It was a historic night for all the wrong reasons for the Portland Fire as they fell to the Chicago Sky 124-94. The Sky were dominant in the second half as they destroyed the Fire en route to the 30-point win.
The Fire were led in scoring by the 20 points of Bridget Carleton. Carla Leite finished with 18 points as the second leading scorer.
Chicago was led by Kamilla Cardoso’s career-high 30 points. They also got a 29-point performance from Sydney Taylor on just 11 shots. Courtney Vandersloot made
her season debut after recovering from a torn ACL. She made all 4 of her shots in the game, finishing with 10 points and 7 assists.
Here are some key takeaways from the blowout loss.
Records, Records and More Records
The Sky set a number of franchise records (and a few WNBA records) in their dominant win. They scored 124 points in the game on 66.2% shooting from the field, both franchise records. In addition, they set a new WNBA record with 38 assists, earning an assist on almost every one of their 45 made shots. Cardoso set a WNBA record with 13 made shots without a miss in the game.
The offense was unstoppable for Chicago in the game. Portland was unable to slow down the onslaught. Everything went right for the Sky as they cruised through the second half for the win.
Second Half Blowout
Chicago held a small lead heading into the halftime break, but it looked like the momentum may have been shifting. Portland had put together a late run to close the gap, trailing by just 5 points heading into intermission.
The second half was all Sky. They won the third quarter by 8 points, then slammed the door in the fourth quarter with a demoralizing 17-0 run early in the final frame. Chicago outscored the Fire 71-46 in the second half.
Kamilla Cardoso
Cardoso dominated Portland in the paint in the game on her way to that career-high, 30-point performance. She was the main catalyst behind the Sky jumping out to a double-digit lead in the third quarter, scoring 13 points in the period.
Cardoso sat the entire fourth quarter after helping build the massive lead for the Sky.
What Went Wrong?
The unfortunate answer for the Fire is that nothing truly went that wrong. Some nights a team can’t make a shot and some nights their opponent can’t miss. The only glaring disparity in the boxscore comes from the shooting percentages, 66.2% from the field and 53.6% from three for Chicago and 40.5% from the field and 30.0% from three for Portland. The Fire were able to get 10 steals in the game but only managed 13 points off of turnovers.
It was just a dominant shooting performance from the Sky. Portland was unable to keep up. There were a number of defensive breakdowns leading to easy shots, but it was also a very impressive shooting display by Chicago. Sometimes it just isn’t your night.
Up Next
The Fire will have to shake off this loss quickly as they head to Washington to face the Mystics on Sunday, June 28th at 12:00 p.m. PST.
