turnover later and Bueckers is pushing it down the court in a two-on-two scenario. Rickea Jackson is waiting for her on the wing. This is why we’re here.
Kill.
Bueckers deserves the heat check. It repels her. She pulls the ball out, slows the pace and 10 seconds later, Haley Jones misses a 10-foot fallaway. I exhale, less enthused. To root for Paige Bueckers, you have to accept that she is more restrained than you. This is not always easy.
You are Paige Bueckers, you think. You don’t have to pass the ball to Aziaha James because her defender maybe, kind of, thought about helping on your drive. You might even be right, but this is why she is Paige Bueckers and you are not.
Five months ago, prior to the fourth quarter of UConn’s Elite Eight matchup with USC, head coach Geno Auriemma pleaded with ESPN’s Holly Rowe on the sideline, looking for help, begging his star player to take over the game.
UConn went on to win, 78-64. Bueckers ended with 31 points, six assists, four steals and two blocks.
lmaoooo, Geno thinks maybe Holly Rowe should talk to Paige Bueckers to get her to take over the game pic.twitter.com/luzX62Qu3d
— CJ Fogler 🫡 (@cjzero) March 29, 2025
Maybe, you think Bueckers should shoot every time down. It’s not the craziest stance, given the Wings’ bad-even-before-injuries supporting cast. But the killer instinct is there.
It may surprise you to learn that, of the 105 WNBA players to appear in at least five “clutch” games this season, the numbers say Bueckers is the most aggressive. She’s taken 34 field goal attempts and nine free throws in just 100 clutch possessions, putting Dallas’ fate in her own hands over one-third of the time.
The fire is always burning within, but Bueckers is at her most enthralling when it creeps into her eyes. And it doesn’t always take until the clutch.
Early in the second quarter, after Dallas turns a six-point lead into a seven-point deficit with Bueckers on the bench, she gets trapped on the sideline, maybe fouled as the ball careens out of bounds. Sparks ball. Dallas head coach Chris Koclanes gets a technical foul and if Bueckers wasn’t incensed by the call (she was), the free point given to Los Angeles might be even worse.
Soon after, she’s pushing the ball down the right wing. Jackson again meets her. It’s not quite a fast break, with Cameron Brink and a couple other Sparks getting set on defense; maybe this is the challenge Bueckers wants. Attack, stop, swish.
It’s getting real. She has missed two shots by halftime but is picking and choosing her spots, unwilling to admit every spot is her spot. She has 31 points by the start of the fourth quarter. Dallas is up seven and she’s still only missed two shots. It’s gotten real.
I’m missing it. I’m already writing about Paige Bueckers — but only in theory. I’m writing about one of the most versatile scoring prospects the WNBA has ever seen, excelling against any coverage in any action while seamlessly floating among them. Clip after clip, stat after stat. Drop coverage, traps, going left, going right. My brain is fried, eyes glazed over; I’m taking a walk.
Aim to capture the moment and you might just miss it. Bueckers is playing one of the great games a rookie in any sport has ever played, authoring perhaps the greatest shooting performance ever. She’s surrendering passing opportunities we know she can see, taking her own shots.
YES.
The whole court is on fire as she swaggers around it, gliding into celebrations and acknowledging that yes, this is what we all came to see. I slip through the door and float into bed. I allow myself to bask in the moment. It’s everything I thought it would be based on, well:
Bueckers is hotter than hot and there’s little the Sparks’ already-porous defense can do. But it’s not just the ball going through the net; the aforementioned scoring versatility is impossible to miss.
Midway through the fourth quarter, she seals Allemand up the floor but the entry pass never comes. No problem. Bueckers runs off a pindown, nailing a three from the right wing. Allemand is too exhausted for anything other than an annoyed sigh.
I sit upright when Bueckers strings together downhill footwork and handling combinations. There’s little east-to-west movement, only advances toward the rim. Yes, she is a coach’s dream, hyper-aware of what ball-screen coverage she’s facing and often using it to create open looks for others. But on Wednesday, Azurá Stevens is just another obstacle en route to the rim:
Paige using these handling/footwork counters to get by Azurá in ball-screens and all the way to the rim was my favorite part of last night: pic.twitter.com/UwgzODzSxS
— Lucas Kaplan (@LucasKaplan_) August 21, 2025
Bueckers was not just cooking in the pick-and-roll. She was undeterred by digs or stunts from Sparks defenders in the gaps, instead eating up all the space in front of her. If it vanished, she just got creative:
Paige playing through digs, uh-oh pic.twitter.com/gswHvUWgrV
— Lucas Kaplan (@LucasKaplan_) August 21, 2025
There are 148 WNBA players who have logged at least 100 minutes this season. Per PBP Stats, Bueckers has the lowest shot quality of every single one, an expected effective field goal percentage of 43. That’s probably underselling it; this model does not take into account touch time or dribble count and Dallas relies on her to pound the rock. That’s how good she is. Even she knows her bad shots are good ones.
She’s on another scoring run, 13 straight points in the fourth quarter. The stakes are lower here but I can’t help but think of LeBron James’ immortal performance in the 2007 Eastern Conference Finals against the Detroit Pistons. You know the one; he scores his team’s last 25 points. The young star, so talented their unselfishness is viewed as a defect , arriving in the manner we want. You are the right play.
But on Wednesday, Dallas loses. On the Wings’ final possession, Koclanes opts not to bring a screener up for Bueckers; it’s the right call, no double-teams allowed. She drives right and gets at least even with Rae Burrell, if not a small step ahead.
Kill
Allemand shifts toward the paint but is still outside of it as Bueckers crosses the 3-point line and — she passed?
Aziaha James, a 29 percent 3-point shooter, misses the corner three. Plum, who finds a way to take more shots than Bueckers, wins the game at the buzzer. When will you forget who won this game? Probably sooner than Bueckers will.
I won’t. It is the perfect ending.
These are the moments you might instinctively mourn before they’ve passed — the first true I remember where I was game in a career that promises to be full of them — and the Wings lose because Bueckers’ teammates shoot 50 percentage points worse than she does. Because she trusts them anyway.
Wanting our athletes to fail before they succeed is not a novel concept, but perhaps it’s cruel to wish it on Bueckers, who has spent much of Dallas’ 9-27 season showing the frustration you’d expect from a winner of her caliber. Oh, well.
It’s fair to ask questions about Bueckers’ ultimate ceiling, to wonder how her approach may change in the coming seasons, if it has to at all. Is that sparkling 2.5:1 assist-to-turnover ratio a little too sparkling? Does her shot diet give playoff-level defenses a plan, however futile it may become?
But I don’t care, not yet anyway. Her 44-point epic is a reminder of what we all know: She’ll be fine. Yes, we can always want more from Paige Bueckers. But remember to enjoy the show.
She makes it pretty easy.
