SEATTLE — The Dallas Wings finished the regular season 27-17 with a 103-91 win at the Seattle Storm on Wednesday night. That is 17 more wins than Dallas had in 2025, and the team said it is the largest single-season turnaround in WNBA history.
According to the team, Wings coach José Fernández also holds the league record for the biggest turnaround by a first-year head coach. Dallas went 10-34 last season, tied for the worst record in the WNBA.
The 27 wins are a franchise record. The previous mark of 25 belonged to the 2003 Detroit Shock. Dallas tied it Sept. 17 in a 97-77 win over the Los Angeles Sparks and broke it two days later against the Phoenix Mercury.
That same 2003 Shock team held the WNBA’s previous turnaround record. Detroit went 9-23 in 2002 and 25-9 in 2003, a 16-win improvement, and won the franchise’s first championship. The team also listed Dallas’ .614 winning percentage as a franchise standard. The 2003 Shock finished at .735 over a 34-game schedule.
Dallas Wings Rebuild Around Paige Bueckers
Dallas parted ways with Chris Koclanes on Sept. 30, 2025, after one season. The Wings hired Fernández on Oct. 28, 2025. He had coached South Florida since 2000.
The 10-34 finish gave Dallas the No. 1 overall pick for the second straight year. The Wings took Paige Bueckers first in 2025 and Azzi Fudd first in April. Fudd is out for the season, and the WNBA granted Dallas a season-ending injury exception for her in August.
Bueckers finished her second season with 878 points, breaking Arike Ogunbowale’s franchise single-season record of 849 from 2023. Jessica Shepard, in her first season with Dallas, had six triple-doubles, the most in the WNBA. Her 20-point, 11-rebound, 12-assist line Wednesday was the sixth.
After the finale, Fernández traced the turnaround back to training camp and the limited time the Wings had to prepare there.
“I think with all the things, you can go back to training camp, right?” Fernández said. “You go back to training camp and who we had at training camp and how the time we had to prepare. And then look at last year’s roster to this year’s roster, returners to newcomers, to have a 17-game turnaround.”
“Incredible staff, incredible people in that locker room, and very fortunate and excited about our time here to getting into the playoffs,” Fernández continued. “And we’re one of eight teams still playing basketball. So a lot of positives throughout the year with a lot of the different things that we had to go through, also from an injury standpoint.”
Bueckers was a rookie on the team that went 10-34. In a postgame interview with USA Sports after the win, she said she has not yet stopped to reflect on the regular season and expects to do more of that once the season is over.
“That’s, I mean, yeah, funny to think about because I haven’t even thought about all that we accomplished and all that we did throughout the regular season because, I mean, that’s life,” Bueckers said. “You’re so future-forward focused. It’s always the next thing. So it’s hard sometimes to not stop and smell the roses, but to be able to do what we did as a team this year as an organization, the turnaround was insane. I don’t know if it was historical, but to be where we were last year where we won 10 games and I was down bad, I love coming to work.”
“I love my teammates. I love being here in Dallas, but I love to win and I hate losing with a passion,” Bueckers detailed. “But to be steady and even-keeled and remain who I am consistently and who we are, regardless of the circumstances, regardless of the outcomes, to be able to be on the other side of it and win, you just don’t want to take that for granted and think that you’re entitled to anything.”
“So we’re hungry. We’re not satisfied and we’re not complacent with what we’ve accomplished,” Bueckers noted. “We want to continue to keep getting better for right now and for the future. But I’m sure I’ll do more reflecting after the season.”
Dallas Wings Return To The WNBA Playoffs As The No. 7 Seed
Dallas clinched a playoff berth Aug. 25 with a 96-78 win over the Portland Fire. It is the franchise’s first postseason trip since 2023 and its sixth since relocating to North Texas in 2016.
The Wings won six straight games twice, from July 2 to July 19 and again in September, matching the longest winning streak in franchise history. The second streak ended Sept. 21 in an 87-86 loss at Phoenix. Dallas won seven of its last eight games and swept the season series from Seattle 4-0, a first in franchise history.
At College Park Center, the Wings went 16-6 in their final season in Arlington. They will play all of their 2027 home games at American Airlines Center. Fernández said after the Sept. 19 home finale that protecting that floor was one of the season’s positives.
“I’m having a great time because I get an opportunity to work with incredible people. I think that’s number one,” Fernández explained. “Man, I have an incredible staff as well. So we set out what we wanted to set out to do at the beginning of the year, was to be a playoff team. Once you get into the playoffs, now you can play for a championship, right? You can’t play for one if you don’t qualify for the playoffs.”
“But I’ve been really pleased on how we protected our home floor as well. So with the things that we’ve gone through this year too from an injury standpoint,” Fernández continued. “So there’s a lot of positives. But, yeah, I’ve enjoyed it.”
The Wings open a best-of-three first-round series Sunday on the road against the No. 2 seed. The Golden State Valkyries clinch that spot with a win at Los Angeles on Thursday or a Las Vegas Aces loss at Phoenix. Las Vegas moves up to No. 2 with a win and a Golden State loss. Tip-off for both games is set for 9 p.m. CT.
