The regular-season finale looked settled at 90-71. Then Seattle scored 17 of the next 21 points, the lead shrank to 94-88, and the Dallas Wings needed someone to stop the bleeding. Awak Kuier stepped into that moment first.
The Associated Press reported that Kuier and Paige Bueckers made three-pointers on Dallas' next two possessions after Seattle's 17-4 fourth-quarter run, pulling the Wings away again in a 103-91 win over the Storm on Wednesday night in Seattle. Bueckers finished with 25 points and seven assists. Jessica Shepard had 20 points, 11 rebounds and 12 assists for her WNBA-leading sixth triple-double.
Arike Ogunbowale added 23 points and six assists.
The possession that flipped the fourth back
Dallas led by 19 with 6:55 left. Seattle - paced by Dominique Malonga's 29 points and eight rebounds, Awa Fam's season-high 22, Flau'jae Johnson's 21, and Natisha Hiedeman's 10 points and 14 assists - suddenly looked like a team that could steal the last night of a lost season. A 17-4 burst made it a six-point game.
Kuier's three was the first answer. Bueckers' three was the second. The AP framed those two makes as the sequence that pulled Dallas away after the Storm had cut the deficit from 19 to six. In a finale already stuffed with a triple-double and a 25-point night from Bueckers, Kuier's timing was the difference between a comfortable close and a scramble.
The Storm finished 8-36. Their late run did not change the standings, but it forced Dallas to prove the lead again. Kuier supplied the first proof.
What the win locked for Dallas
The Wings finished 27-16 after winning 10 games last season, a 17-win improvement the AP called a WNBA record for the best single-season turnaround. They won seven of their last eight, with the only recent loss coming Monday after a 14-point lead slipped away. Atlanta's win over New York earlier Wednesday locked Dallas into the No. 7 playoff seed.
