Late and short one for game #8. Sometimes the schedule is thicc.

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/

This is the first game that Portland won every Four Factors stat. It sure didn’t feel that way! Portland wins another ugly one with struggles on offense and some bag give-aways, but this group remains competitive and energetic at basically all times, and they remain willing and able to play 10+ players in every game. Connecticut, on the other side, actually played 12 players compared to Portland’s 11. Both teams were searching for answers.

Portland’s answer came from the bench, and specifically Freida Buhner, who had 9 points on 5 shots in 13 minuets, all in the second half. The Fire also continued their league best fourth quarter scoring, where Buhner scored 7 or her 9 points, and Carla Leite continued her end-of-game heroics, scoring 7 of her 20 points in the final period. Sarah Ashlee Barker continues to provide whatever it is this team needs, and against the Sun, it was rebounds: a career-high 11 for SA.

Bridget Carleton bounced back from her worst scoring game of the year in New York with 13 points on good efficiency, and Meg Gustafson continued her good bench production with 10 points and 4 rebounds. Emily Engstler got 2 blocks, and keeps her #1 spot in blocks per game in the entire league.

Serah Williams got shifted into the 3rd-string big position in the second half of this game. While Serah’s offensive abilities when she’s around the basket have been good, her defense has had some lapses, and her ability to run plays correctly is taking some time to develop. As it should: she’s a rookie! But in this game, coach Sarama swapped in Freida, and the team saw an improvement. The move is a size trade-off, and a change in skill and talent makeup, and we should track if this was a sign of things to come, or a momentary change.

Luisa Geiselsoder similarly got shifted into less playing time in this game, as her efficiency and effectiveness have dipped over the last two weeks. Meg Gustafson saw an increase in minutes, and deservingly so, because Gustafson has been shooting the lights out, and her defensive footwork and quickness have improved tremendously since the first couple of games.

Combining the two previous takeaways: the Fire are ready to shift into a different mode. This is the first time that rotations have been significantly altered in the middle of a game. I know that Brittani Donaldson manages the lineups during the games, and coach Sarama noted that they were all on the same page with the changes that came at halftime, and that Freida was not in the gameplan for the Connecticut game. The move worked out great, and showed a new willingness from the coaching staff to make a change in order to earn a win, rather than stick things out when it’s not working. Maybe the success of this early season has influenced the group to try and focus on winning games now, if they can, rather than their usual broad, long-term goals of development and experience gain.

Carla was 10/10 from the free throw line, which remains a facet of scoring that the Fire don’t dip too deeply into, outside of Leite. She was ⅔ from three, and hopefully re-discovered that shot after early-season struggles. She scores a team-leading 18.4 points per game in games that she starts in, which would be the 13th best in the league.

Another massive growth quarter, which was preceded by more disappointing and frustrating early quarters. The Fire are really making a name for themselves! It has been a wild ride so far, but it has been objectively successful. Portland is about to start a difficult stretch of games, so expect more wild action, and maybe expect a few less wins. There’s truly no telling with this group, and that’s the beauty of expansion team sports.

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