Paige Bueckers closes the regular season with 25 points and a third straight 20-5 night

Paige Bueckers treated the regular-season finale like another night of work she already knew how to do. Twenty-five points. Seven assists. A third straight game with 20-plus points and five-plus assists. And when Seattle finally made the scoreboard tight, she answered with a three that helped put the Storm away.

The Associated Press reported that Bueckers powered the Dallas Wings to a 103-91 win over the Seattle Storm on Wednesday night in Seattle, closing both clubs' regular seasons. Dallas finished 27-16 after winning just 10 games a year ago, a 17-win jump the AP called a WNBA record for the best single-season turnaround.

The Wings also locked the No. 7 playoff seed after Atlanta beat New York earlier Wednesday, and they completed a first franchise sweep of Seattle at 4-0 in the season series.

A scoring-and-create rhythm that held for three games

Bueckers' line was not a one-night spike. The AP noted she had posted 20-plus points and five-plus assists in each of her last three games. On Wednesday that meant carrying the offense while Jessica Shepard ran the middle of the floor and Arike Ogunbowale added 23 points and six assists of her own.

Dallas led 90-71 with 6:55 left in the fourth before Seattle ripped off a 17-4 run to trim the margin to 94-88. Awak Kuier and Bueckers hit threes on the Wings' next two possessions, restoring the cushion and ending the Storm's last push.

That sequence mattered as much as the full-game totals: Bueckers still had the ball in her hands when the finale needed a closer.

Dominique Malonga led Seattle (8-36) with 29 points and eight rebounds. Awa Fam scored a season-high 22, Flau'jae Johnson added 21, and Natisha Hiedeman finished with 10 points and 14 assists. The Storm's late surge showed why the lead never felt completely safe until those back-to-back Dallas threes landed.

Record turnaround, first Storm sweep, and a seed locked

Winning seven of their last eight - the only loss coming Monday after a 14-point lead slipped away - put Dallas into the postseason conversation on its own terms.

The record turnaround from 10 wins last season to 27 this year is the number the AP led with, and Bueckers' stretch of 20-and-5 nights sat inside that climb as the most consistent single-player signature of the finish.

The Wings now wait for their playoff matchup. Seattle's season is over. For Bueckers, the regular-season close looked like the month she had been building: score, distribute, and answer when the opponent finally finds a run.

Shepard's WNBA-leading sixth triple-double of the season (20 points, 11 rebounds, 12 assists) gave Dallas a second engine on the same night. Ogunbowale's 23 points kept a veteran scorer on the board.

The finale still tilted toward Bueckers' 25 and seven - the third straight 20-5 line, the sealing three, and a Wings team that leaves September with a seed, a sweep, and a rookie-led stretch that defined how they got there.

Dallas will open the playoffs as the No. 7 seed after closing the books on Seattle. Bueckers' 25-point, seven-assist night was the clearest individual stamp on a finale that also delivered a franchise first against the Storm and a league-record turnaround from last year's 10-win floor.

Sources

abcnews.com

tsn.ca

wnba.com