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🏀 Good morning to all but especially to …
PAIGE BUECKERS
The high in Los Angeles on Wednesday was 90 degrees, but the temperature inside Crypto.com Arena was a lot warmer. That’s because Wings rookie Paige Bueckers was on fire as she tied the single-game record for points by a rookie.
Bueckers was a one-woman show against the Sparks, and she did all she could do to will the Wings to a win. Her 44 points tied Cynthia Cooper-Dyke for the most by a rookie in a single-game, but that does come with an asterisk. Cooper-Dyke did that in 1997, the inaugural WNBA season when she was 34 after having played professionally overseas for years.
The most points by a “true” rookie in WNBA history were Candace Parker‘s 40 in 2008, but Bueckers blew by that mark while also knocking down 17 of her 21 attempts from the field (81%). Here are a few more benchmarks Bueckers hit on Wednesday night:
Tied Cooper-Dyke and Arike Ogunbowale for most 35+ point games by a rookie with twoMost points in a WNBA game while shooting at least 80% from the fieldJoins Hakeem Olajuwon, John Drew and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar as the only rookies to score 40+ points on 80% shooting in WNBA/NBA history.
The problem for the Wings was that it was a one-woman show. Only one other player, Maddy Siegrist (13 points), hit double-digits in the game, an 81-80 win for the hosts. The lack of support around Bueckers opened the door for the Sparks, and Kelsey Plum won the game for L.A. with a floater at the buzzer,
😃 Honorable mentions
🤕 And not such a good morning for …
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CAITLIN CLARK AND THE FEVER
The hits just keep coming for Caitlin Clark and the Fever — and not in a good way. In a season of multiple setbacks, Clark has missed the team’s last 13 games with…
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