Seattle enters Monday’s Wings vs Storm game on a 10-game losing streak, and the slide has gotten ugly fast. Four of those defeats came by at least 20 points, two more were double-digit losses, and the Wings already handled Seattle 79-56 on June 1.
That is why Paige Bueckers is the center of the matchup again. She had seven assists and 10 points in that June 1 game, then followed with at least seven assists in each of her last three games while averaging 14.7 points recently. The Dallas guard has clear scoring chances against a team that has been described as broken on offense, but she has been more likely to move the ball than force shots, which keeps her line tied to the way Dallas wants to control the game.
Seattle’s offense has been nearly six points worse per 100 possessions than the second-worst offense in June, a gap that helps explain why the Storm keep getting buried early and never catching up. When a team is that inefficient, opponents can ease up on the other end without paying much of a price, and that has turned Seattle into the kind of matchup that can make Dallas look better than it has to be. The Wings, meanwhile, are dealing with their own absences, with Alysha Clark listed as questionable and Odyssey Sims and Alanna Smith out.
The part that makes Monday harder to pin down is Bueckers herself. Her recent numbers say she is seeing the floor well and punishing defenses that collapse, but the one clear criticism is that she can leave points on the table when the opening is there. Against a Seattle team this beaten down, that choice matters: she can attack for points, or she can keep steering Dallas through the holes Seattle keeps leaving.
Jordan Horston is out for Seattle, and the Storm’s current form leaves little reason to expect the same matchup to flip simply because the date changed. Dallas already proved on June 1 that it can turn this game into a rout, and unless Seattle finds some version of an offense that has not shown up in weeks, the bigger question is not whether the Wings can win again. It is whether Bueckers takes the scoring lane or keeps the ball moving while Seattle keeps sinking.
