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For the first and only time this season, the Paige Bueckers spotlight will shift to Brooklyn.
The Liberty will host the Wings star rookie, who made the All-Star game and has averaged 18.5 points per game this season after being the top pick in April, on Tuesday night in a rematch from last week — when a woeful Dallas team, stumbling through plenty of growing pains with a new-look roster and first-year coach, shocked the Liberty at College Park Center.
Bueckers collected 20 points, six rebounds and four assists during the win, and now the shorthanded Liberty will be tasked with trying to contain her again in front of a crowd likely featuring plenty of No. 5 jerseys.
Bueckers was named the WNBA’s Rookie of the Month for July — the second consecutive month she earned the honor — on Monday after averaging 18.2 points, 5.2 assists and 3.2 rebounds per game, and during their game Wednesday against the Dream, she tied Cynthia Cooper as the fastest player in WNBA history to reach 400 points and 100 assists by doing so in just her 22nd game.
It has provided a fitting encore to 2024, when Caitlin Clark entered the league as the No. 1 pick, rewrote record after record and turned games — both at home and on the road — into glimpses of the reach of her stardom.
Bueckers’ campaign won’t feature a taste of the postseason, with the Wings at 8-21 and well outside of the playoff picture, but their win against the Liberty served as the signature victory of her era in Dallas so far.
It was unexpected, even with the Liberty down Breanna Stewart, Kennedy Burke and Nyara Sabally.
It was surprising, given the separation between the teams in the standings.
And now, Bueckers will get a chance to replicate that.
Sabrina Ionescu has led the league in scoring (25.6 points per game) since the All-Star break, and on Monday was named Eastern Conference Player of the Month for July — the fifth time in her career she took one of the league’s monthly awards and the first time during the 2025 campaign.
Across the Liberty’s 10 games, Ionescu averaged 21.4 points, 6.6 assists and 5.5 rebounds, and it marked her best calendar month of scoring since last July (23.2).
Her campaign to repeat in August got off to a scorching start, too, when she poured in 36 points — on a career-best 14 made field goals — Sunday.
She also collected 23 points Friday when the Liberty lost to Connecticut.
And with Stewart set to miss the next chunk of the season due to a bone bruise in her right knee, the Liberty will need Ionescu to keep carrying the offense and helping replace the lost production of their other superstar.
