The Dallas Wings lost 78-70 to the Golden State Valkyries on Monday at the Chase Center in San Francisco. With the win, the Valkyries became the first expansion team to qualify for back-to-back playoffs in their first two WNBA seasons. On the other side, Dallas Wings head coach Jose Fernandez wasted no time in pointing out his team’s shortcomings as they’ve now lost four of their last five games.

“I thought their size and their length, you know, affected them a little bit. What we talked about before the game and even at halftime, there were four things that we needed to do well. We needed to defend the arc,” Jose Fernandez said in the post-game press conference on August 17.

“We needed to take care of the basketball and not give Golden State extra possessions, like ball turnovers, and making sure our shot selection didn’t lead to bad transition defense that goes in regard to those turnovers. Points in the paint and the glass.”

“You know, the first five minutes of the third quarter, we won by three or four.  And then those next five, we didn’t close the third quarter. But I thought we got ourselves back into the game in the fourth. A couple times we got it down to eight, nine, and they hit a couple threes. The threes at the end of the shot clock hurt us, and also the offensive rebounds off of their three-point attempts,” added Jose Fernandez.

Dallas struggled to contain the Valkyries’ offense and even trailed by 20 points at one point in the game. The Wings also committed too many errors in the game, committing 16 turnovers on the night compared to the Valkyries’ 11.

Bueckers was the leading scorer for Dallas, with 21, but struggled with efficiency, shooting only 44.4% from the field, converting only 8-of-18 shots. She also committed 7 costly turnovers. Arike Ogunbowale added another 17 points, and Alanna Smith added another 13 points on the night for the Wings.

Gabby Williams and Veronica Burton led the charge for the Valkyries, with Williams adding 23 points and 7 rebounds and Burton finishing with 16 points and 5 assists, for the Valkyries’ sixth straight victory, their 15th win in the last 17 games as NBA and Golden State Warriors star Stephen Curry watched the game from the sidelines.

Although Dallas is five games ahead in 8th with a 20-16 winning record, vs. No. 9, Portland Fire, who have a 15-20 losing record, there is no room for complacency with just eight games remaining in the regular season.

Jose Fernandez’s Wings have struggled against the top teams this season

The Wings dominate the bottom tier of the league but freeze when facing top-tier rosters. They have noticeably stumbled against the WNBA’s elite teams during the season, posting an underwhelming 6-13 record against the current top-eight teams.

Their 18-point loss against the Valkyries on August 7 exposed some of the biggest problems they have had this season. They struggled with interior defense and allowed the Valkyries to get inside the paint easily.

Their perimeter defense was again called into question in the next game against the league leaders, the Minnesota Lynx, as they dished out 18 three-pointers against the Wings, winning 103-90.

The Wings are also dealing with a late-season injury backlog, with a wave of concurrent backcourt and frontcourt injuries disrupting their chemistry at the worst possible time.

Azzi Fudd’s injury seems to have directly coincided with their post-All-Star break slump. Fudd developed soreness in her right knee ahead of the Valkyries game in August, and since then she’s missed five consecutive games, including their latest loss against Golden State, and of these last five games the Wings have won only one.

Aziaha James is also out indefinitely with a left leg injury, severely hindering the guard depth. So coach Jose Fernandez will need to sort out all these gaps if the Wings want to make a deep run in the playoffs.