WASHINGTON — For a team that is supposed to be tanking, the Portland Fire put forth one heck of an effort in their 124-123 quadruple-overtime loss to the Washington Mystics Sunday afternoon at CareFirst Arena. It was the longest game in WNBA history, lasting three hours and 35 minutes.
But that just goes to show that no team truly tanks. (They actually can’t—they’d get in trouble with the league.) Rather than intentionally trying to lose, teams instead prioritize giving less-talented and/or less-experienced
players more playing time in order develop them into future contributors. The players that are out there, and the coaches on the sidelines, give it their all.
But did Portland, now 8-12, even adopt this approach on Sunday?
They indeed sat some of their stars at key moments when the Mystics were going on runs that nearly tied the score. Moves like those are good to develop some of their complementary talent, giving them experience in stressful situations. (The Fire, to be fair, also may have been trying to stop the bleeding by inserting different players.)
But when it came down to it, starters Carla Leite (19:55) and Sarah Ashlee Barker (19:41) played nearly all 20 minutes of overtime. The team’s other three starters—Megan Gustafson, Bridget Carleton and Emily Engstler—played every minute for which they were not fouled out.
Thus, Portland’s best players were fixtures on the court in the extra frames—even as their endurance was tested to the max—to match the full 20 minutes that key Mystics Sonia Citron, Michaela Onyenwere and Shakira Austin played.
As our Beckett Harrison recently wrote about, there’s plenty of reason for the Fire to tank: Every team would love to get JuJu Watkins, Hannah Hidalgo or Madison Booker in the 2027 draft. Plus, the Fire are already drifting further outside of the playoff picture, as they’ve won just two of 10 since their 6-4 start. And even if they were to make the playoffs, they are likely not going to make a run at a title this year, which is the ultimate goal.
But competitors compete, and that’s what the Fire, including head coach Alex Sarama, did on Sunday, headlined by a heroic display from Leite in defeat.
Carla Leite was uber-clutch from 3 late and a dominant driver throughout
Leite, who is still just 22 years old, played 48 minutes, finishing with 32 points, nine assists, six rebounds and three steals. She was 3-for-6 from deep, including a 3-for-3 stretch that spanned the fourth quarter through the third overtime period.
Washington seemed to have the win sewn up at the end of regulation when Alicia Florez was sent to the line for two free throws with a three-point lead and 8.1 seconds remaining. She missed the first, and after she missed the second, Leite got the rebound at the free throw line. With no timeout, Leite was under extreme pressure to make something happen in under 10 seconds, and the Fire needed a 3. She seemed to have no hope when she dribbled down the right sideline and hoisted up a contested, fadeaway, desperation trey.
It banked in at the buzzer, thus extending what became a long afternoon in DC.
Leite came to the rescue again in the first overtime with a deep 3 that tied the game at 99 with 18.3 seconds remaining. It would be the last basket of the frame.
In the third overtime, Leite appeared to be trying to draw a foul on Shakira Austin when she attempted an off-balance triple from the top of the key. There was no foul, but the ball actually rattled in for a 110-109 Portland lead at the 2:32 mark. Unfortunately for the Fire, the lead would not hold up.
With the 50 percent effort from beyond the arc, Leite improved her season average to 41 percent. Last year, as a rookie, she registered 13 makes on 75 attempts (17.3 percent). This year she already has 16 makes on nearly half the attempts.
She’s not known as a 3-point shooter, although that could change. Her real strength is as a driver, and that was on full display on Sunday. She got into the paint at will and had the Mystics on their heels on seemingly every possession.
Her previous career-highs in points and rebounds were 21 and five, respectively. She notched five boards in regulation on Sunday, and scored 19 of her points in the overtimes alone.
With 3.4 seconds remaining in the fourth OT and the Fire down one, she received an inbounds pass on the right wing. She then drove right down the middle of the lane and had a good look at a floater at the buzzer. But it went off the back rim and out, and that was it.
It was a heartbreaking way to end a career performance.
Sarama offered the following postgame:
I was really happy with that last ATO and the look we got. I felt like we couldn’t have gotten a better look. Carla was so clutch. … So she can’t be down about that. She played an incredible game, she’s the ultimate competitor. Her execution in the clutch was incredible. Just didn’t go our way with the last shot. But I was really happy with the shot we got coming out of that.
A 31-7 free throw attempt disparity after halftime spelled doom for the Fire
The Fire were excellent at the free throw line, shooting 19-for-21 (90.5 percent). The Mystics were far worse (73.2 percent) but got up 20 more attempts.
This tweet says it all, as the Fire only shot seven free throws in the second half while the Mystics accumulated 31 trips to the line.
Citron’s 10-for-10 was part of 13-for-16 overall from the Mystics in the fourth. Portland was 1-for-2.
Whether it was the refereeing or the Fire being less aggressive, this disparity was hugely important, as Washington won the fourth by five to force overtime.
The Fire’s execution in transition also faded over the course of the game
At halftime, Portland had a seven-point lead and also had a seven-point advantage in fast break points, 15-8. Seven of those points had come in under a minute in the latter half of the first quarter, and five more had come in 16 seconds early in the second.
Frieda Bühner scored on a transition layup off a Serah Williams rebound at the 3:17 mark of the opening frame, cutting a nine-point Fire deficit to seven. Carleton stole the ball from Austin on the ensuing possession and then nailed a transition 3 on the other end. Nyadiew Puoch would then cut it to two with a transition layup of her own at 2:36, marking three-straight transition buckets that were part of a larger 13-0 run. Teja Oblak assisted both Bühner’s and Puoch’s makes.
At 8:01 of the second frame, Barker drained 3-of-3 free throws after an Engstler steal led to a transition 3-point attempt from the left corner and foul on Cotie McMahon. Then, at 7:45, it was Engstler with a layup off a Gustafson steal and Leite assist. This 5-0 run made it 36-30 Portland.
The Fire would have liked to have kept the transition offense rolling throughout the game, but were limited to five fast break points in the second half and just two over the four overtimes.
In the first half, they had 14 points off of eight Mystics turnovers. Over the next 40 minutes they were held to 11 off 11.
Portland’s 3-point shooting was hot and cold
Timely 3s from Portland during the fourth quarter and first overtime extended the contest and gave them a chance to win.
Of course there were Leite’s clutch makes, but Gustafson was also huge, going 2-for-4 over this stretch. She cashed in on a trey that gave the team a three-point lead with 1:51 remaining in regulation, and gave them a two-point advantage with another 1:29 into extra time. Puoch was 1-for-1 over the frames, with her make giving the Fire a seven-point lead at the 7:26 mark of the fourth. As a team, Portland was 5-for-9 over the stretch.
The Fire, who are fifth in the W with 9.6 triples per contest and eighth with a percentage of 34.7, were also successful from downtown in the first half, going 7-for-18 (38.9 percent).
But they went cold in the third (1-for-7) and over the last three overtimes (1-for-5). Just like with free throws and fast break points, a slightly better effort in this department would have easily changed the outcome of the game.
Portland may have lost, but they demonstrated their forward-thinking attitude afterward, with Sarama saying:
Games like this are such a huge part of our development and the journey. This is the happiest I’m probably ever gonna be after a loss in my career.
