Satou Sabally and the Wings Want to Rewrite the WNBA Playoffs Script

The power forward’s breakthrough season has helped give Dallas a confidence it hopes to use as a potential postseason spoiler.

“Superteam” has been the defining word of the 2023 WNBA season, with the new-look Liberty and reigning champion Aces dominating headlines. However, a few teams have managed to break through the hype, including the Wings. Finishing the regular season 22–18, Dallas enters the playoffs as the No. 4 seed and a potential Finals spoiler.

“I think we are the underdogs, we are definitely the underdogs,” says Wings star Satou Sabally. “People love to either bet on the underdog or not. I do.”

Averaging 18.6 points per game behind 43.5% shooting, Sabally exploded out of the blocks this year :: Jerome Miron/USA TODAY Sports

The 25-year-old has plenty of reason to be high on her team’s chances, with Dallas beating trophy favorites Las Vegas and then New York during a particularly promising stretch in July before nearly taking out a red-hot Liberty team again in early September.

“I believe in us, I trust in our team,” says Sabally, “and I think as long as we play hard every single game, we can beat any single team in this league as we’ve shown.”

Sabally herself has been a major factor in getting the Wings to this point, putting together the most comprehensive campaign of her four WNBA seasons. Averaging 18.6 points per game behind 43.5% shooting, Sabally exploded out of the blocks this year, eager to rebound after being sidelined by a series of injuries. She started in just six games during the 2022 season, and 14 in ’21 and ’20 (for contrast, she’s started in 38 games for the Wing this year).

“I just wanted to showcase who I am,” says Sabally, “because I feel like a lot of times over these three past years I wasn’t on the court enough that people could really understand who I really am, so I just wanted to present myself to the world in the right way.”

It’s been quite the re-introduction—and a rude awakening for her opponents. At 6' 4", Sabally possesses an intimidating physicality, but she is much more than her size. She is an exceptionally versatile and disruptive player, ranking eighth in Basketball Reference’s player efficiency rating. “Determined, fluid and athletic,” is how Sabally describes her style of play. While she is explosive offensively, dropping a career-high 40 points in a September game against the Fever, Sabally says she’s been working on developing her defensive prowess this season as well.

“I just really paid attention to the elements of the game and tried to do it 100%,” says Sabally. “I think that is really where my results speak for themselves, because I want to be good in every single aspect of the game.”

Something that will not show up on the stat sheet, but perhaps is just as important, is Sabally’s evolution into a leader. Having been with the team since 2020, Sabally is now one of the more experienced players on a young Wings squad.

“I do feel like I have to show up every single night, and I think that is expected and I have accepted that role,” says Sabally. “Even, you know, just stepping into a leadership role, accepting that I can’t be silent, even if I may have a game where I want to be a little bit more introverted and keep that energy to myself, you just can’t do that as a leader, and I think that is something that I’ve been trying to accept.”

She’s grown alongside guard Arike Ogunbowale, who has been with the Wings since 2019 as Dallas’s franchise player. Fifth in the league in points per game (21.2), Ogunbowale alongside Sabally packs a potent offensive one-two punch. “We can feed off each other’s experiences. I think when you have been with a player for a long time then it just molds into some combo that’s really hard to guard,” says Sabally. “When you get to kind of mature into something similar and you have the same mindset, then big things can happen because you fail together as well, and that brings you together even more.”

While Sabally and Ogunbowale provide an anchor of familiarity, there is also a lot of newness in Dallas, with the Wings picking up rookies like Maddy Siegrist in the draft, bringing on Natasha Howard from New York and welcoming a new coach in Latricia Trammell. Registering the first 20-win season of the franchise’s tenure in Dallas, and the first since 2008, Trammell has helped lift the Wings to new heights.

“I think LT [Latricia Trammell] did a great job of, first of all, bringing the right energy in,” says Sabally. “That was something that was definitely needed, just kind of breaking the ground and setting the tone for a good and positive culture.” In her first year with the team, Trammell has managed to bring together a lot of powerful pieces, including Sabally, Howard and Ogunbowale, honing the squad’s identity in a relatively short time. Fiery and competitive on the court, Dallas also has a gutsy and animated leader on the sideline in its coach.

Is it enough to make a deep postseason run? After years as the young up-and-comers of the league, the Wings could finally see everything come together this season. Consistency will be critical for Dallas; the team is still at times streakier than the squads above them in the league rankings. The key, according to Sabally, will be not adjusting to their opponents, but rather staying true to themselves. “We want to do our thing and not change our style of play or our core identity just for another team.”

After exiting the playoffs in the first round the last two years, the once-green squad now has the experience necessary to make some waves. “Now I think we are a lot better equipped for that than the previous years, because previously I didn’t even know how much players even … intensify in the playoffs, and that was definitely something that put us on our backs the first years,” says Sabally.

The No. 5 Dream awaits Dallas on Friday night, with the Wings eager to assert themselves as a presence beyond the opening round. Dallas enters the matchup with a compelling advantage, defeating Atlanta in all three of the teams’ regular-season meetings, including a 17-point win in the last game of the campaign.

The stars appear to be aligning for Dallas, with Sabally, Ogunbowale & Co. coming into their own, and hitting their shots. Trammell’s squad has a high ceiling; now it’s just a matter of the Wings playing to their potential at the right time. If Dallas can get over the first-round hump, it just might take it to the WNBA’s top teams, rewriting the expected postseason script.