SAN FRANCISCO — Paige Bueckers scored 17 points in the first half of her first WNBA postseason game Sunday night, a franchise record for points in a half in a playoff debut. The rest of the Dallas Wings went 5-of-23 over the same stretch, and the Golden State Valkyries led 58-31 at halftime on the way to a 104-80 win in Game 1 at Chase Center.
Bueckers finished with 21 points, 6 rebounds, and 2 assists on 9-of-10 shooting in 25:03. She made both of her three-point attempts and her only free throw, and she did not play in the fourth quarter with Dallas trailing 85-56. The 21 points left her one shy of the franchise record for a postseason debut.
Paige Bueckers Sees Every Coverage From Golden State Valkyries
Bueckers made 4 of her 5 shots in the first quarter, including a pair of three-pointers, and had 11 points after 10 minutes. She went 3-of-3 in the second quarter while Golden State outscored Dallas 37-11, and 2-of-2 in the third. According to the Wings, her 90% shooting was the third-best field-goal percentage in a WNBA postseason game among players with at least 9 made field goals.
During the regular season, Bueckers averaged 20.9 points on 51.2% shooting and set the franchise single-season record with 878 points. Against Golden State, she averaged 17.7 points on 44.2% shooting across three losses, including 15 points on 5-of-13 shooting in the June 17 meeting at Chase Center.
The Valkyries allowed a league-low 75.1 points per game this season. Bueckers has also been around Valkyries coach Natalie Nakase long enough to know Golden State would come prepared for her.
“All my buckets were tough. They make it extremely hard. They show shrinks. They have people in gaps. They showed multiple bodies. They blitz. They make every shot tough,” Bueckers said. “So nothing about tonight was easy.”
“And their defense, like I said, has always been their calling card, and I know every single time, and as a team, they’re really well connected,” Bueckers continued. “And Coach Nat, I’ve been around her enough to know that her team is always going to be prepared and give your best shot defensively. So I know she’s not pleased, even that they gave up 80 points. So I know every single night against them is going to be tough.”
On Saturday, Bueckers had talked about leaning on her championship experience at UConn going into her playoff debut. Sunday, she had 2 of Dallas’ 19 assists and 1 of its 10 turnovers.
Paige Bueckers Calls Out Dallas Wings’ Defensive Habit
Golden State shot 13-of-18 in the second quarter, including 7-of-10 from three, and finished 18-of-36 from beyond the arc. Dallas went 6-of-20. Bueckers said the Valkyries never let their offense set the level of their defense, and that Dallas can take something from that.
“Their defense is really good, and they start with that. They don’t let their offense dictate their defense,” Bueckers explained. “It’s really the other way around. So when they’re flying around, getting stops, shots tend to go in more for them. So it’s tough on a team like that where you’re never going to get their worst night defensively.”
“I mean, they might miss shots, they might miss threes, they might have an off night shooting, but they’re always locked in defensively, and I think we can take something from that,” Bueckers added. “We’ve been a team that has a bad habit of letting made or missed shots dictate how hard we play on the defensive end, and this is the playoffs. So that’s really unacceptable.”
Wings coach José Fernández said Golden State deserved a lot of credit for its 18-of-36 night from three, and that his staff will check on film how many of those shots were contested. The 18 three-pointers were the second-most by a team in a WNBA postseason game.
“I’m sure Paige was brutally honest about that,” Fernández said. “Your defense shouldn’t dictate on how your offense is playing. We play a lot harder on the defensive end when the ball’s going through the basket, and when you do that, things like this is going to happen.”
Dallas had no fast-break points in the first half, while Golden State had 7. The Valkyries outscored the Wings 54-18 from three-point range.
“I’m not good at math, but that’s a lot more points from the three-point line than us,” Bueckers said. “So that’s not good.”
Dallas hosts Golden State in Game 2 on Wednesday at College Park Center in Arlington. Tip-off is set for 8 p.m. CT on ESPN.
