The Rose Garden Report is a fully independent publication providing coverage of the Portland Trail Blazers and Portland Fire that you can’t get anywhere else. Purchasing a premium subscription gives you full access to all articles and ability to participate in mailbags, as well as helping to cover travel costs and other expenses to bring you the best coverage possible.
📍PORTLAND, Ore. — It wouldn't have been quite right if Bridget Carleton's shot had gone in.
The Fire's de facto franchise player—picked first in the expansion draft, called a future All-Star by the general manager and given a max contract—capping off a dominant 26-point night by hitting a long off-the-dribble isolation three-pointer to give Portland its first WNBA win in 24 years? Too easy of a story.
It was much more appropriate that the Fire scraped past the New York Liberty because Sarah Ashlee Barker was in the exact right place to rebound Carleton's miss and put it back in at the buzzer.
Head coach Alex Sarama called it "Portland Fire 101."
Carleton joked that her three-point attempt, which missed wide left and went off the backboard outside of the square, "bricked perfectly" to set up Barker's game-winner.
Barker herself called it a "God wink," letting her know she was where she was supposed to be after losing someone close to her family yesterday.
Kamiah Smalls, who scored 13 points off the bench in her Fire debut after missing training camp with a knee injury, could only come up with "Hell yeah" as words to describe the game-winner, the first iconic on-court moment for the new incarnation of the Fire.
Barker collapsed to the floor in tears after the shot went in, and was piled on by her teammates, each of whom had something to do with the win.
The first to jump on her was Carla Leite, who had a scare on Tuesday night with what looked like a serious ankle injury before coming back in the game and hitting several big shots, including a layup with 28 seconds left to tie it and set up Barker's game-winner.
Next was Carleton, who had the kind of night that showed exactly why Fire general manager Vanja Černivec identified her as this expansion team's Kayla Thornton. Her quiet first half of the season-opening loss to Chicago on Saturday was not a trend: Carleton scored Portland's first five points and finished the night with 26 points, five three-pointers and four steals, locking up Breanna Stewart for long stretches.
Emily Engstler was also instrumental in slowing down Stewart, who had a relatively quiet 16-point night on 4-of-12 shooting and frequently found herself frustrated by the Fire's defensive pressure. In the final minute, she fell down in the backcourt looking for a foul call that didn't come, and had to call timeout to avoid an eight-second violation like the two the Fire forced in the last game.
Haley Jones was early to the pile, too, after putting up six points and five rebounds in just 10 minutes and making some timely plays.
With Sabrina Ionescu and Satou Sabally sidelined for their first WNBA game in Oregon, the Fire's defense was able to largely neutralize Stewart and Jonquel Jones. It was New York's all-French backcourt of Marine Johannes and Pauline Astier that gave Portland fits. But they never let the Liberty get up by more than 13, which is the same size deficit they erased in the second half of the loss to Chicago.
Like that game, they started the third quarter on a 10-2 run on Tuesday. Unlike that game, they were able to close it out.
Saturday's loss to the Sky was the Fire's first game, which came with all the trappings and emotional toll that come with such a historic occasion. Tuesday was their first win, which is a lot more fun of a milestone.
With a lot of these "firsts" are out of the way, it can just be about the basketball now. And that part could be ahead of schedule.
"Really tough to put into words how proud I am of the group," Sarama said. "That was special. Literally everything we asked them to do, they did. I haven't been part of a game that I've coached my whole career where the game plan was executed better than that. Just incredible. And I can't wait to see where we go as a group."
Donations help support independent coverage of the Portland Trail Blazers and Portland Fire.
