Their five-game losing streak a thing of the past after a 97-83 win Thursday night over Toronto, the Portland Fire now shoot for their first back-to-back wins since May.
Based on recent history, Portland has a good chance to wind up in the win column again on Saturday night when it hosts the Seattle Storm. The Fire already own a pair of five-point wins against Seattle.
The Fire (12-19) ended their skid Thursday by outscoring their fellow expansion team 56-36 in the middle two quarters. Carla Leite scored a game-high 27 points, going 15 of 17 at the foul line, and dished out 11 assists.
Portland sank 33 of 66 attempts from the field, including 11 of 27 3-point attempts, and collected 23 assists.
“What stood out was the offensive execution, which got us to the spacing we identified in the game plan,” said Portland coach Alex Sarama. “We got to those isolations really well. We got so much better as the game went along and that’s good; we want that as part of our identity.”
While the Fire enter the game on a positive note, Seattle (6-27) continues an unsuccessful search for a win. Its 92-86 loss Wednesday night at New York was its 10th in a row.
The Storm continue to get excellent play from Dominique Malonga, who tallied 31 points and 10 rebounds at New York while hitting 14 of 20 shots from the field. But they’ve allowed 90 points or more seven times during their losing streak.
Malonga averages 16.9 points and 8.7 rebounds in her breakout second season. First-year coach Sonia Raman said Malonga’s assertiveness has been a bright spot.
“I love Dom’s aggressiveness on offense,” Raman said after the loss in New York. “I think she found lots of different solutions to be able to get her 20 shot attempts. Would love to have seen her get some calls and get to the free-throw line a little bit more.”
Natisha Hiedeman provides a career-high 15.9 ppg for Seattle. She has averaged 17.0 points over the Storm’s first two meetings with the Fire.
–Field Level Media
