Paige Bueckers and Wings best Caitlin Clark’s Fever in battle of WNBA No 1 picks | WNBA

Arike Ogunbowale scored 22 points, Paige Bueckers and Odyssey Sims tallied 20 each, and the Dallas Wings opened the new WNBA season with a 107-104 win over the Indiana Fever on Saturday in Indianapolis.

Sims, a crucial part of Indiana’s playoff run last season, led the Wings with 12 points after half-time and made one of two free throws in the final seconds of regulation. Caitlin Clark missed a 32-footer and Indiana fouled Bueckers on the rebound, but Bueckers missed both foul shots with 1.4 seconds left, giving the Fever one last chance.

With Clark smothered by defenders on the inbound play, Kelsey Mitchell uncorked a three to tie but it bounced off the rim.

“This game was rough. I’m not saying this was our best game, but we got the win,” Ogunbowale told the ESPN broadcast after the game.

Mitchell powered the Fever’s comeback with 11 of her game-high 30 points coming in the fourth. Aliyah Boston had 23 points and Clark tallied 20 points, seven assists and four rebounds while shooting 2 for 9 from deep.

Clark, who missed much of last season with groin and ankle injuries, made her first appearance in a WNBA game since 15 July 2025. She scored her 1,000th career point on a layup to close the third quarter.

The game featured the past four No 1 picks in the WNBA draft: Boston (2023), Clark (2024), Bueckers (2025) and Dallas guard Azzi Fudd (2026). It was the first season opener in WNBA history in which each team scored more than 100 points.

“I think it’s great for women’s basketball more than anything,” Clark said before the game, referring to the four No 1 picks. “And you know this might be the first time this has ever really happened in sports – having two No 1 picks on both sides. I think it speaks to the young talent in this league, how excited fans are about them and how excited they are about these two teams having us match up in the first game of the season.”

Neither team led by more than nine as two efficient offenses went tit-for-tat. The Wings shot 59.1% from the field and 12 for 23 from three-point range, while the Fever made 51.9% overall but just seven of 24 three-point attempts.

Clark left the bench in the waning minutes of the third period and returned wearing a black wrap around her lower back. She reentered the game and hit the final layup of the third to forge a tie at 80.

Clark was not part of the Fever’s first lineup for the fourth quarter but emerged from the locker room soon after, presumably after further treatment.

“I feel good, started off a little slow I think just the anxiety of the first game,” she said. “Felt like I was literally just a couple of buckets away from putting together a really, really good game and getting a win.”

Sims’s fast-break layup made it 97-90 with four minutes and change to play, but Mitchell clawed the Fever back with a three-pointer, one free throw and a three-point play to get it to 99-97 Dallas. Bueckers responded with a 20-footer.

Boston missed the second half of a pair of free throws but stole the rebound from Bueckers and laid it in to cut it to 101-100. Then the Fever forced their second five-second violation of the quarter, but came up empty on offense.

Alanna Smith scored for Dallas and Sims hit a shot over Clark to make it 105-100 with 36.4 seconds left.

After the Fever pushed in front early in the second quarter on consecutive three-pointers by Sophie Cunningham and Boston, Fudd responded with the first points of her career on a corner three, and Ogunbowale’s triple restored the tie game at 35. Fudd finished her WNBA debut with just those three points and one steal in 18 minutes off the bench.