Paige Bueckers enters concussion protocol; Dallas Wings star to miss multiple games

Already off to a rough start in the young WNBA season, the Dallas Wings are going to be without arguably their best player. 

The team on Friday announced that Paige Bueckers, the No. 1 overall pick in this year’s draft out of UConn, was put in concussion protocol.

The move came after the Wings’ 97-92 loss to Angel Reese and the Chicago Sky on Thursday night — it was the Sky’s first victory of the season.

The development will force her to miss at least two games.

The team didn’t provide any specific details on what led to the move, and it’s unclear what prompted Bueckers to go into protocol. She had 15 points, eight assists and five rebounds in Thursday’s game.

Bueckers won’t play in Dallas’ home game on Saturday against the Sky or in Seattle against the Storm on Tuesday night. She will be re-evaluated after that.

Dallas has lost five of their first six games to begin the season. Bueckers has averaged 14.7 points, a team-high 6.7 assists and 2.0 steals a game in her professional debut while playing 33.9 minutes per game, also the most on the team.

She ranks second in points and third in rebounds, as well.

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Bueckers had been slated to be the top pick of this year’s draft for some time amid a record-setting career at UConn, even as a torn ACL cost her the 2022-23 season.

She averaged 19.8 points per game for the Huskies, the most in school history. Bueckers also had the third-most career points in women’s March Madness history. She ended her run at UConn with a title back in April, having made the Final Four in each season.

It had actually been nine years since UConn’s previous title, their longest such stretch since winning their first in 1995. 

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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