Jul 22, 2025; Seattle, Washington, USA; Dallas Wings guard Paige Bueckers (5) dribbles the ball against Seattle Storm guard Lexie Brown (8) during the second half at Climate Pledge Arena. Mandatory Credit: Stephen Brashear-Imagn Images Stephen Brashear-Imagn Images

Storm Star's Strategy to Stop Paige Bueckers Turns Heads

Originally posted on Women's Fastbreak on SI
By Grant Young | Last updated Aug 23, 2025 3:09 PM ET

Dallas Wings star Paige Bueckers produced the best scoring performance of the 2025 WNBA season against the Los Angeles Sparks on August 20, as she finished the game with 44 points. This marked the most points a single player has scored in a WNBA game this season and also tied four-time WNBA Finals MVP Cynthia Cooper’s record for the most points in a game by a first-year player.

However, Bueckers came back to earth in her next game after that. When the Wings played the Seattle Storm on August 22, Bueckers ended up with just 11 points on 2 of 11 shooting from the field, to go along with 0 assists, 2 rebounds, and a steal in 22 minutes.

Dallas lost the game against Seattle by 35 points, thus dropping their record to 9-28 this season.

Storm's Nneka Ogwumike Speaks on Slowing Bueckers Down

Seattle Storm forward, 2016 WNBA MVP, and 10-time All-Star Nneka Ogwumike spoke with the ION broadcast at one point during Friday's game.

Ogwumike was asked about the team's strategy to make someone else score besides Paige, and what the team was going to do to keep Bueckers from reaching her scoring average (which is currently 19.4 points per game).

"It means five people are guarding her," Ogwumike said. "She deserves that type of respect, so we have to make sure that everyone is paying attention [to her] at all times."

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While Ogwumike was obviously joking about the Storm having five players guarding Bueckers, there's no question that it takes a team effort to contain No. 5, and that the Storm did a great job keeping their attention square on Bueckers throughout the game and forcing other players to beat them.

This is an obvious strategy to slow Dallas down, especially because star guard Arike Ogunbowale is sidelined with tendinitis in her knee for the time being. Therefore, there aren't any serious offensive threats aside from Bueckers.

Still, saying that you're going to slow Bueckers down is a much different thing than actually doing it. This is why the Storm deserve a lot of respect for how they limited her to 11 points on Friday.

But Bueckers won't stay down for long. In fact, it wouldn't be surprising to see her produce another breakout performance during Dallas' next game, which is against the Golden State Valkyries on August 24. Perhaps the Valkyries will heed Nneka's message and try to put five players on Bueckers.

This article first appeared on Women's Fastbreak on SI and was syndicated with permission.

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