The Portland Fire came up short in a physical game against the Los Angeles Sparks, 106-101. Dearica Hamby led led the way for the Sparks with 23. For the Fire, Bridget Carleton had a double-double with 24 and 11 rebounds, while Carla Leite had eight assists.
The Sparks came out absolutely flying, shooting 80% from the field and going 2-2 from deep in early going. Not so much for the Fire, who were finding it hard going on the offensive end early. What do you do when you find yourself under the gun early? Dial up the defense, and that’s exactly what the Fire did. The Fire forced three quick turnovers, and aggressive penetration on the other end fueled a 16-0 run, turning an early seven point deficit into a six point lead. The intensity of the game, already high, only ramped up from there. The Fire were taking physical punishment, with Emily Engstler in particular sporting an ugly swelling under her right eye after catching an elbow, but they were also collecting the whistles. Three different collisions ended with Fire players getting the worst of it, but in each case it was the Fire player that was called for a foul. Things got a bit sloppier in the second quarter as the Fire started to commit more turnovers, but they maintained their lead with the help of offensive boards, fastbreaks, and second chance points. 49-43 Fire at the half.
The third quarter was threatening to turn into the Dearica Hamby show. She had eight points in a two and a half minute stretch, kicking off a an LA run that would see the Sparks get a three point lead. The Sparks were hot from all over the court, while the Fire had to work for every point. A rear guard action at the end of the third quarter allowed the Fire to tie it up, 72-72.
The fourth quarter was fast, intense, and back-and-forth. It seemed like every three pointer had an answer from the other team. Every penetrating layup answer by another on the other side of the court. (6) (6:03) different times the trailing team would tie it up. Suddenly, it got really difficult for the Fire. Three turnovers in a row from Portland resulted in the Sparks building a four point lead. The Fire fought back to take a one point lead with 1:32 to go, but the Sparks responded, opening up another four point lead with 30 seconds left. A pair of Leite free throws cut the lead to two, setting up the free throw game. LA made theirs, but a quick off-balance made three from Carleton cut it to one. No fourth quarter magic for Portland though, the Sparks would seal the game from the free throw line after a late Portland turnover.
Here’s what else we noticed.
The first half shot chart was nearly immaculate for Portland. Attempts were either behind the three point line or in the paint. It’s not a complete coincidence that the Fire won the first half. Portland wasn’t shooting particularly well, but they squeezed out enough value from their shot selection to take the lead. The shot chart started to get a lot ickier in the third quarter, both because of the increasing number of mid-range attempts, but especially because of the number of mid-range misses. Credit the Sparks for their better defending, forcing the Fire to take more second-choice shots.
The Fire just couldn’t match up with LA’s best bigs. Hamby scored 23 points, and Ogwumike added 22, while both added 10 boards each. Megan DiLeo fought hard for the Fire, but at key moments in the game the Sparks bigs were getting what they needed to win the game. Points in the paint finished 46-36, a key factor in the Sparks victory.
Portland did a lot right in this game, but they couldn’t stop Los Angeles from hitting threes. They finished shooting 55.2% from deep and the Fire just couldn’t keep up. Portland was none too shabby themselves at 40.5%, but the higher percentage for the Sparks along with one more attempt was the difference in the game.
At least four different times a Fire player took a very hard knock while also getting called for a foul. In a vacuum, each call that went against Portland wasn’t completely insane, rather more in the debatable category. It’s unfortunate though that none of them went the Fire’s way. Perhaps the most frustrating was the last instance, when DiLeo actually got the initial whistle for getting hit in the face with a flailing arm. The refs went to look to see if it should be upgraded to a flagrant, but the Sparks challenged the call completely. The ruling after review was that DiLeo held the arm before getting whacked in the face, turning an offensive foul against the Sparks into a foul on DiLeo. Perhaps it was technically a defensible outcome, but for the fourth time in the game a Fire player took a shot and got a foul call for their trouble.
Fellow expansion team Toronto Tempo are in town in Thursday to take on the Fire at 7:00 PM PDT on Thursday, August 6.