Minnesota
Paige Bueckers endures a loss to the Lynx in her first WNBA game
She looked like she belonged on the floor, comfortable in her role, though she definitely noticed the step up in the speed of the game, the shorter nature of the shot clock. The pace of everything. “And then there’s a level of physicality, of course,” she said. “That’s a level up from college. The size at that [guard] position is a little bit different.”
She flashed some speed early, getting Lynx guard Karlie Samuelson on her heals before darting to the hoop. But the shot didn’t fall, something Bueckers was still thinking about long after the game.
“I should have made the first one,” she said.
She had four points, two boards and a block in the first quarter. She had only two turnovers in 30 minutes.
There was a moment, coming out of a timeout, when she and Napheesa Collier, both former UConn players and once teammates on a Team USA 3×3 team, talked on the court. Collier said she was just congratulating Bueckers on having arrived in the league. Bueckers called it an old, friendly UConn chat.