The Portland Fire soundly defeated the Indiana Fever by the score of 100-84 on Saturday evening. Megan Gustafson led all scorers with 22. while Carla Leite had 12 assists and 18 points and Emily Engstler pulled down 10 rebounds. It was a tremendous team performance with impressive numbers up and down the roster. Aliyah Boston had scoring honors for the Fever with 18. Caitlin Clark was basically a non-entity with just six points.
The Fever jumped all over the Fire after the opening tip, taking advantage
of superior rebounding and physical play under the basket. In less than three minutes Indiana was up 8-2, forcing an early Portland timeout. How would the Fire respond? Rather well, actually. They would go on a 19-2 run of their own by attacking Caitlin Clark, activating their pesky defense, hitting a few threes, drawing fouls, and letting the home fans get into the game. Even when the Fever snapped out of it and started to make a few plays again, Portland kept the momentum going, taking a 29-15 lead into the second quarter.
But wait, there’s more. The Fire improbably kept rolling, getting the lead up to 21 in the second quarter before Indiana was able to stop the bleeding. The Fever got the margin down to 13 points at halftime, but it was an incredibly impressive half for Portland. Holding Clark to five points, the Fever as a whole to 37, and allowing just one made three is just really good stuff.
Portland’s strong play continued in the second half, keeping up the pressure and slowly building on their advantage. In the last few minutes of the third quarter the Fire dropped the hammer, driving the lead up to 25 on a Leite and-one and deep balls from Engstler and Sarah Ashlee Barker.
The fourth quarter was largely a formality, with Indiana huffing and puffing, chipping away a bit but never coming close to threating Portland in any meaningful way.
Rebounds
The Fire are statistically the worst rebounding team in the WNBA at 27.3 per game. Not this evening. They went toe-to-toe with the Fever most of the game, even if that stats don’t completely support that statement. The Fever finished with a 39-34 edge, but the Fire were fighting for every ball off the rim. Most impressive is how Portland had Indiana doubled up on offensive rebounds for most of the game. The final tally finished 9-8 in Indiana’s favor, largely on late boards that didn’t determine the outcome of the game. Gusty stuff under the glass.
Points in the Paint
Portland dominated here, crushing the Fever 52-34. That’s just so impressive for a team that at times has previously appeared to be outmatched in the lane.
No Backing Down
After Engstler reached in on Sophie Cunningham midway through the fourth period, Cunningham flailed her arm out, catching Engstler on the side of the head. Engstler immediately let Cunningham know in no uncertain terms that it wasn’t going to fly. The eventual result was off-setting technicals, but you love to see Engstler not taking anything from anyone. It’s another sign that this team won’t be anyone’s doormat.
Scoring Contributions From All Over
Six different players scored in double figures for the Fire. Balanced scoring is another sign of continued improvement. Earlier in the season the Fire needed exceptional individual performances to get over the finish line. Guards, forwards and a center all got in on the scoring tonight.
Excellent Free-throw Shooting
The team shot an amazing 95% from the foul line. Somewhere Bill Schonely is beaming.
Up Next
The Fire head down to the City by the Bay to face the Golden State Valkyries on Tuesday, June 2 at 7:00 PM, Pacific.
