The Portland Fire fell to the Las Vegas Aces 105-89 at the Moda Center in Commissioner’s Cup action.
A’ja Wilson led all scorers with 32 points, while Chelsea Gray poured in 29 with all but two of those points coming from behind the three-point line. Carla Leite paced the Fire with 18, while power forward Emily Engstler pulled down six rebounds.
You have to love the energy and fearlessness the Fire brought in the first half against the defending champs.
If you’re looking for a measure of what degree
Portland attacked the basket, they outscored the Aces 40-10 in the half on points in the paint, nearly all of them on hard drives to the hoop. They put the Aces on their heels (if not their keisters) for 20 straight minutes.
The problem is that the things that didn’t go so well for the Fire REALLY didn’t go well. Shooting 15.4% from deep on 13 attempts for Portland is bad enough, but they allowed Las Vegas to shoot 61.5% from beyond the arc, with Chelsea Gray alone going an incredible 6-7 in the half. The Aces also had 15 second chance points compared to zero for the Fire. Las Vegas pulled down nearly three times as many rebounds as the Fire, with Portland not recording a single offensive board. Going to the locker room down by only six is pretty remarkable with those fundamental problems.
Unfortunately, everything that was going badly in the first half kept going badly as play resumed, and the Aces turned up the volume from the first moments of the second half. The good news for Portland was that they were able to chase Gray off the three point line, at least for a while. The bad news is that opened things up a bit for the Aces to score from closer range. A’ja Wilson was especially effective in making Portland pay, and in a blink of an eye the Aces had a 16 point lead. As you’d expect though, the Fire never said die, and fought back by generating turnovers and finally hitting a few threes to cut the lead to six by the end of three.
Portland got it down to a few as four, but the three-ball again largely deserted the Fire. Las Vegas turned up the gas, and before you know it, the Aces had the lead back up to 11. Portland tried once again to fight back, but the Aces closed out game with relative ease.
Here’s a few of the factors that caught the eye:
Carla Leite
This was a tremendous game for the Fire point guard from France. Leite had 18 points on 8 for 13 shooting for 61.5% from the field. She also led the team with eight assists, a number that could have been a lot higher had her teammates hit more of their open looks after Leite found them in space.
Second Chance Points
This is one of the most amazing stats I’ve ever seen: the Portland Fire had zero second chance points until late in fourth quarter, and finished with a grand total of 2. I guess it’s credit to the Fire that this game wasn’t decided by 40 points in stead of 16, especially given that Las Vegas had 28 second chance points of their own. On a more basic level, it was mostly about the rebounds. Getting crushed 17-1 on the offensive boards is not a recipe for success.
Points in the Paint
The highlight of the game for the Fire was their ability to get downhill and score in the paint. Portland got 54 of their 89 points in the paint, with only 10 of them coming from fast breaks. Leite and shooting guard Bridget Carleton were especially fearless penetrating and converting at the bucket.
Three Pointers
After spending most of the game in the 10s and 20s in terms of three point percentage, the Fire eventually dragged it up to 30.8%. Not nearly good enough in a game they trailed for the whole second half, especially when the Aces shot 50%. A better night from deep and this might have been a real barnburner.
A’ja Wilson
It’s hard to watch Wilson play for the Aces and not get a little jealous. 32 points on 50% shooting along with 11 points on free throws was way too much for any Fire player to match. Add in five boards, four assists and two blocks and you have the stat line of a superstar who could do damage from nearly any spot on the court.
Up Next
The Fire will try to snap their four game losing streak at Moda Center on Saturday, hosting the Dallas Wings at 5:30pm Pacific.
