Portland Fire Find Positives From Season Opening Loss
Read more postgame insights from Alex Sarama, Bridget Carleton, and Sarah Ashlee Barker
The WNBA season is long and arduous. After last night’s season-opening defeat at the hands of the Chicago Sky, Portland Fire head coach Alex Sarama stayed level headed in his postgame comments:
“The spirit of the locker room just now was really positive, and I think my synopsis to the group was just that run: how we started that second half, came back [from] 13 down, brought it to a tied game, and I think we saw glimpses tonight of what we have the potential to be. I think it’s just a case of how we can get to that more consistently as a group.”
While much has been debated about Sarama’s unique, philosophical coaching methods, the WNBA’s youngest head coach left Saturday’s home opener with a clear understand of what his team did right, what they did wrong, and how they can improve:
“We forced two eight-second violations in the space of a few minutes, so that was really encouraging. I do think - a similar theme to the preseason - in terms of the battle of the boards, it was like 14 to 3 offensive rebounds, so that’s something we’ve got to take a look at because I think we got more shots than them. The possession game was pretty even, but the rebounding piece is key. We really got to tidy that up, but no, lots of positives to take from tonight.”
After his offense eclipsed 80 points in the shootout loss, Sarama spotlighted something the Fire worked on during training camp:
“We call it dominoes, that’s the analogy for how we want to play on offense when we create the advantage. It’s like the ball - we saw some sequences - there was one right at the end, when we got the switch on the mismatch, and Luisa [Luisa Geiselsöder] was posting, and then we had a really nice domino sequence. I thought there were multiple examples of that tonight, where we’re really emphasizing things like making that extra pass and having good spacing which allow us to convert those advantages.”
For their parts, Sarama’s team echoed his positive takeaway from last night’s loss. Sarah Ashlee Barker beamed when asked about the offense finding it’s rhythm:
“Yeah, I think that it shows who we’re trying to be, and what we’re trying to be about. Share the ball, move the ball, and just play together - like Bridget [Bridget Carleton] said - I think that eight turnovers, that’s what we’re trying to do, we’re not trying to get more than 10 or anything like that, I think that’s a good number.”
Barker, Carleton, and Sarama’s Portland Fire square off Tuesday night against the New York Liberty, with first-tip scheduled for 7 PM PST at Moda Center.
—
Matt Bagley is a professional sports journalist 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.
PortlandSupporter.com features no paywalls or advertisements. Instead, we conclude every article with a brief spotlight on our favorite local charities.
The Autism Society of Oregon sponsors local support groups across Oregon which assist people of all ages on the autism spectrum, and their caregivers. To learn more about volunteering and/or donating to ASO, browse this link.