Paige Bueckers' absurd assist total overcomes Odyssey Sims' nasty injury for Dallas Wings

Paige Bueckers’ absurd assist total overcomes Odyssey Sims’ nasty injury for Dallas Wings originally appeared on The Sporting News.
Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.

Paige Bueckers had no choice but to run the show all Friday night long for the Dallas Wings.

After an excruciating early injury to the Wings’ other main point guard Odyssey Sims, Bueckers took matters into her own hands.

As far as Paige was concerned, it was a good thing statistically. She finished with a career-high 14 assists to go with 18 points on 7-for-14 shooting.

Bueckers’ distribution helped Dallas have the entire starting five finish in double figures, including 30 points for Arike Ogunbowale in a 104-96 win over the Los Angeles Sparks.

The Bueckers workload was even greater than normal, though, because Sims got hurt.

The long-time lefty guard went down during the first half and clearly was in immense pain.

It’s heartbreaking to watch the seasons as the Wings try to help Sims stand up:

Odyssey Sims went down with an apparent leg injury before being helped into a wheelchair to leave the court. pic.twitter.com/8V0XBruhz2

— Grant Afseth (@GrantAfseth) June 6, 2026

In the meantime, Bueckers will have to try to do quite a bit. She’ll have the ball in her hands more often than when Sims was on the floor. 

Bueckers was already trending toward clear and obvious team leader status.

Now, that will be accelerated. For the Wings to steady the ship after what looked like a nasty injury to Sims, Bueckers will have to take the full reins of the offense.

She appears to be capable. It’ll be fun to see how Paige does with this newfound responsibility.

MORE: Caitlin Clark, Angel Reese ‘rivalry’ proves to be nothing of the sort