Portland Fire Drop Third Straight Game, Lose to Los Angeles 89-72
Dearica Hamby and Nneka Ogwumike dominated. Now, the Fire are below .500. Learn more in this piece.
Amidst the WNBA’s 30th season, today the Portland Fire made their first trip to Los Angeles, falling to the Sparks 89-72.
Through one quarter, the Fire stayed close thanks to crisp cuts from point guard Carla Leite, precision strikes from Sarah Ashlee Barker & Frieda Bühner, and plenty of free throws. Still, Los Angeles led 24-21, with transition defense once again proving difficult for the Rose City’s expansion team.
On the game’s opening possession - straight off opening the tip - Sparks’ star Nneka Ogwumike received an outlet pass from Erica Wheeler, and raced to the basket.
The final field goal of the first quarter occurred on another transition play, with Rae Burrell rebounding a Karlie Samuelson clang off the iron, and taking the orange coast to coast. When the period ended, Los Angeles led 24-21.
Trailing by five with ninety seconds burned in the second quarter, Portland center Megan Gustafson rallied her squad with an impressive physical display: after Emily Engstler’s three point effort caromed off the rim, the Spain international snared the rebound, lept up over two Sparks defenders while aiming a putback, and fell onto the floor in a heap of pain. Tough as nails, the eight year WNBA vet rose right back up, and stepped onto the free throw line.
Trailing by 3 after Gustafson’s play, the Fire inched closer on a beautiful give-and-go between Barker and Bühner with 5:13 to go. The next Los Angeles possession fell errantly into Barker’s grasps, who ignited the Fire in transition. First, she passed to Gustafson, who found backup point guard Teja Oblak at midcourt, who bounced one to Bühner. After the German rookie scored a layup, Portland held their first lead of the game.
Portland carried that lead into halftime, 43-41. Gustafson led Portland with 9 points, while Barker scored 7 and Leite scored 6.
Going into halftime, Portland felt hopeful. Those hopes dashed early in the second half, as explained postgame by head coach Alex Sarama.
“I thought our offense was very purposeful, intentional - the shot quality was really good - defensively we were very solid, crashing, we had like nine offensive rebounds at the half, two turnovers, and then it couldn’t be more of a reverse for how we started that third quarter. I felt it was our responses, when we came out with those early turnovers. We had three in the first three minutes, and a ton in that second half. I mean, it was 12, 13 turnovers in the second half.”
With 6:00 remaining in the third, the Sparks cashed in a Leite turnover, as Kelsey Plum received a gift from Ogwumike. Four minutes into the second half, the Fire trailed by seven. Less than a minute later, the four-time WNBA all-star Plum added to her tally with a twenty-six foot trey, raising Portland’s deficit to double digits.
At the three minute mark, German center Luisa Geiselsöder earned a traveling call - another turnover - and Los Angeles made Portland pay with a Burrell three pointer, moving ahead 60-49. The end of the period saw former Golden State Valkyries guard Kate Martin block Gustafson at the buzzer, and the Sparks led by nine.
Turnovers reared their head once again in the fourth quarter, exemplified by a play with 7:27 on the clock. Portland’s star point guard Leite raced through the teeth of a Los Angeles 1-2-2 zone, but Plum punched the ball free, then launched a three-on-one fast break across the floor, feeding Dearica Hamby off the bounce. Following Hamby’s layup, the Sparks led 71-57.
From there, the game fell out of reach, inspiring strong words from Portland head coach Alex Sarama after the loss.
“We speak a lot about our connectedness and togetherness as a group, and I feel like there were stretches in that half where we were palms up - we were reacting to the refs, to each other, in a way which we don’t believe is conducive at the Fire, and we talk a lot about that with our culture and everything. So I think that kind of just led to that spiral which we saw in the third.”
Sarama went on to challenge his team:
“We’ve got an off day tomorrow. We got two - we’re going to have two really good practice days - and then we’re going to go and show what we’re all about in this next game against Las Vegas.”
When the game ended, Megan Gustafson finished with 16 points and 11 rebounds, while Dearica Hamby led Los Angeles with 22 points, followed closely by Nneka Ogwumike’s 20 points and Kelsey Plum’s 16.
The loss marks Portland’s third consecutive defeat, and drops their record to 6-7 this season. The Fire will next play the Las Vegas Aces on Thursday night, with tip-off teed up at 7 PM PST from Moda Center.
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Matt Bagley is a professional sportswriter and broadcaster with a passion for women’s sports. Outside of work, he cherishes quality time with his birth family, his chosen family, and one very pesky house panther.
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