SAN FRANCISCO — Paige Bueckers told ESPN on Saturday that she will lean on what she learned winning at UConn and with Team USA when she plays her first WNBA playoff game Sunday night. The Dallas Wings open a best-of-three first-round series against the Golden State Valkyries at Chase Center.
Tip-off is at 8 p.m. CT, with the game airing on USA Network and CNBC. Dallas is the seventh seed at 27-17. Golden State finished 32-12 as the second seed and won all three regular-season meetings between the teams.
The first round uses a 1-1-1 format. Dallas hosts Game 2 on Wednesday at College Park Center in Arlington, and a Game 3 would return to Chase Center if the series needs one.
Earlier this month, Bueckers won a gold medal with Team USA at the FIBA World Cup in her first tournament with the senior national team. She won a national championship at UConn in April 2025 as a senior, eight days before Dallas selected her first overall in the 2025 WNBA draft.
Dallas missed the playoffs in her rookie season, when the Wings went 10-34.
“I learned in college that there’s so much more leading into the playoffs,” Bueckers said. “You don’t change your whole identity, and you don’t change who you are and what you took to get there. But there’s a higher level of stakes and pressure. … There’s a sense of urgency and will and a want and an extra desire you have to have during the playoffs.”
Paige Bueckers Carried Championship Pressure Through Senior Season At UConn
Across four seasons of play at UConn, Bueckers appeared in 12 Big East tournament games and won the conference tournament title every year. She also played in 22 NCAA tournament games, reaching four Final Fours and two national championship games.
UConn beat South Carolina 82-59 in the title game on April 6 in Tampa, Fla. Bueckers finished with 17 points, 6 rebounds, and 3 assists in her final college game.
Azzi Fudd scored 24 points that night and was named the Final Four’s Most Outstanding Player. Fudd is now Bueckers’ teammate in Dallas.
UConn had not won a national championship since 2016 when Bueckers started her senior season.
“I felt that every day,” Bueckers said. “But I had to be super present and be the best teammate and best leader, serving the moment, serving the possession.”
The Huskies went 37-3 that season.
“You can get so caught up in wanting to win the first playoff game that you lose the importance of losing the first possession. … That’s what I learned my senior year,” Bueckers explained. “If I just focused on winning so bad, you forget how to do it.”
Paige Bueckers Brings FIBA World Cup Gold Into Dallas Wings’ Series Against Golden State Valkyries
At the World Cup, Bueckers averaged 7.3 points on 55.2% shooting. She made 42.9% of her three-point attempts.
“FIBA helped a lot,” Bueckers said. “Seeing that level of physicality and playing with the pressures of representing your country and everybody wanting to win gold.”
During the regular season, Bueckers averaged 20.9 points, 4.1 rebounds, and 5.9 assists. Her 878 points broke Arike Ogunbowale‘s franchise single-season record of 849 from 2023. The 2025 Rookie of the Year is now a two-time All-Star, and the Wings are in the playoffs for the first time since 2023.
In Dallas huddles, veteran Alysha Clark has been vocal about how the teams that make the deepest playoff runs are the ones that stay connected, ESPN reported. Clark is a three-time WNBA champion.
Bueckers said the pressure she feels now differs from what she has dealt with before, though a familiarity with it has helped keep her calm entering the series.
“The pressure is higher, especially in a best-of-three series,” Bueckers said. “But as a basketball player, you want to embrace it and have fun with it. This is what you work for and you live for.”
Golden State’s sweep of the season series included wins of 91-80 on June 17 in San Francisco, 94-76 on Aug. 7 in Dallas, and 78-70 on Aug. 17 in San Francisco. Bueckers averaged 17.7 points, 2.0 rebounds, and 4.0 assists across the three games on 44.2% shooting.
