Just when the Dallas Wings thought they were finding their footing with a win against Connecticut after two losses following the All-Star break, they’ve now suffered back-to-back losses. The Golden State Valkyries dominated them on Friday, winning the clash 94-76. The Wings were No. 4 in the standings heading into the All-Star weekend, but after four losses in their last five games, they’ve dropped to No. 7, and coach Jose Fernandez isn’t pleased.

So during the post-game press conference, the biggest question on everyone’s mind was how the Wings could recover from this late-season slump. When asked how the team can find what it takes to do that, especially from a rebounding perspective, Coach Jose Fernandez directed the question to his players.

“How do we find it? Well, you guys can ask that question to the players as well. Sorry guys,” Fernandez said in the press conference, the video of which was shared on the Wings’ YouTube channel.

Rebounding was certainly a problem for the Wings against the Valkyries. Paige Bueckers and Co. got just 9 offensive rebounds throughout the game while Golden State was way ahead with 15. Meanwhile, the disparity in defensive rebounds was much closer, with the Wings getting 29 compared to the Valkyries’ 24.

Just before this question, Fernandez had already lamented the team’s recurring issues when asked to identify the common threads across their last four losses. Beyond the rebounding concern, he pointed specifically to fouling and the resulting free throw disparity as the most consistent problem. 

“I think if you go into Washington, you look at the difference in free throws the opponents have taken,” Fernandez said.

“I think the last press conference, at home against Connecticut, that’s what I talked about. Common thread is we’re fouling too much. That’s number one. Teams are shooting way more free throws than we are. Today’s a little bit of a disparity. And we’re getting our a– kicked on the glass. Fair enough.”

The Wings did commit more fouls and saw their opponents shoot more free throws in three of the four recent losses they recorded. The only difference was in this Valkyries game, where they actually shot 27-of-38 free throws compared to the Valkyries’ 16-of-18 and had 15 personal fouls compared to the Valkyries’ 24.

However, it is not clear what Jose Fernandez meant by the Wings “getting our ass kicked on the glass,” as they actually narrowly outrebounded the Valkyries 39-38 in that game. Regardless, the fact remains that they lost the game. And the attention is now turned to the next one.

In the next game, Dallas will face the Minnesota Lynx, a considerably more formidable opponent than most on their remaining schedule. But as difficult as that task may appear, the Wings will be hoping to find something in that game that has been noticeably absent in recent weeks. The answer, as their coach suggested, may well need to come from the players themselves.