The Portland Fire succumbed to the Minnesota Lynx 101-93 in an entertaining game in Minneapolis on Saturday. While the Lynx were in control for most of the evening, the Fire made first-place Minnesota earn the win, resulting in an exciting game with both teams producing fun basketball. Small forward Bridget Carleton had 22 points and eight rebounds to pace the Fire in both categories. Shooting guard Sarah Ashlee Barker and point guard Carla Leite weren’t far behind in the points category with 21
apiece. Kayla McBride led all scorers with 24 points for the Lynx.
The Lynx never trailed in this one, and that sums up where these two teams are at this moment in time. Minnesota is a really good basketball team with weapons all over the court. The Fire are a scrappy expansion team that is always ready to exploit any team that doesn’t come to play four full quarters. When a team like the Lynx keeps their foot on the accelerator, it’s going to be tough going.
The Lynx built an eight-point lead at the end of the first quarter, and that gave them the platform to remain mostly in control the rest of the way. Still, you have to be impressed with the Fire. In their previous meeting, also in Minneapolis, the Fire lost 107-74. This time they stayed in touch with the Lynx the entire game.
In the third quarter the Fire got it down to three after free throws from forward Emily Engstler and a three-pointer from Carleton, but in typical fashion, that was the signal for Minnesota to hit consecutive threes to stretch out the lead again. That’s just what happens when a really good team plays well against you. They take your best shot and swipe you aside. That’s the reality of the situation.
Here are some things that stood out in today’s game.
Active hands
It’s so impressive watching the Lynx use their hands. It’s one thing to establish legal guarding position to obstruct the basket, something the Lynx do reasonably well. When you can add active hands to that it becomes so much more difficult for the opponent. A lot of players would do well to watch the Lynx for when to push, when to poke, when to hand-check… and how to avoid getting whistled for it. The Lynx were whistled for just nine fouls, and it really didn’t seem like the Fire were getting a terrible whistle.
Carla Leite
It surely won’t come to anybody’s surprise at this point, but Leite had another tremendous game. It seemed like every third trip down the court Leite was finding a seam and attacking the basket. It takes tremendous courage and skill to just continually barrel into the land of the giants, get knocked down, and 45 seconds later do it again. She finished with 21 points, seven assists, four rebounds, two steals, and her impact was felt beyond the stats. There were moments when it seemed like Leite was the only thing the Fire had going, and you just can’t put a value on that kind of performance.
Megan Gustafson
It’s a shame that Fire center Megan Gustafson wasn’t available for this one. Give Sarah Williams credit, she battled hard and scored eight points primarily from the center position, but it really felt that Gustafson’s scoring and rebounding would have helped quite a bit. Former starter Luisa Geiselsoder got a bit over 11 minutes in at center, but could only manage one rebound and zero points, so Gustafson’s absence was felt especially deep.
Against a different opponent…
The Fire hit a tremendous number of big three-pointers at opportune times tonight. The only problem was that the Lynx always seemed to have an answer. Portland shot 43.3% from the beyond the arc, but Minnesota wasn’t far behind with 39.1%. More importantly, the Lynx were able to stall the momentum that Portland was working so hard to build by fighting fire with fire from deep. Against another opponent, the way the Fire were playing in the fourth quarter, they might have been able to mount a famous comeback. Not against the Lynx though.
Up Next
The Fire will be back at home on Wednesday hosting the Dallas Wings. Tipoff is at 7:00 p.m. PDT. After that, they’ll have an annoying trip to Las Vegas to face the Aces before a nice long homestand that will take them into mid-August.
