The Wings celebrated, oh, they celebrated hard after edging Indiana by a single point. But karma has a cruel sense of humor, because right after that high, Los Angeles rolled in and handed Dallas not one, but two straight one-point heartbreakers. If anything, Wings-Sparks matchups teach us the the brutal worth of a single point. Just last week, Kelsey Plum dropped 28 to narrowly outpace Paige Bueckers’ 29. This resulted in a 97-96 Sparks win. Fast forward to last night at Crypto.com Arena, and Plum did it again. She did it by burying an 11-foot driving floater at the buzzer to seal an 81-80 thriller. Even Bueckers’ 44-point eruption (the highest-scoring game by any WNBA player this season) wasn’t enough to stop the déjà vu.

Sure, Paige might now have all but locked up her Rookie of the Year crown with that performance; however, Dallas still slid to 9-27 while L.A. crept within one win of a season sweep. The final second was all that separated the two sides, and Plum admitted afterward: “I was gonna wait to shoot it at the buzzer. I didn’t want to give them a chance, and yeah, I mean Game over.” That’s a winner’s mindset in its purest form. But imagine here, one miss, and the headline would’ve been about Dallas taking one-point revenge.

Instead, it became another cautionary tale about defense (or the lack of it). When postgame, an interviewer asked, “I know this is a playoff push. Nine-game season for you guys. How do you turn the page and get ready for the next one?” Kelsey Plum snapped: “Yeah, we got to play some —-ing defense.” Then she walked off in mic-drop style with the whole arena cheering for her. Risky words? Sure, but also accurate. And the numbers tell the story.

Dallas shot 48.3% overall and a scorching 57.9% from three, but still surrendered 44.6% shooting to the Sparks. They simply lost the boards 39–32, and coughed up 17 turnovers that gifted L.A. 12 extra possessions. Rickea Jackson (25 points) torched them, Cameron Brink (+14 in just 19 minutes) tilted the floor, and Plum sealed the deal. After all, one scoring superstar can’t outscore five defenders who never show up. That’s the tragedy of Paige Bueckers’ night; her career best was wasted.

She even broke her tie with Hall of Famer Cynthia Cooper by recording her 29th consecutive game in double figures. That milestone now places her third all-time in rookie scoring streaks, just five shy of A’ja Wilson’s record 33. (Candace Parker is second with 32; Cooper drops to fourth with 28.) But milestones don’t matter much when the opponent has the last laugh. However, the Sparks are still on the outside looking in, holding the No. 9 seed while only the top eight advance. But they are also just half a game back of Seattle, and with finishes like this, they look very much alive….

Recap: Paige Bueckers’ Wasted Career Night

Paige Bueckers did deliver the kind of performance that usually guarantees victory. The rookie phenom:

• Poured in 44 points, the most by any WNBA player this season,
• She extended her streak of double-digit scoring games to 29, the third-longest ever for a rookie.
• She even shot an outrageous 17-of-21 from the field, hit all four of her threes.

The Sparks, though, refused to fade. After falling behind early, they roared into the second quarter with a 15-4 run fueled by Dearica Hamby and Julie Vanloo. The duo hit a three and then cashed in free throws after a Bueckers take foul. Rickea Jackson kept them humming. She splashed four of her five threes before halftime and led all the scorers at the break with 17.

But the third quarter belonged to Paige Bueckers. She sliced up her former UConn teammate Azura Stevens with an up-and-under, stole a lazy Cameron Brink pass for a breakaway layup. The rookie then rattled off seven straight points in under two minutes. Her baseline fadeaway through contact silenced the L.A. crowd and briefly gave Dallas the edge. The most interesting part came when she drilled a deep three to cap a 21-7 run; the Wings led 66-59 heading into the fourth.

From there, it became a duel of runs and nerves. Paige Bueckers buried two more threes late to push Dallas ahead 75-73, then again 77-76 with under three minutes left. After a Jackson technical, her free throw gave the Wings an 80-79 lead with just over a minute to play. But the finish belonged to Kelsey Plum. After missing nine of her first ten threes, she chose patience over panic.

With the clock draining, she knifed past Luisa Geiselsoder, and no one rotated. She dropped her floater at the buzzer (Sparks 81, Wings 80) and handed Dallas another painful one-point loss and leaving Bueckers’ brilliant night to go to waste.