Three wins against the same team usually feels like a recipe for having them figured out – or so the Dallas Wings thought. Because when they walked into the Michelob ULTRA Arena for their fourth meeting against the Las Vegas Aces, it didn’t take long for A’ja Wilson & Co. to remind them exactly why the Aces still sit near the top of the WNBA standings. But what went wrong? If you ask Paige Bueckers, she’ll point to drive and hunger.

“They did a better job of stopping our transition on offense. We killed them there in the first two games, and that was definitely a point of emphasis in their scout,” she said in the post-game interview. “And then just them obviously having a chip on their shoulder. Coming off a loss at home against New York, and then us getting them three times. They just wanted it. They had like a hunger and a chip on their shoulder about them.”

“I mean, they’re the defending champs, so it’s not something that we should have been shocked by. We should have expected that and handled that better.”

The Aces showed it from early on. This was not the same team the Wings had beaten three times this season. Las Vegas dictated the pace, forced Dallas into poor decisions, and made the Wings chase a game they had grown accustomed to controlling. The Wings finished with just 2-of-21 from three and gave up turnov

Paige Bueckers pointed to how the Wings responded to that pressure as part of the problem.

“We started playing on our heels a little bit,” Bueckers said. “We were tentative, we didn’t want to foul, so we let up our physicality and our aggressive mentality.”

On the other side, A’ja Wilson finished with 32 points and made sure Dallas never found consistent footing. The performance came after a difficult outing for Wilson in her previous game and represented a sharp turnaround.

Bueckers finished with 25 points and 6 assists, and Jessica Shepard added 22. No other Wings player reached double figures. When the primary options carry the load alone in a game this physical, the margin for error shrinks, and the Wings did not have enough to cover it.

That absence of secondary scoring, combined with transition struggles Bueckers identified, is the clearest thread through the 99-84 loss.

What the Wings need to correct

With this loss in their bags, the Wings now sit at 11-7 in this season, ranked 3rd in the Western Conference Division. The other six losses they have faced so far came against the:

• Atlanta Dream on May 12 (77-72).
• Minnesota Lynx on May 14 (90-86).
• Atlanta Dream on May 22nd (86-69).
• Minnesota Lynx on June 9th (100-76).
• Portland Fire on June 13th (84-83).
• Golden State Valkyries on June 17th (91-80).

Each of these losses tells a slightly different story, but the pattern is hard to ignore – whenever Paige Bueckers and her teammates have been pushed into tight, physical games, they’ve struggled to flip momentum back in their favor. And that’s exactly what showed up again in Las Vegas.

So moving forward, the Wings will have to focus on their adaptability and make sure their secondary scorers show up when the games get intense.

They will play their next game against the Minnesota Lynx, the same team that has already caused them trouble twice this season.