Seattle makes the short drive a second time to play in Portland, the Storm attempting to break their losing streak while the Fire just broke theirs. An early, hard to explain injury left Portland short-handed, and a recently returned player had another great game. Let’s talk about it.

These are an old set of standardized “only stats that matter”. Here’s a fun explainer video from Molly Brown on Instagram, who is going to be a great follow for any fan of my writing here: https://www.instagram.com/reel/DXusixFkrAA/

After Teja Oblak was ruled out for a second straight game with an injury, Jordan Harrison returned after a successful game on Thursday night. Harrison entered the game earlier than Carla Leite’s backup typically does, and then Carla came back into the game late in the first quarter, only to be taken out again moments later. Leite would soon head to the locker room, and didn’t play another minute, logging just 3:45 of action. She reportedly has a knee contusion, and the staff have expressed they are not worried about it being serious. I scrubbed the tape and did not find any specific moment of impact that looked like it would cause a knee bruise, so I’m not sure if we’ll ever know what happened in this one.

That means, in her first back-to-back game in a while, the Fire were suddenly reliant on Jordan Harrison, the undrafted rookie from West Virginia.

She delivered.

A career-high 28 minutes played, a career-high 13 points, a career-high 6 assists, and a career-high 7 rebounds, Harrison  played a game loaded with great defense, good ball movement, and high-IQ plays all over the place.

And, let’s jump right to the big news of Sunday: with the FIBA World Cup coming up soon, and with her inclusion on team Germany, Luisa Geiselsöder has been given time and space to prepare with her German teammates, but comes by the way of having her contract with the Fire suspended for the remainder of the season.

The move created a roster spot, which was then immediately offered to, and accepted by, Jordan Harrison, who is now on her first-ever full-time WNBA contract. HUGE W.

I am saddened at the Lui news, but she now gets to work with her home-country teammates, and another teammate gets to shine.

Okay, back to the Seattle game: Harrison wasn’t the only player having a career-best night, because Nyadiew Puoch hit a career-high 4 three-pointers for a career-high 19 points to go along with great defense. Flowers for Nards 💐

Bridget Carleton took on the extra opportunity available to her with Leite out of the game, scoring 24 points and throwing 4 assists with 6 rebounds, hitting some massively confident shots. Carleton is scoring 19.4 points per game since the All-Star break, 10th highest in the league in that timeframe, while shooting 9.4 three’s per game, the most in the league.

Seattle seemed a bit low energy, to be honest, and the Fire had some great shot-making. That’s a tough combination to beat, even with the Storm notching a great EFG% and Points-Per-Possession in this contest. Jade Melbroun and Jordan Horston had bursts of energy and shot-making, and Dom Malonga remains unstoppable (21 points in this one), especially against Portland’s current roster.

The WNBA season schedule, and its method and timing of transactions, is just a different beast compared to the MNBA, whose tendencies I have drilled into my brain. Players in the W are cut, or suspended, or waived, then signed, or signed by someone else, at a completely different rate and through different methods. These moves by the Fire feel positive and confidently made, but were also completely surprising to me. As I get more comfortable with how the league works, I’m making sure to enjoy how much surprise it still has for me.

This is Portland’s first back-to-back win since May 25th when they beat Toronto in Toronto and New York in New York. They went on to beat Connecticut in Connecticut for a third straight win two days later, and they have a chance to match that mark at home on Wednesday, but they are facing the most consistently great team in the league: the Minnesota Lynx. They’re gonna need their fans in that one, folks!

An injury bug might be catching the Fire as they gain momentum: Teja Oblak has missed the last two games with a minor knee thing, and now Carla Leite has missed time with a minor knee thing. Jordan Harrison is the only point-guard that we know is healthy right now. Holly Winterburn has, and will, play that lead guard spot in needed moments, and there were plenty of them in Saturday’s game, but Olivia Miles and Courtney Williams are coming to town, and someone is going to have to take on those matchups on both ends of the floor, and Minnesota has a top-3 defense in the league. Missing the two most experienced offensive quarterbacks is going to hurt, if it comes to that. Fingers crossed everyone and everything is fine!

Sticking to the letter-of-the-award (which is made up) and giving this to Carleton, though it was Jordan Harrison’s night, for sure. Carleton was, as I’ve already said, confident and aggressive, and was hitting shots from a wide variety of spots and scenarios. It’s the exact type of performance that Alex Sarama and his staff want his players to be able to have.

The Fire are cooking! They are 5.5 games behind 8th place, the final playoff spot, and are getting hot at the perfect time to keep things interesting. They have the 6th best offense since the All-Star break, and still only the 12th best defense. But, get this: they have the highest pace in the league in that time-frame, after spending all season talking about being that fast, but struggling to perform in a way that reflected those statements.

They get the best test in the league on Wednesday. I’ll see you there.

Have questions? Submit them through the link below, and I’ll answer them periodically!

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSehNt8_EhXpWW7nvePd8eL5ZiXFe54l-DTyr74sH6n6l3RaKQ/viewform?usp=header

Points per Possession - how many points a team scores for every possession they have

Effective Field-Goal Percent (eFG%) - field goal percentage with weight added to three-point shots

Turnover Percent (TOV%) - percent of possessions that ended in a turnover

Offensive Rebound Percent (OREB%) - percent of a team’s own misses that they rebounded

Free-Throw Attempt Rate (FTA Rate) - how many free throws a team takes for each Field Goal attempted

This article made me appreciate A.) prioritizing health and safety, and B.) the Fire’s commitment to health and safety through a subbing system that manages the physical toll on players in every single game, not just giving players the outright night off. I think more attention should be paid to the alternative way the Fire are trying to take miles and stress off of players’ bodies.