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Bridget Carleton Scores 24 as Fire Beat Storm 100-93 for Third Win in the Series
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- Bridget Carleton Scores 24 as Fire Beat Storm 100-93 for Third Win in the Series
(Jaime Valdez-Imagn Images)
Bridget Carleton scored 24 points and the Portland Fire beat the Seattle Storm 100-93 on Saturday night at Moda Center in front of 15,294.
Five Portland players scored in double figures. Nyadiew Puoch had a career-high 19 points on 6-of-9 shooting and 4-of-7 from 3-point range. Jordan Harrison set career highs with 13 points, 7 rebounds, and 6 assists. Megan DiLeo scored 11 and Emily Engstler added 10. Holly Winterburn tied a career high with 7 assists.
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Fire coach Alex Sarama said the group has grown and developed across the season because the staff kept the focus on the process, and that there were doubts before the season about whether Portland would reach nine wins.
"So I said it was a player development win last game," Sarama said. "Really, that was tonight. I should have saved it for now."
"I think we did our first coach shout-out of the season in the locker room, to Sefu Bernard, our assistant coach and director of learning and development," Sarama explained. "He's doing a great job with the Get Better group all year. I went to the last one. It kind of replaces the shootarounds for our younger players who are on less minutes. And just the detail, the planning, the debriefs, the meetings."
Carla Leïte played 3 minutes, 45 seconds, all of it in the first quarter. She made 4 free throws and had 2 assists and did not return. Sarama said the injury was mild, that there was no update beyond what the team communicated earlier, and that Portland was being precautionary. He said Leïte has accumulated high loads with the way the Fire play and that he did not want to risk anything.
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Sarama said Portland overachieved this season without doing it at the cost of development, and that the foundation puts the team in a strong position two and three years out.
"I think when you add all that up throughout the year, you get results like Nyadiew having a career high, shooting four from seven from three," Sarama said. "You get Jordan doing an incredible job, seven rebounds, six assists. Holly with seven assists. And that's all the Get Better group and all the hard work they've done throughout the season. So really, really happy with that one."
"I think when one of your best players is out, the strength of your team is who can then come up and keep going, and you don't feel like you're skipping a beat," Sarama continued. "I think that's the type of culture and development we're trying to create here, where the 14th player is as important as our first player. And I think you get rewarded with nights like tonight when things go your way."
Carleton said Harrison has been all over the floor in practice and played fearlessly despite being undersized.
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"Yeah, I mean, when your starting point guard goes down early in the game, it's not like we had planned for that," Carleton said. "I think everyone stepped up. Like you mentioned, Jordan. Holly had some big minutes, obviously, and was incredible."
"Everyone was just ready, and not that we had to be anyone we aren't—we could still be ourselves," Carleton explained. "But without Carla, who has the ball a lot when she's on the court and she's in a lot of ball screens, we just had to figure out what other actions to run. And I think everyone just stepped up and did what they do."
Seattle scored 30 points in the first quarter, its most in any first quarter this season, and led 30-27. The Storm shot 11-of-21 in the opening 10 minutes and 6-of-11 from behind the arc. Jordan Horston scored 8 on 3-of-3 shooting.
Portland answered with a 17-5 run into the second quarter, going ahead 44-35 on a Carleton 3-pointer, and led 56-47 at the break. Sarama said Harrison has a clear idea of where Portland wants the ball inside its offense and has not had these minutes before this season. He said she is attentive with details in film sessions and will get her own defensive coverage in time.
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The Fire pushed the margin to 14 in the third quarter and took a 75-70 lead into the fourth. Ezi Magbegor 's turnaround cut it to 75-72 with 9:47 to play. Harrison hit a 3-pointer for an 82-75 lead with 7:26 left, and Carleton made one to put Portland ahead 88-78. Seattle scored 9 straight to get within 94-88, and the Fire closed on free throws.
Puoch said she had been tired of not shooting when the ball came to her and decided to throw it up.
"I think just being more assertive, I guess," Puoch said. "Just going through it with my shot, getting ready and stuff. But yeah, I don't know. Just not thinking too much about it, just shooting, and when I'm open, driving if they close out too fast. But just doing what I can do to help the team, and just having a lot of fun."
"I think I thrive when I'm having a lot of fun," Puoch continued. "I love playing defense, so when I make defense, my energy comes from my defense. So when we do that—and it's fun playing with BC, because she's a good defender as well sometimes nowadays—so playing alongside her brings me energy as well. So yeah, I'm just trying to be good."
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Jade Melbourne scored a career-high 23 points on 7-of-15 shooting and made a career-best 4 3-pointers on 12 attempts. She added 5 assists. Dominique Malonga had 21 points and 9 rebounds on 7-of-14 shooting and 6-of-6 at the line, with 2 blocks. It was the 13th career game of at least 20 points for Malonga, tied for 10th in Storm history. Horston finished with a season-high 17 points on 6-of-10 shooting and 4-of-6 from 3-point range, and was plus-13. Magbegor had 7 points and 6 assists and moved into fourth on Seattle's all-time defensive rebounds list and 10th in franchise history in assists.
Melbourne said she understood why Portland sagged off her with Malonga and Magbegor inside, and that she has to make teams pay for it.
"I think my teammates are the best," Melbourne said. "I think for me, I always go in with the mindset of being a pass-first guard, and sometimes it gets me a little stuck because I look for the pass too much when I'm wide open. So my teammates, my coaches have been echoing to me to be on the front foot, be aggressive, and tonight I was."
"Yeah, I've never put up that many three-point attempts in my life, but when they're open you got to look to take them," Melbourne explained. "And if you can hit some, then it opens up for the rest of the team. So yeah, just being on the front foot, being aggressive, and just doing what my teammates and my coaches are telling me to do."
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Flau'jae Johnson left the game with 5:14 remaining in the third quarter and returned for 3 minutes, 6 seconds in the fourth. She finished with 8 points on 3-of-10 shooting and 4 rebounds. Storm coach Sonia Raman said Johnson was still being evaluated by the medical team and that there was no update.
Raman said Seattle's details slipped in the second quarter after its best scoring quarter of the game, and that the Storm cleaned some of that up after halftime.
"Yeah, I mean, I think you saw we played with a lot of activity, and that was able to generate some stuff on both ends of the floor for us, which was really good," Raman said. "I thought they competed, they battled, they played really hard."
"A couple shots that we missed and a couple turnovers," Raman continued. "And then on the other end, they were able to knock down some threes. We were trying to fly around, getting into scramble mode on a couple of coverages, a couple twos to the ball, and they were able to kind of keep the ball moving and find open shooters. And they knocked them down at a really crucial point where we had cut the lead a little bit."
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Seattle attempted 36 3-pointers and made 13, matching its most attempts in a game this season. Portland shot 15-of-36 from behind the arc and 51.5% overall. The Fire scored 12 fast-break points to 4 for the Storm, and Seattle had 14 second-chance points to 2. Both teams scored 32 points in the paint. Seattle committed 14 turnovers to 12 for Portland.
Katie Lou Samuelson did not play for Seattle because of a right knee injury. Her sister, Karlie Samuelson, scored 9 for Portland on 3-of-4 from 3-point range. The Fire were also without Sarah Ashlee Barker and Teja Oblak, both with left knee injuries.
Portland is 13-19 and has scored 100 or more points in five games this season. The Fire have won all three meetings with Seattle and the teams play once more. Portland beat Toronto 97-83 on Thursday to end a five-game losing streak.
Seattle is 6-28 and has lost 11 in a row. The Storm also lost 11 straight between May 27 and June 22, and are the first team in WNBA history with two double-digit losing streaks in the same season. Seattle lost 92-86 to New York on Wednesday.
Seattle hosts Chicago on Monday at 7 p.m. PT at Climate Pledge Arena on USA Network. Portland hosts Minnesota on Wednesday at 7 p.m. PT.
