The Indiana Fever and host Portland Fire will look to rebound after streak-breaking losses when they meet for the second time this season on Saturday.
The Fever (4-3) had a three-game winning streak halted in a 90-88 loss at Golden State on Thursday, when the Valkyries hounded Caitlin Clark into her least effective game of the season.
The Fire were blown out 86-66 by Atlanta on Friday to end their three-game win streak. Portland committed 28 turnovers and was outscored 27-13 in the fourth quarter.
“It’s impossible to win a game with 28 turnovers,” Fire coach Alex Sarama said. “It’s how we respond and learn from it. I actually felt like a lot of them were unforced errors. I think part of it is asking players to be in different roles coming to an expansion team.”
Sarah Ashlee Barker had 14 points off the bench when the Fire played without forward Bridget Carleton (back soreness).
The loss kept Portland (5-4) from posting the best start by an expansion team in league history. The Minnesota Lynx (1999), Orlando Miracle (1999) and Detroit Shock (1998) also opened with 5-4 records.
Clark missed the Fever’s 90-73 home victory over the Fire on May 20 with a back injury and she was listed as probable for Saturday’s game.
She is coming off a rough night. Clark scored a season-low 16 points against the Valkyries and was 3-for-12 from the field, a season low in makes. She had six assists, also her fewest in a game in 2026, but added a season-high three steals.
Clark hit a 3-pointer with just under four minutes remaining and Aliyah Boston made a jumper on the next possession for an 82-81 lead on Thursday. Clark had turnovers on consecutive possessions in the final 92 seconds and missed a 3-pointer with 40.9 seconds left that would have tied the game at 87-87.
“She gets guarded a certain way all the time — 94 feet, lots of physicality,” Fever coach Stephanie White said of Clark. “You’re not going to give her any easy looks. She had a lot of tough, contested shots. They are an excellent defensive team.”
Boston had 13 points, six rebounds and four assists, but she played only 22 minutes after picking up two early fouls. She did not score while playing only 5:53 in the first half.
“It’s super hard to try to figure out and understand how the refs are calling it,” Boston said. “It’s super hard to get charged fouls when I don’t think anyone is in (legal) guarding position. Shout out to the Valks. They did a great job selling it and the refs bought it.”
–Field Level Media
