All season long, Dallas Wings head coach Chris Koclanes has highlighted a theme in his press conferences: fans hadn\u2019t seen Dallas play well for a full game. The team showed glimpses during their recent hot streak, but Koclanes always noted the room for growth for his young squad.<\/p>\n
On Thursday, they showed just how much they\u2019ve grown in the season\u2019s first 19 games.<\/p>\n
Advertisement<\/p>\n
Dallas led nearly wire-to-wire over the league\u2019s second best team \u2014 a 12-5 Phoenix Mercury squad led by All-Star Satou Sabally, former MVP Alyssa Thomas, and 2024 All-WNBA selection Kahleah Copper \u2014 in a dominant 98-89 victory at College Park Center.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe came out and we established right from the tip how physical we were going to play and that we were going to set the tempo,\u201d Koclanes said. \u201cPhoenix had been coming in with the second fastest [tempo], our tempo has dropped a little over the month of June, but we talked about wanting to get our pace.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rookie guard Aziaha James had a career-high 28 points, six rebounds and six assists, while Paige Bueckers, WNBA\u2019s Rookie of the Month in June, had an efficient 23 points, four rebounds and five assists. JJ Quinerly added 17 points of her own as the rookie triplet of guards tore apart Phoenix\u2019s defense \u2014 which had been holding teams to 79.3 points per game this season, fourth-lowest in the league.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s really fun to play team basketball like this where any given night, it can be anybody\u2019s night,\u201d Bueckers said.<\/p>\n
Advertisement<\/p>\n
Koclanes said the team had good intentions early, playing inside-out basketball knowing they\u2019d have a size advantage. The team ran two-center lineups all game with Teaira McCowan, Luisa Geiselsoder, and Li Yueru splitting time. That size gave Dallas flexibility to play different offensive schemes and throw multiple defensive gameplans at Phoenix\u2019s big 3.<\/p>\n
The team\u2019s energy was palpable and Koclanes said the team was feeding off each other all night.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re going to capture that, we\u2019re going to build on it, and we\u2019re going to keep moving forward,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd as [Paige] said, stick to the process,\u201d<\/p>\n
With the win, Dallas improves to 6-13 on the season and is just three games back of the eighth seed after starting the season 1-11. Bueckers said the team knew they had performances like Thursday\u2019s in them all year and believes the team\u2019s record could be flipped if the Wings were able to close out a few close losses early on.<\/p>\n
Advertisement<\/p>\n
Now, Dallas is figuring it out and they\u2019re quickly becoming a team no one wants to face. The combination of size, guard quickness, and defensive communication makes it hard for any team to match up with. Dallas is confident and they\u2019re playing with the swagger of a team that knows they\u2019ve found their true identity.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want to play like we\u2019re hunting teams and are being hunted at the same time,\u201d Bueckers said.<\/p>\n
On Monday, they\u2019ll likely be the team in the latter position. Dallas will travel to Phoenix for a rematch, a matchup Koclanes is looking forward to.<\/p>\n
\u201cTonight was a great night, now we turn around and go to Phoenix and you can just guess what kind of effort you\u2019re going to get from them. They\u2019re licking their lips that they get us right away, so that\u2019ll be a great test for a young group: How do you respond on the road to a team you just took care of at home? I\u2019m looking forward to that,\u201d Koclanes said.<\/p>\n
Advertisement<\/p>\n
More from mavsmoneyball.com:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"All season long, Dallas Wings head coach Chris Koclanes has highlighted a theme in his press conferences: fans…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":37411,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5135],"tags":[4552,5229,2474,10478,1596,10481,20022,18408,10483,2471,1502,20021,10484,358,3187,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-37410","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-dallas","8":"tag-alyssa-thomas","9":"tag-america","10":"tag-aziaha-james","11":"tag-chris-koclanes","12":"tag-dallas","13":"tag-jj-quinerly","14":"tag-kahleah-copper","15":"tag-li-yueru","16":"tag-luisa-geiselsoder","17":"tag-paige-bueckers","18":"tag-phoenix-mercury","19":"tag-satou-sabally","20":"tag-teaira-mccowan","21":"tag-texas","22":"tag-tx","23":"tag-united-states","24":"tag-united-states-of-america","25":"tag-unitedstates","26":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","27":"tag-us","28":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114793651353013418","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37410","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37410"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37410\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37411"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37410"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37410"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37410"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}