Paige Bueckers accomplished a feat Caitlin Clark was never able to accomplish, scoring 44 points very efficiently, and despite her historic outing, the star showed her true colors
LOS ANGELES – Paige Bueckers showed her true colors after accomplishing a feat Caitlin Clark never achieved, with the Dallas Wings star cementing her Rookie of the Year case.
The Wings’ Wednesday night matchup against the Los Angeles Sparks was a historic one for Bueckers, tying the WNBA record with Cynthia Cooper-Dyke for most points scored in a single game with 44. What’s more, her 17-of-21 shooting (80 percent) display from the field marked the first time a player has scored that many points that efficiently.
For the star guard, however, the display did not mean much. Speaking to reporters after the 81-80 loss to the Sparks, Bueckers showed how much of a team player she was by deflecting her accomplishments and showering her teammates with love despite the heartbreaking loss.
“I’m always proud of myself and the team when we’re winning, so that’s obviously the main goal,” Bueckers said, when asked by Mirror U.S. Sports on how she viewed her historic outing. “Honestly, I think I’m just most proud of this team. The way we fight [means] so much to me.
“Just the way we invest and we love each other. It could be easy for us to sit here and be nine or whatever we are and be miserable and we ain’t coming to work. But just how we show up for each other, how we’re learning and growing together, is really exciting.”
She added that while the team hasn’t had the success she would have liked, all the little steps the Wings are taking to improve are ultimately what matter most to Bueckers.
“As much as the success and the wins haven’t translated yet, what we’re building here, it just makes me so happy. I’m just super grateful for it. For me, just continuing to support my teammates and just being super proud of every single one of my teammates is the most important thing for me,” she concluded.
In the same vein, Wings head coach Chris Koclanes explained how it is a privilege to coach a player as selfless as Bueckers. “Yeah, I mean, I’m a fan as much as everybody else,” he said when asked by Mirror U.S. Sports to speak on Bueckers’ historic night.
“After you just watched that performance, she lets the game come to her and she takes what the defense is giving her. Early on, bringing the ball up or whether she’s off the ball, just had a lot of success attacking down low. And then when she touches the paint, she just plays at her own pace, right? You can’t speed her up.”
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Koclanes concluded by stating that Bueckers’ poise makes the 23-year-old wise beyond her years, especially as she faces off against the biggest stars in the league.
“Everyone’s flying by and she just, she doesn’t get sped up. That’s really impressive for a rookie in this league to be able to maintain her own speed and tempo. And I think that helps her to be able to read the defense.
“And just like, that last play of the game, I know everyone’s probably like, you need to shoot that ball, right? But that just tells, like, she sits up here and she speaks to that. That’s who she is. That’s how she’s wired.
“She trusts her teammates, right? She’s going to pass that ball 10 times out of 10 because it’s the right play. So, to have somebody like that as the future of this organization, I’m just extremely lucky to have a kind of servant leader that Paige is,” he concluded.
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