Key Points
Bullet point summary by AI
- The WNBA All-Star Game approaches with several key players facing injury concerns that could reshape the rosters.
- Paige Bueckers sat out recently due to soreness while Angel Reese exited a game with a concerning knee injury and no updates have emerged.
- The league now prepares for potential replacements that could alter the balance of the midseason showcase.
The WNBA All-Star Game is almost here, with just one more day of games on Wednesday before the break begins. While we have the initial rosters for the game, there are some injury situations across the league that might still shake things up.
One player who will need to be replaced is obvious, as Kelsey Plum has been sidelined for a while now and will almost certainly not play. However, there are two more recent injury situations worth monitoring as well.
Paige Bueckers injury update
On Sunday, Dallas Wings star Paige Bueckers and Los Angeles Sparks star Nneka Ogwumike collided in a game between their teams, with Bueckers exiting the game with an undisclosed injury. Frankly, it looked bad, and in the moment, it was fair to wonder if this would be a lingering issue that impacted Bueckers.
Bueckers did go on to miss the team's loss to the New York Liberty on Monday, but there's good news there: the team announced she didn't suffer a concussion and that she was sitting out that game because of soreness.
That's a pretty good sign that Bueckers is okay. We'll know more if she suits up for the team's final pre-All-Star game on Wednesday night, but at this point, signs suggest that Bueckers is fine, and I'd be mildly surprised if this ends up costing her a chance to compete in the All-Star Game.
Angel Reese injury update
The Angel Reese situation is a lot more fluid, as Reese left Sunday's win over the Chicago Sky with a knee injury. As I write this, it's Tuesday, and there have not been any updates about Reese's availability going forward.
Is that a good thing or a bad thing? We'll probably just have to wait and see here, and that wait might take a bit, as the Dream are one of the teams that don't play again before the All-Star break, which means we aren't getting an Atlanta Dream injury report to give us clarity on the situation.
For this one, I'd definitely lean more in the "Reese will need to be replaced" direction. Bueckers was out Monday for general soreness on the second day of a back-to-back; Reese is dealing with a knee issue, which has a much higher chance of being something serious.
Potential WNBA All-Star replacements
What forward could replace Reese? The most obvious option here is Alyssa Thomas from the Phoenix Mercury.
Thomas isn't having her best season, but she still leads the league in assists per game. She's not a walking triple-double — she's yet to record one in 2026 — and the Mercury are one of the league's biggest disappointments, but Thomas has still played well enough that I assumed she would have made the All-Star roster straight up. She's the clear right choice if Reese needs to be replaced.
As for Bueckers, if she's held out of this weekend's game, the choice for replacing her will be interesting, especially since we assume that Plum needs to be replaced as well, giving us two guards who'd need to be swapped out.
The two most likely replacements? I'd argue for Valkyries guard Veronica Burton and Tempo guard Brittney Sykes, though one could also make an argument for Chelsea Gray or even Azzi Fudd. Burton and Sykes are good, non-controversial options, though, and I'd likely say Burton is the guaranteed Plum replacement while Sykes is waiting to see if Bueckers is cleared to play.
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