After enjoying a holiday weekend, I watched Portland take on their fellow expanders in Toronto on tape delay. The game included some of the ugliest quarters the Fire have played so far, as well as one of the cleanest. It ended-up being potentially their best game of the season.

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/

The Fire won their first road game, and their first game in Canada! My biggest impression is: imagine how well this team could look if they didn’t give away 10 free points to the other team every game. 😬

Saturday’s game was an example of what Portland’s subbing system can look like at its best, an example of the offensive patterns and ball movement that they want to have, and the defensive matchups and tactics they are using to disrupt the opponent. They were successful in nearly every aspect of the game. Toronto, it should be noted, were missing two of their more valuable players in Julie Allemand and Temi Fagbenle, whose absences were felt in their loss.

The first half was pretty ugly, it was back-and-forth, and it was tied at the end of both of the first two quarters. The Fire started extremely cold, not making a field goal attempt for the first four minutes. Luckily, the bench unit subbed in and was immediately effective. Teja (tay-uh) Oblak (oh-block) — in her first minutes in the W, and the first minutes ever for a Slovenian player — immediately showed her skills and upside as a ball-handler and passer. Oblak got the ball into the paint, spread it all over the floor, and kept the pace at a challenging level for the Tempo. Emily Engstler continued to show her knack for getting blocks and steals, even when it seems like she’s been beat off-the-dribble or beat down the floor. She had 0 points and 3 blocks after the first quarter, and then she put on the best scoring performance of her Fire career, ending with 16 points on just 8 FGA’s.

The second quarter brought an array of problems for Portland, who found themselves down 30-39 after giving away several layups in transition — some of the easiest shots those Toronto players are likely to have. The Fire called two timeouts in the span of a couple minutes trying to course correct. They would battle back as Carla Leite started to show signs of life in the game, tying the game at halftime.

The second half was all Fire, as the Tempo were unable to make basically any shots, and the Fire almost couldn’t miss, especially in the fourth quarter when Leite and Engstler both hit and-one’s in back-to-back possessions, followed by a Nyadiew Puoch three. The energy was all Portland’s.

Both Carla Leite and Teja Oblak had 9 assists as Portland assisted on 24 of their 35 made field goals. Bridget Carleton was efficient again, scoring 15 points on 10 shots, including 4-of-8 from three. Megan Gustafson and Sarah Ashlee Barker also scored in double digits (14 and 12), both shooting 75% or better.

I thought it was notable that Freida Bühner was the first  Fire player to check in off the bench in the 3rd quarter, which is a spot that has gone to Sarah Ashlee Barker in every game this season. The move shows lots of belief in, and comfort with, Bühner’s game and her potential. Freida had 5 points on efficient shooting, 2 rebounds and an assist in her ~13 minutes. It was an incredible game overall for Portland’s bench players, who outscored Toronto’s bench players 42 to 20.

Shoutout to Kiki Rice, the only player on the Tempo who really balled out. She looked genuinely unstoppable at times, and ended with the game’s best overall performance (19pts, 5 rebounds, 3 assists, 2 steals, 1 block, 1 turnover). Basically everyone else had one of, if not the, worst games of their season, especially Brittney Sykes, one of the Tempo’s two former all-stars, who scored just 10 points and had 7 turnovers.

The Fire can still get way better. They are allowing simple mistakes to lead directly to points for the opponent, and should be able to correct those errors quickly (though they’ve been making the same simple mistakes for six games, now). Portland won’t always shoot this well, and the opponent won’t always struggle so mightily, but the quality of defense is repeatable, and the quality of ball-movement on offense is repeatable. Carla Leite had a frustrating first-half, and she particularly will be better soon. There are adjustments and comfort levels that the rookies are slowly making that are also leading to more aggressive and successful offense, as well, as Puoch and Bühner and Williams get more comfortable with the ball in their hands.

This is really the first look at how the Fire want to play basketball, and who they want to play it with. Oblak and Leite playing a full game, paired with Bühner being activated, means they have the players that they showed the most explicit interest in acquiring actually playing basketball game together. The Fire had their most assists and shot their best percentage of the season. They also secured more rebounds than their opponent for the first time. There were still blown coverages and they still ran the wrong play at times, but the true vision of the team and the strategy shown through.

Portland showed a better level of resiliency and adaptability than Toronto, their fellow 2026 expansion team. Toronto’s bench was shallower from injuries, but the Fire, who struggled mightily for big portions of the game, were successful in making tactical changes, and in finding players to make a needed play in different moments. It should feel great to look more mature, more malleable, and deeper at this point in the season than the team that will they will be compared to the most, and a team that collected older and more experienced W players.

Emily Engstler, the Fire’s 6’1” forward, is second in the league in blocks. She is a certified bucket denier. Tonight, she was also the bucket getter of the game, scoring in a myriad of ways at all levels: she continues to take the open three’s that the opponents are giving her, and in the second half she showed an ability to go to work in the paint and get a bucket  that she has not shown yet this year.

There are some passing decisions and turnovers that are a step below the level of play Portland wants from Emily, but her composure was on display against Toronto, having the best half of her season after one of the poorer halves in the first.

She had a season-high in points, in blocks, and in +/- for the game.

A season-high 99 points for the Fire, and a season-low 80 points allowed. That obviously qualifies this for the best game the Fire have played yet this season, and was a game that the team can replicate again. The streak of winning games after a loss continues, but the Fire also haven’t won two games in a row. They now travel to New York, where they will face the Liberty for the third time already this season, but now New York has gained their Oregon Ducks in Sabrina Ionescu and Satou Sabally. It will be the hardest road game of the season so far.

Can’t wait.

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

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 Rate (FTRate) - how many free throws a team makes per 100 possessions