Takeaways from Dallas Wings’ season opener versus Caitlin Clark, Indiana Fever
The Dallas Wings are a team with expectations headed into superstar Paige Buecker’s second season and were hoping to make a statement against the Indiana Fever.
Dallas did just that with a 107-104 victory in the season opener in Indianapolis.
First-year head coach Jose Fernandez put in a new offensive system, and it could’ve scarcely looked better in the first half when Dallas scored 60 points.
Bueckers talked with ESPN at halftime about how the new-look Wings played. And the 107 points scored would amount to a franchise record for points in a Wings’ season opener.
“Our offense is great. We’re getting out in transition. We’re getting easy buckets changing sides of the floor, running. Our offense is well executed; it’s just our defense. Now we got 60 points, but we gave up 51, so we just gotta lock in defensively,” said Bueckers.
“The coaching staff did a really good job of ... sending the plays, sending the personnel and everything that we worked on in camp, to the guys overseas that were still there, the fit has been seamless. They’ve done a really good job of buying in, learning the offense.”
The Fever had a chance to tie the game with a three-pointer with under 10 seconds left in the game, but Fever star Caitlin Clark couldn’t get the shot to fall.
Still back-to-back misses by Bueckers at the free-throw line gave the Fever one more chance to tie the game with 1.3 seconds left.
The Fever’s Kelsey Mitchell got a clean look at a three, but it didn’t go as the Wings pulled out the victory.
Paige Bueckers vs. Caitlin Clark
A marquee matchup to start the season: Clark and Bueckers are two players who are seen as the future of the WNBA showed off their dazzling passing early. But it was Bueckers who won the matchup early and ended the game with 20 points, three rebounds and four assists.
Clark struggled to take care of the ball with more turnovers than assists in the first half, while shooting 2 of 6 from the field. She came alive, though, in the second half and finished the game with 20 points four rebounds and seven assists while hitting multiple threes.
Azzi Fudd’s career debut
Fudd scored her first career bucket in the second quarter on a three-pointer from the corner off an assist from Jessica Shepard. Fudd played some solid defense early with a quick steal and spent some time pestering Clark.
That would be Fudd’s only basket of the game. She played 18 minutes in her debut. The UConn product’s three points is the fewest scored by a No. 1 overall pick in 20 years.
New-look Wings
The Wings made several key additions in the offseason including Alana Smith, Odyssey Sims and Shepard.
Sims’ Wings tenure got off to a big start. She scored 20 points on 8-of-11 shooting and showed scoring versatility and efficiency with multiple three-pointers and tough jumpers.
The Wings are set to be back in action on Tuesday in their home debut against Angel Reese and the Atlanta Dream at 7:00 p.m. on Tuesday at College Park Center.
This story was originally published May 9, 2026 at 2:49 PM.
