ARLINGTON, Texas — The Dallas Wings beat the Portland Fire 96-78 on Tuesday night in front of a sold-out College Park Center, clinching a WNBA playoff berth and taking a rubber match that gave Dallas the season series 2-1. It was the Wings’ ninth series win of the year and their third straight victory overall.
Paige Bueckers had 22 points, 4 rebounds, and 11 assists on 8-of-15 shooting, adding 2 steals and a block in 32 minutes. Jessica Shepard scored 21 points on 10-of-15 shooting with 9 rebounds and 6 assists. Arike Ogunbowale finished with 17 points and 4 assists, Awak Kuier posted 12 points, 12 rebounds, and 5 blocks, and Alanna Smith went 4-of-4 from the field for 10 points and 5 rebounds. All five Dallas starters scored in double figures. Maddy Siegrist added 9 points and 4 rebounds off the bench.
Smith went 4-of-4 from the field, 1-of-1 from 3-point range, and 1-of-1 at the free throw line. Shepard played 34 minutes without committing a foul. Bueckers and Ogunbowale each went 3-of-7 from deep.
The teams had split their first two meetings, both of them in Portland, with the Fire winning 84-83 on June 13 and Dallas taking the July 22 game 101-97. Tuesday was the only game of the series at College Park Center.
Portland missed its first five field goal attempts and Dallas opened a 12-3 lead. The Fire cut the margin to three in the second quarter before the Wings pushed it back out, leading 27-21 after one and 50-37 at the break. Dallas carried a 71-52 lead into the fourth and Portland never got within 15 the rest of the way. The Wings shot 11-of-18 in the opening quarter while the Fire went 7-of-21.
Dallas shot 55.1% from the field, hitting 38 of 69 attempts, and made 11 of 24 from 3-point range, while Portland finished at 37.5% overall and 10-of-36 from deep. The Wings assisted on 26 of their 38 field goals. Dallas made 27 of its 45 2-point attempts for 54 points. Portland went 17 of 36 inside the arc for 34. Dallas scored its 96 points on 86 possessions, 1.116 per trip, against 0.876 on 89 for Portland.
The Wings turned 11 steals and 8 blocks into offense going the other way. Dallas ran 22 transition possessions and scored 1.318 points per possession on them, against 16 possessions and 0.438 for Portland. The Fire pulled 14 offensive rebounds and scored nothing on the possessions that followed. Dallas turned its 10 offensive rebounds into 1.400 points per possession.
In the half court the two teams were close to even, with Portland running 73 possessions at 0.973 points per possession and Dallas running 64 at 1.047. The Fire leaned on the pick-and-roll, generating 42 ball-handler possessions to Dallas’s 27 and getting 1.000 out of them against 1.185 for the Wings. Dallas was the more efficient isolation team by a wide margin, scoring 1.333 on 9 such possessions while Portland managed 0.333 on 6. The Fire got more catch-and-shoot looks, 32 possessions to 20, but scored 0.938 on them against 1.450 for Dallas. Portland was the better team in the situational sets, scoring 1.000 after timeouts to Dallas’s 0.636 and 1.091 in the last four seconds of the shot clock against 0.727 for the Wings.
Dallas lost five of six games earlier in August before this three-game run.
“I think just put action behind our words. We all know how to play. We all knew what we were lacking in that losing stretch, and we talked about it constantly,” Bueckers said. “But to really put our foot forward and apply what we were talking about and do it on the court, even just watching film and our connectivity on defense and how we’re scrambling for each other, covering for each other, and having conversations and holding each other accountable more, having the tough conversations, I think that’s what kind of has stepped into our growth.”
“But really just embracing the struggle, not hiding from it, and just fighting through it together,” Bueckers continued.
Awak Kuier Makes Her Presence Felt On Both Ends
Kuier shot 4-of-8 from the field and 2-of-3 from 3-point range in 33 minutes, adding 3 steals to her 5 blocks. Her 1.4 blocks per game coming into Tuesday were the most on the Dallas roster. She is in her second stint with the Wings after two seasons in Europe.
Kuier said the role has come with the trust of the coaching staff and that playing alongside her teammates has made it easier.
“I feel like having those years overseas just taught me a lot and just made me grow as a player,” Kuier said. “And I’m just super happy that I can come back and, you know, contribute for the team.”
Fire coach Alex Sarama said Portland’s scouting report called for the Fire to avoid challenging Kuier at the rim and that seven or eight possessions went against it. Sarama said he felt better about this performance than he did about Portland’s previous two losses, to Washington and Toronto.
“It’s tough to talk about a player on the opposing team, but I thought she was sensational,” Sarama said. “She was part of our scout, and avoiding challenging her at the rim. And I think we kind of played into their hand a little bit with seven or eight of them just challenging one of the best rim protectors in the league. And that’s what allowed them to build up the lead, because it was blocks and steals which then lead to transition opportunities.”
“And then second best transition offense team in the league, that’s a really dangerous combination,” Sarama continued. “But sometimes you just got to credit a really good player, and I thought she changed the game for them. She played really well.”
Kuier has started since Azzi Fudd, the No. 1 pick in the 2026 draft, was ruled out for the season following a knee procedure. Wings coach José Fernández said the FIBA World Cup break matters because Dallas did not come out of the All-Star break well, and he has used Kuier at both forward spots since moving her into the lineup earlier this month.
“She’s just played with so much passion and energy,” Fernández said. “She’s so assertive on the defensive end to go ahead and change shots. Offensively she’s still doing the same thing with how we played her at the four, but now there’s been more of a concerted effort of her putting the ball down on the deck. For her to play her best basketball right now and do what she’s doing, that’s what we’re going to need down the stretch.”
“We’re playing the three-guard lineup. And I’m not saying that wasn’t a good lineup to play. We’re still missing Azzi, who was our best perimeter defender, and how she stretched the floor,” Fernández continued. “So we’re just a little different right now in the way that we’re playing and what we’re running offensively and what we’re doing defensively, and that’s part of adjustments that you’ve got to make.”
Paige Bueckers And Jessica Shepard Carry The Dallas Wings Offense
Bueckers recorded her third points-assists double-double of the season and her 23rd game of at least 20 points. She scored 6 of her 22 in the fourth quarter, two nights after a 32-point performance against the Seattle Storm.
Shepard scored 7 of her 21 points in the final period, and Dallas shot 50% in the fourth on 9-of-18 from the field and 3-of-7 from 3-point range. Shepard entered Tuesday averaging 11.1 rebounds per game, and she made her first All-Star team this summer in her seventh WNBA season.
Ogunbowale re-signed with Dallas in the offseason after conversations with Fernández and Bueckers ahead of training camp.
“Just her resilience and her ability to adjust to whatever life throws at her, and whatever basketball specifically, whatever role her team needs her to be,” Ogunbowale said. “Watching overseas her role there, playing with the Minnesota Lynx her role there, and then now obviously getting more opportunity here with the Wings, she just embraced everything and took it on the chin and always been a great human being first.”
“I think that’s the best thing about Jess, is that she’s a great person more than she’s a basketball player, and she’s an amazing basketball player,” Ogunbowale continued. “So just her ability to kind of thrive in any life situation and really make the most of it. So I’m really proud of her in that.”
Alex Sarama Points To Shot Variance In Portland Fire Loss
Bridget Carleton and Karlie Samuelson scored 14 apiece for Portland. Emily Engstler had 12 points and a career-high 15 rebounds, Megan Gustafson added 13 points on 5-of-9 shooting, and Frieda Bühner scored 10 off the bench. Carla Leite finished with 10 points and 7 assists, and Nyadiew Puoch went scoreless on 0-of-5 shooting and finished at minus-20 in 18 minutes.
Sarama said Portland attempted 36 3-pointers and that 32 of them were catch-and-shoot looks, many of them open, and that the Fire made 10 on a night when shot variance caught up with a high-volume shooting team. Portland entered Tuesday shooting 35.2% from 3-point range and attempting 29.3 per game, the second-highest rate in the WNBA. The Fire made 4 in the first quarter and 4 in the fourth, going 2-of-17 across the middle two periods while Dallas stretched the lead from 6 to 19. Portland’s starters shot 5-of-22 from deep and the bench went 5-of-14.
Sarama said Portland surrendered 33 points on blow-bys in its loss to Washington and defended that action better on Tuesday.
Portland dropped to 15-23 with the loss, which ended the expansion franchise’s postseason hopes in its first season. Six games remain on the Fire schedule, and Sarama said that stretch is about establishing an identity for next season. He said Portland has been experimenting with smaller lineups, including stretches with Engstler at center and Bühner on the wing, and pointed to Golden State as a team that has found an advantage playing small this year.
Carleton said the Fire have been able to set franchise records this season because the WNBA schedule is longer than the one the original Portland team played from 2000 to 2002.
“I think the last three games, we haven’t really been playing that well, how we have the beginning of the season or throughout the whole season,” Carleton said. “So I think the last couple of games, we just want to feel good about the way we play, play hard, because I feel like that’s our identity. And the last couple of games, we’ve lost it a little bit.”
“Really, it’s about just going out of the season with a good feeling, trying to get as many wins as possible, obviously, but really just staying connected and just giving it our all,” Carleton continued. “Because you’re with the team for really only one season, and then something can always happen and maybe you won’t be with the same personnel next season.”
Dallas Wings Next Game And Remaining Schedule
Dallas improved to 23-16, a team record for wins in a season, and can still finish anywhere from second to eighth. The first round is a best-of-three series in a 1-1-1 format, and the higher seed hosts Game 1 and Game 3 if a third game is necessary.
The Wings host the Connecticut Sun on Sunday at College Park Center, with tip-off moved back a half hour to 7:30 p.m. CT after WFAA picked up the broadcast. The ABC affiliate in Dallas-Fort Worth will carry it alongside KFAA, and WNBA League Pass has it out of market.
Sunday’s game is the last on the schedule before the World Cup break. Dallas returns Sept. 17 against the Los Angeles Sparks at 7 p.m. CT and hosts the Phoenix Mercury on Sept. 19, then plays a rematch in Phoenix on Sept. 21 and closes the regular season at Seattle on Sept. 23. None of the four teams left on the Wings schedule is still in the playoff race.
