The Portland Fire were eliminated from playoff contention by the Dallas Wings on Tuesday evening, losing 96-78. With their victory, the Wings punched their own ticket to the playoffs, locking in the last playoff spot that was still up for grabs. Paige Bueckers led all scorers with 22 for the Wings with teammate Jessica Shepard not far behind with 21. Balanced scoring prevailed for the Fire, unfortunately balanced on a rather low number. Bridget Carleton and Karlie Samuelson tied for team honors with 14
each, while Emily Engstler pulled down an impressive 15 boards.
The Wings came out absolutely flying, moving the ball crisply and with purpose. With the Fire starting 1-6 from the field, the Wings jumped out to an early 12-3 lead. Once shots started to fall for the Fire, things began to look up on the defensive end. The Fire were able to reduce the Wings’ advantage to as few as three in the second quarter. Dallas never stopped being the aggressors though. It wasn’t long until the lead ballooned again. The half ended 50-37 for Dallas, with the Wings shooting 61.8% from the field and 45.5% from three. By contrast, the Fire’s 33.3% and 22.7% from beyond the arc in the half was never going to cut it.
Just like after the opening tip, the second half started out all Dallas. With 5:39 to go in the third the Wings got the lead up to 24. No lack of fight from the Fire, but they could never muster a serious run for the rest of the game. The Wings clearly had their eyes on the prize, and they played at a level higher than the Fire have been able to achieve this season.
Here’s what stood out from the game.
Fast Breaks
One of the Wings’ best weapons is the their fast breaking prowess. Today was no exception. Preventing the fast break has been a weakness at times for the Fire. The Wings identified the opportunity and capitalized repeatedly. Dallas finished with 15 fast break points, but that figure might have been substantially higher had they not had the luxury of taking their feet off the gas for most of the second half. By contract, the Fire managed only seven points on the break.
Awak Kuier
Awak Kuier, a 6’6” small forward (lol), was just ruthless on defense, and pretty darn good on the offensive end as well. She tallied 5 blocks, 12 boards, 3 steals, and 12 points on 50% shooting from the field and 66.7% shooting from deep. The Fire had lot of matchup problems all over the court in this game, but Kuier stood out today as a player that Fire simply can’t compete with at this time.
Emily Engstler
The Fire were outrebounded 45-38, but that’s not due to Emily Engstler. She led both teams with 15 rebounds while contributing 12 points, a steal, 3 assists, and 2 blocks. Engstler has put together some impressive games lately, not always with incredible stat lines, but finding different ways to contribute to the team.
Missed Bunnies
In a game when the Fire needed to find success nearly every trip down the court to compete, it was really frustrating to see the numbers of layups and other shots at the rim bounce off. Some of that was Dallas’ length bothering the shooting, but some were just bad misses. This is an area the Fire need to get better at, whether that’s with bigger bodies or better concentration.
Paige Bueckers
It was clear that the Fire were trying to keep Paige Bueckers from dominating the game. For the most part they did that. When the defense was set, Bueckers didn’t get clean looks. Still, stars do what stars do, and she finished with 22 points on 53.3% shooting while going 3-7 beyond the arc. While Bueckers excelled at finding small gaps for midrange jumpers, she did much of her damage on kick-outs after offensive rebounds. It would have been a very different stat line for Bueckers if she hadn’t had those second-chance points.
Boxscore
Up Next
The Fire are bound for Georgia for a game with the Atlanta Dream on Friday, August 28 at 4:30 PM Pacific. After that they’ll head home for a Sunday matchup against the Golden State Valkyries before taking a break during the FIBA Women’s Basketball World Cup.
