Dallas Wings star Paige Bueckers and Washington Mystics guard Sonia Citron matched up against each other on Monday. In the 92-69 win, Bueckers had 18 points on 7-12 shooting, along with three rebounds and seven assists. On the other hand, Citron had just seven points on 3-6 shooting, along with a rebound and an assist.
In the first half of the game, both basically canceled each other out. However, the Wings star improved herself in the second half. Meanwhile, Citron, who erupted for a career-high 30 points in an overtime win over the Indiana Fever, failed to replicate her recent form.
On Tuesday, WNBA journalist Cindy Brunson lauded the former UConn Huskies star on a number of things that give her an edge over Citron.
“Paige is so good at listening to the coaching staff and making the correct adjustment and she only has to be told once, right,” Brunson said. “As soon as somebody draws it up or points it out she gets the memo and executes and then all she has to do is see the ball go through the hoop off of the play that was prescribed and baby she’ll take that medicine the rest of the night like she is so good at repeating the positive action and sometimes it’s just the littlest things, the most simple objective that can be achieved, that can lead to success in this game.
“Paige, this is why everybody loves her. This is why GMs said in surveys that they want to build around her, that she’s got a ton of upside, all of the things. It’s because she is so efficient and executes the game plan.”
Citron and Bueckers were part of the same draft class last year. After winning the national championship with UConn, Bueckers was drafted first overall by the Wings. Meanwhile, Citron went third overall to the Mystics. After battling several times on the college floor, their rivalry was renewed on the WNBA court this season.
Paige Bueckers’ Subtle Remark After Head Coach’s “Selfishness” Comments
After losing two games on the bounce, Wings head coach Jose Fernandez went on a tirade, calling out the “selfishness” within the team. Fernandez said that, beyond individual stats, the Wings players must adopt a mentality of thinking about the team first.
“I mean, it’s real talk and it’s accountability. That’s what I told them,” Fernandez said on Thursday night. “There’s selfishness in this locker room. There is. You gotta look in the mirror and be accountable on how you play. And don’t get upset if you think you should’ve played more or you didn’t play enough or you didn’t get the shots you think you should’ve gotten. Really good teams, they don’t give a s— about that. You know what they give a s— about, they give a s— about winning, ‘cause that’s what matters.”
The comments seem to have landed deep among the Wings players, especially Bueckers, who came up with a match-winning performance to start the week. After the game, she seemingly took a shot at her head coach’s remarks, saying:
“We played selfless tonight,” Bueckers said. “… Really good two days of practice leading up to this game where we were talking, communicating. We had a rough film session where we held each other accountable and talked about what we needed to improve on.”
It wasn’t a coincidence that Bueckers used the same word her head coach used a couple of nights ago.
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