The 2026 Portland Fire will miss the postseason.
Following a 96-78 loss to the Dallas Wings, who clinched the last remaining WNBA playoff spot with the win, head coach Alex Sarama kept his head held high.
“It’s going to seem crazy after a 20 point or whatever it was blowout loss, but I feel better about this one than the last two [losses], Washington and Toronto. I felt players did a good job of following the game plan, in terms of we knew this would be against their three bigs, you can’t challenge them at the rim, [the gameplan] has to be beating them beyond the three-point line with pace. We got 36 threes up, and 32 of them were catch and shoot threes, and a lot of them were wide open, and we shot 25% from three. As a high volume kind of three point shooting team, shoot variance is real, and they shot 45% from three, we shot 25%. [It] would have been an entirely different game if we’re even close to just our season average. So that’s kind of what I saw.”
Dallas stormed ahead 27-18 in the opening quarter, thanks to a revelatory performance from second-year guard Paige Bueckers. Fulfilling every ounce of promise as a former first overall pick, the UConn star stole passes, jumpstarted Wings’ transition attacks, and ran the show in their halfcourt offense.
By halftime, she had 8 points, and Dallas led by 13. After three quarters, Bueckers had doubled her tally, and the Wings’ advantage expanded to 19.
On the other end, the shooting woes Sarama cited proved to be Portland’s downfall. The Fire shot just 27/72 from the field and 10/36 beyond the arc. While their numbers improved in the fourth quarter, leading the Rose City’s expansion team to outscore their opposition 26-25 in the final frame, the game was already decided.
The loss moves Portland to 15-23 on the season, solidly in 9th place, while Dallas celebrated a playoff berth with their win.
The Fire return to action Friday with a matchup against the Atlanta Dream. Tip-off is scheduled for 4:30 PM PST.