Twelve months, and a long way down
Phoenix played in the WNBA Finals last season and were swept there in four games by Las Vegas. They restart today in Portland at 14-26, twelfth in a fifteen-team league, eliminated, with four games left that decide nothing. Seven defeats in their last nine before the World Cup break took care of whatever was still mathematically alive.
Portland are 16-24 and ninth, which for a first-year expansion franchise reads better than the record suggests. Eight teams made the postseason and the Fire finished eight games outside that eighth place, so the gap was real, but nobody had them anywhere near it in March.
The two clubs split their two meetings this season, with the away side winning on both occasions.
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Kahleah Copper came back with a gold medal
Copper ranks fourth in the WNBA at 21.3 points per game, and she spent the break adding to her reputation at the other end of the floor. She scored 15 points in the United States’ 97-79 win over France in Sunday’s World Cup final, a game the Americans trailed by as many as 14 in the first half.
Mercury coach Nate Tibbetts worked that tournament as an assistant on the American staff and watched Gabby Williams take his defence apart before the switch went on. Williams scored 16 points in the first half and four in the second, after Copper picked her up.
“She has the ability to raise her level,” Tibbetts said. “Gabby was rolling in that first half, and we made an adjustment and put (Copper) on her and she really stepped up to the challenge and it carried over to the third.”
Alyssa Thomas has averaged 14.2 points, 8.4 assists and 7.7 rebounds this season and is tied with Caitlin Clark for the league lead in assists. Phoenix have the individual numbers. The team result has not followed.
Portland are building, and saying so
Alex Sarama has been open about where his attention sits for the last four games. “Definitely long term,” he said. “A long-term plan is not something like ‘let’s make the playoffs.’ A long-term plan is looking at how we are using the players and how we are playing offense and defense.”
Carla Leite, plucked from Golden State in the expansion draft, leads the Fire in scoring at 15.9 points and in assists at 6.3. Bridget Carleton averages 14.3 points and her 106 made three-pointers put her joint fourth in the league. Megan DiLeo adds 13.2 a night. Portland have dropped four of their last five, which nobody in the building seems especially bothered about.
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