The Dallas Wings haven't had a great season, currently sitting at 9-29 as the WNBA year enters its home stretch, but they have gotten an elite rookie campaign out of Paige Bueckers, whom they selected out of UConn this past year. Bueckers has been torching WNBA nets throughout this season, including a recent 44-point performance against the Los Angeles Sparks.
Unfortunately, the Wings got some tough news regarding Bueckers leading up to Wednesday evening's game against the Connecticut Sun.
“Paige Bueckers and Arike Ogunbowale are both not practicing today due to illness, according to a source,” reported Myah Taylor of the Dallas Morning News on X, formerly Twitter.
Taylor also added that “Myisha Hines-Allen is also out tending to personal matters.”
This year, Paige Bueckers is averaging 19 points per game on an impressive nearly 47 percent shooting from the field, to go along with 4 rebounds and 5 assists. Bueckers has been one of the lone bright spots for a Wings team that hasn't been able to put a ton of help around her this year.
However, perhaps Bueckers' strong rookie season, which is almost guaranteed to culminate in a Rookie of the Year trophy soon, will motivate the Wings' front office to build around the team more quickly, considering Bueckers' talent. This would mirror what the Indiana Fever did this past offseason after the brilliance that Caitlin Clark put on display a season ago.
Bueckers and Clark have often drawn comparisons to one another, but unfortunately, they weren't able to match up many times this year due to Clark's injury status–the Fever star has been out since before the All-Star break with a groin injury.
In any case, the Wings and Sun are slated to tip things off on Wednesday at 8:00 PM ET from Dallas. Up next for the Wings will be a road game against the Atlanta Dream on Friday.
