Paige Bueckers Delivers 15-Second Message for Wings Locker Room After Season Hits Rock Bottom

Every good leader carries a little Steph Curry in them, and Paige Bueckers is already showing she’s fluent in that language of leadership. As Khalid Robinson, a nine-year Warriors staffer, once put it: “He wants his teammates to enjoy this process they’re going through together. Steph’s focus on joy and having that in every part of his life is a big part of what makes him a good leader.” Swap “Steph” for “Paige” and you get the exact same vibe, especially after her latest postgame presence after losing to the Lynx.

Even in the middle of the Dallas Wings’ 32nd loss of the season, Bueckers leaned into Curry’s blueprint. She’s been here before, after all. Just one night earlier, with the team reeling from its seventh straight defeat (at 9-31 back then), she evoked one of Steph’s earliest Warriors-era rallying cries: “I remember Steph Curry, before the Warriors became the Warriors, he tweeted out like, ‘Just stick with us. We’re going to figure it out.’ That’s the message. I just have this undying belief in it.” That’s Paige in a nutshell, the Husky in charge, refusing to let a back injury, concussion, illness, patellar tendinitis, a league-worst record in her debut season, or even the constant heat on coach Chris Koclanes kill her optimism.

And when another loss prompted a reporter to ask about growth, Paige didn’t spit out stats or silver linings. Instead, she doubled down on her takes about joy. “What makes this game so much fun is because you get to do it with people that you love. Um, so I know the best teams are the teams that have the best camaraderie and chemistry and truly love each other because you just go to war for each other. Um, so that’s definitely something that we can build on and that will go a long way in the future.” That’s Paige’s way of keeping the locker room energy alive, even on nights when the result is brutal. And brutal is the only word for Monday in Minneapolis.

The Dallas Wings ran out of answers against the league’s top seed, falling 96–71 to the Minnesota Lynx at Target Center. Minnesota (32–8) put on a clinic. They shot 55.4% from the field and a blistering 58.3% from deep. Napheesa Collier dropped 25 points with ease, while Natisha Hiedeman came off the bench swinging. She piled up 20 points and 10 assists in a double-double performance that turned the game into a rout.

Dallas (9–32), thin with just eight active players, leaned once again on its rookie spark plug. Paige Bueckers poured in 17 points with a rebound and two assists, and in the process, she climbed to No. 6 on the WNBA’s all-time rookie scoring list. She now sits just one point shy of passing Cappie Pondexter for fifth; it’s probably all the optimism that keeps her going.

Paige Bueckers’ Pregame Words vs. Reality

Pregame, she had laid out the perfect blueprint. Discipline, she said, would be the only way to hang with a Minnesota Lynx team that punishes mistakes and thrives on balance. “They’re really disciplined on offense and defense, so making sure we’re disciplined as well,” she explained. “Obviously, Napheesa is an MVP candidate, so we have to show attention to her, but they’ve got pieces all around the floor.” It was a leader’s checklist: identify the threats, stay locked in, and hope to withstand the inevitable Collier barrage.

For a quarter, Dallas did just that. Collier still dropped 11 points in the opening frame, but the Wings hung tough. They were trailing just 25–21 after one. They battled on the glass, outscored Minnesota in the paint, and Paige Bueckers even got the emotional wrinkle of facing former teammate DiJonai Carrington for the first time since the trade. That reunion was cut short when Carrington exited with a shoulder injury. But for a brief stretch, the matchup carried the kind of intimacy Paige loves: basketball as both a battle and a bond. “She just let me be me and let me annoy her, and we have a great relationship that way,” Bueckers said with a smile.

But the reality bit her in the second quarter. Courtney Williams ignited a 16-6 Lynx run, and Dallas’ thin rotation couldn’t keep pace. Moreover, Collier’s versatility: “She just has so many counters… Once she’s at that left block, it’s tough to stop her,” as Maddy Siegrist noted, proved impossible for them to solve. Still, Paige Bueckers kept clawing, scoring seven before halftime and insisting the Wings’ aggression kept them within reach.

By night’s end, discipline had turned into damage control. Minnesota’s machine rolled on, but Bueckers’ words still resonated. The gap between aspiration and outcome was wide, yet her belief in chemistry, joy, and competition didn’t waver. That, more than the scoreboard, is how she continues to lead, beautifully.