Paige Bueckers won the game and lost the aesthetic war. Then she did what most players will not do and just admitted it.
The Wings beat the Storm 79-56 at College Park Center in Arlington on Monday. The score sounds fine. The game looked like both teams were trying to put the rims into Witness Protection.
“Sometimes you’ve got to win ugly, like tonight,” Bueckers said in her postgame interview. “I feel bad for the people who were watching. They should get all their money back. I don’t even know what the field goal percentages were on both sides. But sometimes you’ve got to win ugly, so we’ll take it and keep moving on.”
The Numbers Backed Her Up
Neither team shot better than 36 percent from the floor. That is brutal even by WNBA early-season standards. Bueckers herself went 4-of-12 for 10 points, though she stuffed the box score with nine rebounds and seven assists.
Seattle’s starting lineup was somehow worse. The Storm’s first five combined to shoot 11-of-40 from the field. Flau’jae Johnson led them with 16 points and 10 rebounds, also on 4-of-12 shooting.
That is the kind of game where a coach is just trying to survive the third quarter and pray for an injury timeout.
The Bueckers Quote Is Going Viral
Saying “people should get their money back” is the kind of postgame quote that ends up on every highlight package by the morning. It is self-aware. It is funny. It is honest in a way most players are coached out of by their second year in the league.
Bueckers is in her second WNBA season after Dallas took her first overall. She has been everything the Wings hoped for and then some. Her presence on the court alone has changed the franchise’s trajectory. The quote shows she has the kind of media instincts the league needs more of.
The Wings Are Building Something
Dallas is starting to figure out who it is. The defense has been the calling card all year. They are not pretty offensively, but they make it hard on opponents. That is a recipe for winning ugly more often than not.
Bueckers gets compared to Caitlin Clark for obvious reasons. The college pedigree, the marketing pull, the immediate impact on the franchise. The difference is the surrounding cast. The Wings have built around defense first. The Fever leaned hard into offensive identity.
Both approaches work. Dallas just won three of its first five home games doing it the ugly way.
What’s Next
The Wings have to clean up the offensive execution, but the bones of a competitive team are there. Bueckers showing she can be the face of the franchise while also being the team’s most quotable interview is a bonus.
The Storm have bigger problems. Their starting lineup got cooked. They are still figuring out how to space the floor around Skylar Diggins. The losing margin is going to keep climbing if they cannot find offense soon.
Bueckers gave fans their money’s worth in the postgame even if the game itself was a brick fest. That is a win.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.
