Paige Bueckers Ties Cynthia Cooper With Historic Rookie Start

Dallas Wings guard Paige Bueckers reached one other milestone in her standout rookie season Wednesday evening, scoring 21 factors and including seven assists in an 88–85 loss to the Atlanta Dream.

The efficiency pushed Bueckers to 400 profession factors and 100 assists, making her simply the second participant in WNBA historical past to hit each marks inside her first 22 video games. She joins four-time champion and two-time MVP Cynthia Cooper, who initially set the document in 1997. Cooper entered the league as a seasoned veteran, whereas Bueckers has matched the mark as a real rookie.

Bueckers scored 9 factors within the fourth quarter in opposition to Atlanta, attacking the Dream’s drop protection and making the most of the on-ball defender going beneath screens at occasions. The objective was to generate extra rim stress than in earlier outings to create a gradual benefit. She did simply that, attending to the rim for a number of and-ones in clutch time.

“Just a bit little bit of separation on screens. My teammates have been doing a very good job of screening and getting me open,” Bueckers stated. “They performed largely drop the whole recreation, so if I acquired a bit of little bit of benefit—and the posts have been hitting threes—it form of compelled them to need to play to that, which opened up the lane a bit of bit. I simply tried to be aggressive, assault the rim, and get to the free throw line.”

Bueckers is averaging 18.3 factors, 3.9 rebounds, 5.5 assists and 1.8 steals per recreation, whereas taking pictures 45.2 % from the sector and 34.6 % from 3-point vary. She leads all WNBA rookies in factors, assists and steals, and ranks amongst league leaders in off-the-dribble leap shot makes an attempt with 7.3 possessions per recreation — trailing solely Caitlin Clark (7.8) and Marina Mabrey (7.4). Amongst her objectives is to give attention to getting ot the rim extra whereas balancing her mid-range recreation.

“A mixture and stability of each, I really feel like,” Bueckers stated. “Not over-penetrating an excessive amount of, however I do really feel like I can get to the paint and rim extra, draw contact, and get to the free throw line. However I’ve at all times liked my midrange leap shot, and I don’t assume that’ll ever change. Simply looking for a greater stability of each.”

Wings head coach Chris Koclanes stated Bueckers’ capability to stress the paint made a noticeable distinction. It’s an space of the sport he’d prefer to see her proceed to embrace.

“She acquired to the rim extra,” Koclanes stated. “The pull-up is at all times going to be there, however we talked at halftime about placing extra stress on the paint. With [Brittney Griner] out within the third, that modified issues. However I appreciated the way in which Paige blended it up and stored attacking.”

Bueckers’ milestone ties her with one of many WNBA’s all-time greats, however beneath vastly completely different circumstances. Cooper, 34 on the time, had already performed professionally abroad for a decade. Bueckers, 23, entered the league simply months after main UConn to a nationwide title.

Bueckers was named WNBA Rookie of the Month and stays the main candidate for Rookie of the Yr. With 16 video games already behind her, the Wings could also be simply 8-20, however she’s on tempo for one of the vital productive rookie campaigns in league historical past, and maybe extra data to come back.