DHJ Quick Take: Wings Break Down Film, Lock In on Defensive Solutions
- The Spain P&R Litmus Test: In an eye-opening film session, the Wings had their first real study of the “Spain pick-and-roll”—a complex screening action Minnesota used to shred the Dallas defense late. Paige Bueckers noted that learning through failure was useful, and the team now has the counter-tactics in its back pocket.
- Ogunbowale Silences the Noise: Arike Ogunbowale directly dismissed early media panic and “think pieces” over the team’s 1-2 start. Reminding critics that it’s a brand-new roster and coaching staff just three games into the year, she promised that collective clarity gained from the film will show on the court.
- Standardizing the Help Rotations: Head coach Jose Fernandez spent the bulk of Saturday’s extended on-court work drilling very specific pick-and-roll coverage rules. The focus was on “standardizing” where tags and low-man backside rotations come from based on whether corners are filled or isolated.
- Fighting Second-Half Stagnation: Fernandez took personal ownership of the team’s offensive drop-off against the Lynx (16 assists in the first half, just 6 in the second half). Moving forward, the goal is finding a strict balance between structured late-game sets and granting playmaking freedom to stars like Bueckers.
ARLINGTON, Texas — The Dallas Wings turned Saturday’s practice into a problem-solving session, pairing an extended film review with on-court drilling of their pick-and-roll coverage as they searched for the answers behind a 1-2 start.
Head coach Jose Fernandez called the practice spirited and said the team responded with ownership two days after a 90-86 home loss to the Minnesota Lynx, the Wings’ second straight defeat. Dallas hosts the Washington Mystics on Monday in the finale of a three-game homestand.
Paige Bueckers said the loss exposed miscommunications rather than anything fundamental, and that the film reinforced her belief the problems are correctable.
“I think most, if not all, of our mistakes and miscommunications are fixable,” Bueckers said. “We saw that in film. We felt that during the game, that it’s just stuff that we can clean up, and we feel like we’re being ourselves. So to be able to have that realization and then have those talks about what we need to do to improve, I feel like we want to continue to get better. We watched the film, we digested it, and we’re going to keep moving forward and get better from day to day.”
Dallas Wings Respond To Jose Fernandez’s Challenge
Fernandez, who challenged the group after Thursday’s defeat, said the players answered with the preparation, communication and film work he wanted to see following a loss and an off day.
“We had a very spirited practice today,” Fernandez said. “It was really, really good. I liked the way that we came in prepared and how we communicated. Film session was excellent as well. So it’s great to come back, especially after a loss and an off day, to come in as energetic and prepared as they were.”
Fernandez said the volume of installation and scouting on a compressed schedule is simply part of the job, and that what stood out to him was the players’ accountability.
“It’s a lot, but it’s part of it,” Fernandez said. “What I liked is the ownership that they took and how they came in with a great mindset to get ready for our next one.”
Arike Ogunbowale waved off the think pieces around a 1-2 start, calling it a narrow loss for a team three games into life with a new coach and roster, with the defensive end the clearest place to grow.
“It’s just a little bit of adversity, like you said,” Ogunbowale said. “It’s literally only game three, so I know there’s a lot of think pieces and this, that and the third. New team, new coach, game three, and we only lost by a small margin, so we just have to keep getting better. There’s definitely a lot to learn from those losses, especially on the defensive end, just helping each other out more. But we’re going to be okay. Like I said, only game three. Get better. This practice was great. Add another practice on Sunday and get ready for Monday.”
Dallas Drills Its Pick-and-Roll Coverage
The bulk of the on-court work centered on pick-and-roll defense, the area Fernandez and his players identified as the clearest reason the Lynx erased a double-digit deficit. Fernandez said the Wings spent a long session drilling their tags and rotations against the range of alignments an offense can present.
“We just need to talk about where our tags are going to come from and our rotations,” Fernandez said. “With a filled corner, with an isolated corner, with a step-up with three guys on one side of the floor. We drilled that a lot today before you guys came in. We’ve been here a long time today.”
Communication was the throughline. Fernandez said the coverage holds together only when the defender stationed furthest from the ball reads his help responsibility in time.
“You gotta talk early,” Fernandez said, “but we gotta react, especially whoever’s guarding the furthest guy away from the basket to help outside the lane.”
Ogunbowale said the Lynx loss showed a group still going back and forth on its assignments, and that Saturday’s goal was a standardized response a new roster can lean on while it learns one another.
“I think communication,” Ogunbowale said. “I think we were going back and forth a little bit on the defensive end about certain things. So today, it’s a standard thing no matter what it is. We’re going to do the same thing. I think that clarity is important. But new team, new group. Teams who’ve been playing with each other forever know, ‘All right, this man’s rolling, this man.’ I think we’re still learning each other. But the conversation that we had, watching the whole film and then going through it in practice, I think we have more clarity of who’s going, who’s helping, who’s doing this. So I think we’ll be better for sure.”
Bueckers traced the loss to specific, fixable breakdowns: a low man slow to rotate into help side, and a failure to box out that handed Minnesota second chances.
“I think being on the same page in our pick-and-roll coverage,” Bueckers said. “A lot of times it’s hard to guard pick-and-rolls, especially with a great playmaker like Olivia Miles, who can see the floor. But to be on a string, we didn’t have our low man in help side in rotation quick enough. So those are things that we looked at. Then there was just 50/50 balls, offensive rebounds that Natasha Howard got that were in crucial moments. So it’s little things like that, boxing out, making sure we’re not turning and looking at the rim, and then pick-and-roll defense, us being in low man, us being in help side, and not so hooked up to our players.”
Dallas Wings Get Their First Look At The Spain Pick-and-Roll
Saturday’s film gave the Wings their first real study of the Spain pick-and-roll, an action Minnesota used to stress the Dallas defense. Bueckers said the team learned it the hard way and now has an answer for it.
“That was our first time ever seeing the Spain coverage here,” Bueckers said. “So to be able to have that now in our back pocket to know how to defend it, a lot of times you learn through repetition and you learn through failure. So to have that now under our belt, I think we’ll be a lot better in that regard.”
Ogunbowale went further, calling the loss useful. She said the variety of looks Minnesota threw at the Wings gave the team a film library to draw on across the 41 games still to play.
“I don’t think we really went over it before,” Ogunbowale said. “So I love that this game happened because they gave us a lot of different looks that we can learn from in this one game. Like I said, it’s only game three. We have, what’s my math, we’ve got 41 left. So we take from what we learned this game and just get better. Glad we saw Spain action. Glad we saw high ball screens, having to trap, having to do this. This film can help for the rest of the season, so I’m happy about that. We just have to learn from our mistakes.”
Ball Movement Returns To Focus
Dallas recorded 16 assists in the first half against Minnesota and 6 after the break. Fernandez said the film confirmed what the analytics showed, that the off-ball movement thins out as games wear on, and he put part of the burden on himself to put players in better spots.
“I think when you look at the first, second, third and fourth quarter, you definitely want to get your best players the basketball down the stretch, but sometimes things get stagnant in player movement away from the ball,” Fernandez said. “So we looked at a lot of those things because everybody looks at the analytics and the numbers. First, second, third, fourth quarter, your assists go down considerably. But it was good to see, and we talked about it, and some of the things that I have to do a much better job of is putting them in those situations as well.”
Fernandez said the fix is not simply more structure. With a creator like Bueckers, he wants the offense to live between called actions and freedom.
“Just have to have a good balance between freedom and running something every time down the floor,” Fernandez said, “especially when you have someone like her.”
Bueckers said the players have their own part. She pointed to swinging the ball across the floor and, at times, passing up an early shot to work deeper into the clock.
“Just changing sides of the floor, making the defense work, sometimes passing up the first available shot to get deeper in the shot clock,” Bueckers said. “But too, we’re trying to remain aggressive, get out in transition, and we’re taking good shots for the most part. But then obviously there’s some tough ones that we feel like we can get the ball moving a little bit from side to side more. And just trusting that the ball will come back to you, the ball will find you if you play the right way.”
Ogunbowale said she felt the difference personally. She took too many difficult shots against the Lynx, she said, after flowing easily in the season opener at Indiana, and on a roster this deep she believes no one should have to force anything.
“I think that’s why we have this deep, deep bench, that we don’t really have to have hard shots,” Ogunbowale said. “Personally, I feel like I had a lot of hard shots last game and, like the Indiana game, I was just able to flow. If somebody kicks it to me, knock it down. So definitely just getting back to moving it side to side. I feel like it was kind of sticking a little bit, but as a unit, we weren’t moving it. But in the first half, we had a lot of different things where we were moving it and we were always making the extra pass. So if we stay like that, I think we’ll be good. I don’t think anybody has to take hard shots, and I think that’s the beauty of having this roster, especially for me, not having to take hard shots, having great wings, great posts. We can just move it and always find the great shots. So I think if we stick to that, then we’ll be okay.”
Wings Address Late-Game Execution
Fernandez said the late-game problems come down to execution, and to one habit in particular, turning the ball over right after earning a stop. He also valued the rare practice day itself.
“I just think the execution and when we get stops, you just can’t turn it over,” Fernandez said. “Today was just about us. I think with the games coming up, you lose a little bit of yourself just getting ready for the next game and the next game. So the more opportunities that we have to practice like this, like we had today, to address not only the good things that we’re doing, but the things we need to improve on, the better.”
Minnesota held an 18-9 edge in second-chance points. Ogunbowale said the breakdowns were a help-defense problem, with players too locked onto their own assignments to wall up for a beaten teammate.
“Just better team defense,” Ogunbowale said. “I feel like we were getting beat and we weren’t helping each other out. So just team defense, walling up, helping the helper. Obviously guarding your man, but the ball scores. So if your man’s far from the basket, you have to help your other teammate. So just a lot more help defense.”
Bueckers said the team’s preferred pace, pushing in transition and attacking before a defense is set, becomes harder to sustain late, when the game slows. She said the Wings have to have half-court sets and go-to plays ready for the fourth quarter.
“All teams really don’t want to play in the half court as much as possible,” Bueckers said. “It’s much harder to score against a set defense. So to be able to get out, play in the full court, play in high pick-and-rolls, attack when the defense isn’t set and they’re in rotation and there’s mismatches on the floor. But then too, once the fourth quarter comes around, it’s a lot harder to score in transition. We’ll make sure our half-court execution and our sets are in line, and we have some go-to plays to go to at the end of the game. So yeah, it’s just a mix and a battle to find the even balance of both of those.”
All three Wings games have been decided late. Bueckers said the lesson is the value of a stop when points are scarce, and that the team wants to be sharper in the third quarter so leads do not slip away.
“I think how important getting stops is,” Bueckers said. “Honestly, if both teams aren’t scoring, that’s way better than just getting scored on. It’s hard to score in the fourth quarter. It’s hard to score in crunch time. Defenses are so locked in to getting stops. So how can we execute better? How can we get to what sets we want to run better and find those sets that we want to go to late in games? And also while remaining balanced and poised, not losing our composure. But also too, we feel like there’s things throughout an entire 40-minute game that can help us pull away late in fourth quarters. I know we’ve been up to start the fourth, so to be more disciplined out of our third quarters and our fourth quarters to help us gain momentum and the lead.”
Veteran Leadership Steadies A Young Group
Fernandez said veterans such as Alysha Clark, who was vocal from the bench against the Lynx, matter in places that never show up in a box score.
“A lot,” Fernandez said. “Very important in the film room, the locker room and in practice as well.”
Bueckers credited the team’s veterans, some of whom have lived through 0-10 and 0-5 starts, for keeping the locker room steady while the outside noise builds.
“Veteran leadership,” Bueckers said. “People who have been through this before. People who have started 0-10, 0-5. A 1-2 start is not the end of the world. Everybody’s in panic mode, but we’re remaining stable and we’re remaining constant in who we want to be every single day. Just to not let it waver us, but let it build us and make us better. There’s a lot of things we want to get better at and clean up on, but we want to do it with the right intention. So just staying together, having tough conversations, talking about it, talking through it, and watching the film, holding ourselves accountable, looking ourselves in the mirror, and then just wanting to be better every single day.”
Dallas Wings Shift Attention To Washington Mystics
The session stayed internal. Fernandez, Bueckers, and Ogunbowale all said the Wings had not yet turned to the scouting report for Washington, with that work set to begin Sunday.
The Mystics arrive at 2-1 after a 104-102 overtime win at the Indiana Fever, in which Sonia Citron scored 30 points and Kiki Iriafen posted 25 points and 13 rebounds. Fernandez explained how the close margins trace back to ordinary possessions early in games, not only the final minutes, and that Washington’s frontcourt, with Iriafen and Shakira Austin, will make team rebounding essential.
“You look at it and you’re sitting at 1-2 in two winnable games and everything’s magnified at the end,” Fernandez said. “But if we do things in possession seven or 12, that’s what we talked about. A lot of times we got stops and then we’d come down and turn it over or took a shot without rebound coverage. So what we want to see, our bigs are definitely going to get tested inside. We have to rebound together, and that’s going to be big with Shakira and Kiki. Sonia’s super too. But tomorrow we’ll start talking about Washington.”
Bueckers said she had watched a couple of Washington’s games and came away impressed by the Mystics’ pace and unselfishness, but that the Wings’ attention this early is on their own identity.
“Honestly, we were so focused on ourselves today, we haven’t really gotten to the scout yet,” Bueckers said. “But I watched a couple of their games. They play really fast. They play really selfless. They have really good off-ball movement. Obviously, they have great frontcourt play, great backcourt play. So we’re just really focused on who we are right now and trying to find that identity.”
Up Next
The Wings close their three-game homestand Monday against the Mystics at College Park Center. Tip-off is set for 7 p.m. CT on Peacock.
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