Injury-riddled Wings, Liberty tip off in rescheduled game

The Dallas Wings will be chasing their seventh straight win when they host the slumping New York Liberty on Monday in Arlington, Texas, but they will be without the services of star guard Paige Bueckers.

Bueckers spent the final minutes of Sunday’s 90-82 home win over the Los Angeles Spark in the locker room after suffering an apparent head injury late in the fourth quarter.

On Monday, the Wings announced Bueckers was ruled out due to “rest” purposes. She was cleared from having a concussion following post-game evaluation and is not in concussion protocol.

As Sparks forward Nneka Ogwumike was dribbling down the court, she was fouled and lost her balance after being tripped by Azzi Fudd. Ogwumike tumbled into the legs of Bueckers, who fell and appeared to hit the back of her head on the floor.

Bueckers, 24, finished with a game-high 25 points on 10-of-18 shooting — including 2-of-4 from 3-point range — as well as five assists and four rebounds in 32 minutes.

She boasts team-best averages in points (20.9) and assists (6.2) to go along with 4.2 rebounds in 24 games (all starts) this season.

“We worked hard for this win, and when Paige went down, it was all about the rest of us stepping up,” Ogunbowale said after the victory over Los Angeles.

Wings coach Jose Fernandez said Bueckers was in good spirits.

“She’s upset at Azzi because she said Azzi tripped her (Ogwumike) and took away P’s charge,” Fernandez said lightheartedly.

Monday’s game was rescheduled from July 16 because of travel difficulties for the Liberty, creating a home back-to-back for Dallas.

The Wings (17-8) enter Monday’s game carrying their longest winning streak in 11 years. Dallas has captured six straight games for the first time since the 2015 campaign when the franchise was in Tulsa, Okla.

In that season, the Wings (then known as the Shock) won eight straight outings early in the year and then six in a row before bowing out against the Phoenix Mercury in the Western Conference semifinals.

The Liberty (13-12) limp into Arlington on the heels of a 108-88 loss in Indianapolis to the Fever on Saturday. Breanna Stewart led the way with 26 points and eight boards for New York, while Jonquel Jones netted 13 points and Marine Johannes and Sabrina Ionescu each added 12.

Johannes sustained a left ankle injury in the game and has been ruled out for Monday’s game.

The Liberty jumped out to an 11-point, first-quarter lead and were up by four at halftime before succumbing in the second half. New York’s 17 turnovers which led to 30 Fever points had plenty to do with the loss.

“We don’t like where we’re at right now, but (here) we are,” Stewart said after the loss. “(We’re) playing with that, realizing that we’re in it. We’re in the trenches, and we can either keep sinking or we can dig ourselves out.”

New York has dropped six of its past seven games and eight of its last 10. The Liberty have trailed by at least 13 points at some juncture in six of their past eight games and has lost all six of those contests.

“We’re really mature about it,” Ionescu said. “It really hasn’t been too frustrating. Every team goes through it. During the process, kind of when you’re in it, it sucks, but I think everyone has a really good mindset of knowing it’ll pay off for us in the long run.”

Key New York players Satou Sabally (concussion protocol) and Leonie Fiebich (foot) have been ruled out for the game.

It is the teams’ third and final meeting of the season. Dallas took the first two matchups, both in Brooklyn, including an 88-77 decision on July 7 that started the Liberty’s current four-game losing streak.

–Field Level Media