The Dallas Wings (18-11) return home to College Park Center Sunday evening, where they will match up with the Connecticut Sun (7-22). This game follows the Wings’ second straight loss, both coming late in the game. Friday night’s loss against Washington displayed Dallas’ dire need for paint defense on the roster. Dallas needs to hone in on the final stretch of the season with the playoffs ahead. Their last two losses pushed them down to sixth in the standings, and a win against a 14-seed team would put them on the right track to gain some ground back in their playoff push.
Here are three focal points as the Wings look to get back in the win column after their two-game skid.
Connecticut traded Aneesah Morrow to [Toronto on Friday](https://www.espn.com/wnba/story/_/id/49498176/connecticut-trade-morrow-tempo-kliundikova-second-rounder), sending one of its best players to a new Tempo team. The Sun will be missing her rebounding and scoring abilities, but they are a team that is looking to position themselves for the lottery. While their organization looks at their future as they are slated to move to Houston next season, Leila Lacan and Aaliyah Edwards have the opportunity to step up in Morrow’s absence. With this being said, if Brittney Griner is sidelined for Sunday’s matchup, the Wings will have the opportunity to win the rebounding battle with Jessica Shepard’s glass-cleaning abilities. Shepard will be looking to turn the page after a performance-to-forget on Friday night that allowed Kiki Iriafen and Shakira Austin to carry the Mystics to their win over the Wings. Though a poor matchup for Shepard, she has had an All-WNBA season, and expect her to bounce back against a weak Connecticut team.
Arike Ogunbowale has been a steady factor on offense for Dallas in its recent stretch, where she has been reliably scoring around 20 points per game for the Wings. She has stepped up in nights that Bueckers has struggled, and in Friday night’s loss was a reason why the Wings were able to keep the game as close as they did, in a game where Azzi Fudd and Shepard struggled. Ogunbowale is showing she can play in a backseat role to Paige Bueckers, and her scoring abilities have made her a tough guard for opposing defenses. Her reliability as a 2A/2B option for the Wings over their July stretch has propelled them to another level offensively, and the Wings need to continue to rely on Bueckers to take them home. Bueckers’ leadership has allowed her to take the back seat on nights where she doesn’t have it going, like in the Dream loss, but the Wings need their leader to take over down the stretch.
The last two games for Dallas revealed major room for improvement in clutch situations. Though Dallas ranks near the top in clutch wins this season, they have allowed themselves to lose control in the clutch in their past two losses. Dallas allowed its defense and complacency to get the best of them in these two games and needs to slow things down and run the offense that has led them to their best start since moving to Dallas. While defense can’t change overnight, the Wings will need to rely on their top-tier offense as they look to push towards the playoffs. Sunday evening’s matchup will allow the Wings to put those two losses behind them against a lottery-bound Sun team.
You can watch the Wings look to turn things around at 6 p.m. CT on ESPN and Disney+.