Paige Bueckers had no perfect way to explain what had just happened. The Dallas Wings looked finished. Down 15 points in the fourth quarter against the Chicago Sky, they had spent most of the night chasing a game that seemed to be slipping further out of reach with every passing possession. And after a difficult, inefficient performance for much of the contest, Bueckers somehow still found herself at the center of one of the team’s most dramatic wins of the season.

Speaking in a CBS interview at the end of the game, a video of which was shared on the CBS Sports X page, Bueckers’ reaction told the story of someone still processing what had just unfolded. 

“I don’t even think I have words. I cannot believe we just won that game. It speaks to our resilience, our fight, our never-quit mentality,” she said. “Everybody held it down. I was terrible for the first 38 minutes. We just stuck together; everybody stepped up in different ways at different times. And we just never quit.”

The numbers behind the comeback were genuinely staggering. The Wings entered the final period trailing 71–57. But a furious late push, led by Paige Bueckers‘ clutch scoring and Li Yueru’s game-winning free throws, completely flipped the game on its head. Dallas erupted for a season-high 36 points in the final 10 minutes alone, and Bueckers spearheaded that surge personally, scoring 10 of 11 consecutive points for Dallas at the heart of the rally.

At one point, they tied the game at 86-86, and it seemed like parity had been restored for a minute. But Chicago Sky rookie Sydney Taylor responded with the clutch 3-pointer to put the Sky back in front. The capstone moment eventually came when backup center Li Yueru calmly sank two pressure-packed free throws with 12.5 seconds remaining, giving Dallas its very first lead of the entire night. 

Li may have finished with a modest five points on the night, but the timing of some of those points was everything; they were precisely the ones that pushed the Wings over the edge. Paige Bueckers, in fact, made a point of singling her out in the postgame interview, fully aware of how significant that contribution had been.

“Li, I mean, she’s good,” she said. “She has had inconsistent minutes, her role hasn’t been what she wants it to be, but she just sticks with it. And she has a great work ethic, a great mindset. She comes up huge and helps us win this game on both ends of the floor.” 

This fourth-quarter comeback saw the Dallas Wings complete the third-largest fourth-quarter comeback in franchise history, according to ESPN Research. The feat becomes even more impressive when you consider they once trailed by 17 points and had to contend with a dominant Kamilla Cardoso, who finished with 26 points, just one shy of her career high.

But with Cardoso fouling out with just 12 seconds left in the game, the Sky lost their defensive anchor at the worst possible moment. Despite leading the Wings by six points with 35.7 seconds remaining, her absence proved far too costly for Chicago, who were unable to hold on to their lead.

The game, which eventually ended 93-92, now takes the Dallas Wings to a 10-6 record this season. It was a much-needed bounce back from their loss against the Golden State Valkyries. They will be hoping to ride on this euphoria for another win when they face the Seattle Storm in their next game.

Paige Bueckers Admits She Was Not Aware of Dallas’ Deficit During Stunning Comeback vs Chicago

Of course, Paige Bueckers knew the Wings were in trouble during that Chicago Sky game, but she wasn’t fully aware of just how large the deficit had actually grown. Speaking at the postgame press conference, she described how the comeback unfolded gradually, one play and one possession at a time, rather than as some sudden, dramatic shift she could point to.

“I’m not sure how much we were down at that point,” she said. “But we always felt like we were in it, and we were scrapping and fighting. And we started to get some stops and string together some stops. We got out in transition a little bit more. We got them in foul trouble. I think we got them in bonus with like five minutes left. So we were just trying to attack that way. And just chip away, not hit any home runs, but one possession at a time.”

For Bueckers, even though the Wings were clearly behind, there was still a feeling that they were very much in the game. Perhaps not knowing exactly how wide the deficit was helped in a way, as it allowed Dallas to focus less on the scoreboard and more on each possession in front of them.

And in the end, that approach worked perfectly. Maybe sometimes, not knowing exactly how bad things look can be its own kind of advantage.