NEW YORK \u2014 By coincidence, Maddy Siegrist returned from her second long-term injury as a pro on the same court where she returned from her first one. <\/p>\n
That the court was at the Barclays Center meant the Siegrist clan could witness the occasion, just as it did last time<\/a>. But if you give most people the choice, they probably wouldn\u2019t want to have the injury in the first place \u2014 especially when it was a broken bone in the right knee.<\/p>\n Siegrist missed 18 games<\/a> because of that, a year after missing 13 games because of a broken finger.<\/p>\n On Tuesday, she was finally back in action, and she looked good. The former Villanova<\/a> star scored 13 points on 6-of-9 shooting in 15 minutes off the bench in her Dallas Wings\u2019 85-76 loss to the New York Liberty.<\/p>\n \u201cI mean, I\u2019m not a fan of broken bones,\u201d Siegrist said with her usual dry humor. \u201cThere\u2019s nothing you can do about it. You\u2019ve got to just wait \u2019til it heals. So it was a little bit of a pain, but I\u2019m happy to be back.\u201d<\/p>\n Wings coach Chris Koclanes has had enough problems to deal with this year even before injuries. Despite having a veteran star in Arike Ogunbowale and a rookie superstar in Paige Bueckers, Tuesday\u2019s loss sank the Wings\u2019 record to 8-22 \u2014 the second-worst mark leaguewide<\/a>. <\/p>\n \u00bb READ MORE: Women\u2019s soccer teaches the WNBA a history lesson about when CBA talks go wrong<\/a><\/b><\/p>\n Siegrist admitted that the losing has been \u201ctough to watch, obviously, when you feel like you can\u2019t really do anything in the immediate [moment].\u201d <\/p>\n Koclanes had to manage the person as much as the player while Siegrist was sidelined. He hopes that will pay off in production, especially in winnable games this month against the Washington Mystics and Los Angeles Sparks. (The Mystics game, on Sunday in Arlington, Texas, will feature Siegrist facing former Villanova teammate Lucy Olsen for the first time.)<\/p>\n \u201cShe\u2019s the ultimate competitor, so helping her navigate having patience \u2014 she\u2019s frustrated, she wants to be out on the floor, she wants to be helping this team,\u201d Koclanes said. \u201cWhen you sit out and you\u2019re on the bench, you just gain different perspective that you can\u2019t see when you are playing. So I\u2019m excited to see what she\u2019s learned from being away and how that can impact her and our team positively on the court.\u201d<\/p>\n The 35-year-old is in his first year as a head coach after assistant stints at Southern Cal, the Los Angeles Sparks, and Connecticut Sun. (Before that, he worked at St. Joseph\u2019s<\/a> as a video coordinator from 2013 to 2015.) He talks optimistically about the future, as any coach with Bueckers would, but the record is what it is.<\/p>\n