Portland Fire Preseason Game 2 Preview
Breaking down the good, the bad, and the unknown after Portland's first preseason game
Last Wednesday, the Portland Fire played their first ever preseason game. At times, it certainly looked like their first ever preseason game. However, there were some positive takeaways as well.
This piece spotlights the good, the bad, and the unknown for Portland heading into tomorrow’s preseason finale against Los Angeles.
The good: Alex Sarama’s offense works
All training camp, the topic of conversation has been Sarama’s Constraints Led-Approach. In theory, it presents a completely new way to coach basketball. Applied on the court, it looks extremely familiar to fans of European basketball: five out spacing on the perimeter, with penetrating guards flanked by sharpshooting forwards. While this team boasts several archetypal centers on the roster - best exemplified by draft night trade Serah Williams - Sarama’s system aims to score without a traditional post player inside.
While Portland failed to win Wednesday, their offense wasn’t to blame. In 25 minutes, starting point guard Carla Leite looked the part. She scored 12 points on 50% field goal shooting, with an arguably more impressive 50% three point shooting clip, and also dished out 5 assists. Her efforts were aided by second-year center Luisa Geiselsöder, who scored a team high 15 points in 21 minutes thanks to her 50% rate behind the arc. The German post’s perimeter sniping punished Seattle’s defense for packing the paint. When the Storm responded in kind - paying attention to ball movement across the arc - Portland’s guards and wings crashed to the rim on backdoor cuts.
Win or lose, this team will drop high scores consistently.
The bad: the Fire lack team speed
Alex Sarama’s offense is good enough to win shootouts. When his offense turns the basketball over - as it did fifteen times on Wednesday - the Fire will suffer blowouts.
Consistently, Seattle’s transition offense raced up the court, converting Portland’s turnovers into high-percentage looks. While the Storm deserve some credit (especially Seattle rookie wing Flau’jae Johnson, who played up to her 8th overall selection in last month’s draft) the root cause of Seattle’s success in transition was Portland’s inability to recover. During the offseason, the Fire prioritized three traits: three point shooting, passing, and length. This roster is loaded with those traits, but lacking in speed, and it showed in their inability to stop Seattle on the fast break.
Four starters - Nyadiew Puoch, Emily Engstler, and the aforementioned Leite & Geiselsöder - each racked up four fouls. That lineup proved it cannot play together without sharper passing on offense, and a burst of quickness on defense.
The unknown: the state of the roster
One potential explanation for that brutally slow lineup above is that Portland played with one hand figuratively tied behind their backs. Ten players saw minutes Wednesday, but six others were ruled out due to injuries, and several others were still en route to the Pacific Northwest. In particular, guards Sug Sutton and Maya Caldwell could have provided the crucial influx of speed needed to slow Seattle down in transition.
Assuming the Fire have a deeper roster available on Sunday, what will be their starting lineup? Is star wing Bridget Carleton - who arrived in town earlier this week - ready to play right away? Will quick combo guard Maya Caldwell get the nod over three and D specialist Sarah Ashlee Barker? I don’t know, but the Fire staff does, and I can’t wait to see what they try on Sunday.
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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.
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