DALLAS — By Thursday afternoon, the get-in ticket price at the American Airlines Center hovered around $80. The cost to view the fourth-ever WNBA matchup between Paige Bueckers and Caitlin Clark from the upper deck — less than a week after the scintillating third meeting in Indianapolis — was not overly prohibitive.
The show had different stars and a different result this time. The Dallas Wings notched maybe their most-needed win of the season with a 91-85 victory over the Indiana Fever, at last finding some equilibrium after losing Azzi Fudd to season-ending knee surgery and sliding into eighth place in the WNBA standings. It also ended the Fever’s five-game winning streak and prevented them from clinching a playoff spot on their first try.
Those among the 20,297 seeking another Bueckers-Clark duel, after each scored 29 points in last Friday’s meeting?
They instead got Arike Ogunbowale scoring 32 points and Jessica Shepard adding 26 for Dallas in her return to the lineup, while Indiana’s Kelsey Mitchell carried a too-heavy load with 37 points — though she made history in doing so. Bueckers and Clark, meanwhile, missed a combined 22 of 31 shots from the field.
Still, even without those two playing captivating basketball, it appears the Wings and Fever under the same roof is becoming a must-attend rivalry. Among the notables on hand Thursday night: Mark Cuban, Dallas Mavericks star Cooper Flagg and NBA Hall of Famer Tracy McGrady. Even WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert made an appearance, chatting up Cuban between the third and fourth quarters.
As for Mitchell’s landmark moment: With a layup late in the first half, the All-Star guard broke the WNBA record for consecutive 20-point games, hitting that mark for the 21st straight outing.
Azzi’s absence
Near the end of shootaround Thursday morning, Alysha Clark finished her routine from beyond the 3-point arc in her usual manner: ahead of a group of three teammates in an informal race to the end. “It’s been a clean sweep all season, don’t get it twisted,” the veteran Wings guard said.
Something was very different nevertheless. Clark’s partner in the race is usually Fudd, the 2026 No. 1 overall pick. But Fudd won’t be participating in pregame contests for the foreseeable future, after the Wings announced she’d undergo arthroscopic surgery on her knee and miss the remainder of the season. It was another blow for a team that might have the worst injury luck in recent WNBA memory.
The Wings, losers of 8 of 11 games coming into Thursday, have been bent about as much as a team can be bent before it snaps entirely.
“In the past few years in Dallas,” guard Maddy Siegrist said of the injury setbacks, “we’ve had our fair share.”
First it was Alanna Smith, a key free-agent signing, dealing with a concussion. Then it was All-Star forward Shepard, turning her ankle and missing a couple games. Now it’s Fudd, who started every game in which she appeared since May 28; whose 39.7 percent shooting from 3-point range ranked 15th in the league; and who’d been drawing defensive duties on the opposition’s top backcourt threat.
“The biggest thing Azzi did, besides on the defensive end, she spread the floor,” Wings coach Jose Fernandez said. “We need someone that can space the floor, defend and make shots.
“It’s tough to replace what she did, especially as a rookie.”
The Wings still have a 99 percent chance of reaching the playoffs, per PlayoffStatus.com. And recently injured guard Aziaha James (lower leg) will be evaluated in a week with a chance to return before the FIBA World Cup break.
But the juggling continues. There’s been a new starter in each game of Fudd’s recent absence, and Thursday, the Wings went with a super-big lineup of Smith, Shepard and Awak Kuier in the frontcourt (which did help the Wings amass 46 points in the paint, a 20-point edge on the Fever).
It’s reflective of an urgency to create momentum before the Wings get to the postseason, lest they limp in and slink out fast.
“For us, right now, it’s winning games because our playoff spot isn’t solidified,” Clark said. “We don’t want to leave it up to chance and leave it up to what other teams are doing. That’s not a position you want to be in, and we worked too hard this entire season to put ourselves in a successful position.”
Mitchell stays hot — in a good way
The pregame health report on Mitchell, the second-leading scorer in the WNBA, was both vague and completely to the point.
“She’s Kelsey,” Fever coach Stephanie White said. “Until I hear otherwise, I think she’s feeling pretty good.”
An overly stuffy arena in Toronto on Tuesday led to Mitchell feeling overheated and sitting the entirety of the fourth quarter out of an abundance of caution. She’d previously been diagnosed with rhabdomyolysis, a condition that can be brought on by overexertion, after collapsing from lower-body cramping and temporary leg paralysis during a 2025 playoff series against the Las Vegas Aces.
But Mitchell participated in shootaround and warmups in full Thursday, started as usual, and then went about setting a WNBA record. With four seconds left in the first half, Mitchell snagged a needle-threading pass from Caitlin Clark and finished in traffic for her 20th and 21st points of the night. With that, Mitchell had her 21st consecutive game with 20 or more points, breaking Aces star A’ja Wilson’s record.
“We have a great big three, and those two are certainly in MVP conversations and they deserve to be,” White said of Mitchell and Clark before the game. “Their numbers are incredible. The way they’ve elevated our team has been incredible.”
Fever still short of playoff bar — for now
With a win, the Fever would have set a franchise record for victories for a second straight season and clinched a postseason spot. It is bound to happen at some point, of course, maybe as soon as Friday night should the Toronto Tempo beat the Portland Fire. That result would officially put Indiana in the mix for a championship chase.
But getting in is not the point anyway. Not anymore.
“It’s the natural growth process for our young team,” White said before the game. “This is the expectation, to be in these situations. Now (it’s) the understanding of how important seeding and home court is.
“I’m proud of how far we’ve come. We still have a ways to go. Certainly don’t want to be peaking right now, but we’re in the upward trajectory that we hoped.”
This article originally appeared in The Athletic.
Dallas Wings, WNBA
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