If things around the Moda Center seem a little less glittery over the next two weeks, there\u2019s a reason.<\/p>\n
The Portland Fire (along with the rest of the WNBA) is taking a big ol\u2019 break for the 2026 FIBA World Cup<\/a> in Berlin, Germany. Though the Fire doesn\u2019t have a player on Team USA, six members of the team will travel overseas to support their home nations. Carla Leite will represent France, Frieda B\u00fchner and Luisa Geisels\u00f6der will represent Germany, Amy Okonkwo will represent Nigeria, and Megan DiLeo will represent Spain, where she\u2019ll play alongside one of the team\u2019s 2026 WNBA draft picks, Iyana Mart\u00edn.<\/p>\n (For the curious, the Team USA roster includes the Indiana Fever\u2019s Aliyah Boston and Caitlin Clark, the Atlanta Dream\u2019s Angel Reese and Rhyne Howard, the Las Vegas Aces\u2019 Chelsea Gray and Jackie Young, the Washington Mystics\u2019 Sonia Citron and Kiki Iriafen, the Minnesota Lynx\u2019s Napheesa Collier, the Dallas Wings\u2019 Paige Bueckers, the Phoenix Mercury\u2019s Kahleah Copper, and the New York Liberty\u2019s Breanna Stewart.)<\/p>\n In fact, DiLeo is on a bit of a special basketball mission in Germany. She\u2019ll link up with Mart\u00edn, who opted to stay in Spain this season and will join the Fire next year. As she told reporters this weekend, the pair haven\u2019t been super connected this season\u2014but all of that will change.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m excited to play with Iyana again and get her into the fold with Portland Fire and how we work,\u201d she told reporters after the team\u2019s loss to the Golden State Valkyries on August 30.<\/p>\n Head coach Alex Sarama (who\u2019s getting married over the break!) also said he appreciates that Mart\u00edn will get a crash course in all things Fire. \u201cI think it\u2019s great for Iyana to know more about what\u2019s going on here. We think we\u2019ve got something really special here,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n The break will also give the rest of the team a little time to relax, hoop, and enjoy the city that many of them are living in for the first time. That\u2019s likely to be something they deeply appreciate, especially after embarking on a bit of a grueling hurtle towards the season\u2019s end.<\/p>\n The Fire traveled to Atlanta and put on a show.<\/p>\n The Fire dominated the Atlanta Dream on August 28 with a commanding beginning-to-end showdown led by Leite and Emily Engstler, who had 26 and 25 points, respectively. Engstler, who has not been shy about her desire to win as many games as possible, even though the team will miss the playoffs, put on a career-high performance in terms of points scored, but also reminded everyone (yet again! As if we could forget!) just how strong her defensive prowess is with four steals and four blocks.\u00a0<\/p>\n The win was a big one for the Fire for several reasons. The Dream are a top-five WNBA team, and they aren\u2019t easy to take down, but the Fire\u2019s had their number all season. They kept Atlanta out of the paint, thus limiting their opp\u2019s chances to score. All in all, the game was a defensive masterclass and a great example of what the Fire needs to do more of next season.<\/p>\n Sarama had high praise for the team. \u201cI thought [it was] one of the better games we played all season,\u201d he told reporters in Atlanta. \u201cAs a group, \u2018relentless\u2019 is one of our values. I think to show that with the number of games left in the season, when we\u2019re out of the playoffs race,\u00a0 it says a lot about the character we have on this team.\u201d<\/p>\n The Valkyries beat the Fire\u2014but at least the corgis were cute.<\/p>\n The Fire returned home to host the Golden State Valkyries on August 30 in the Fire Pit, a game that was always going to be tough. When the Fire is on, the team is defensively strong, but the Valkyries are the top defensive team in the WNBA.\u00a0<\/p>\n Fans were treated to a visit from Sarah Ashlee Barker, who\u2019s been missing in action since tearing her ACL on July 22. Barker, who was decked out in a pink blazer that very nearly matched the team\u2019s mascot Rose, waved to fans and spoke to reporters ahead of the game.<\/p>\n She noted it was \u201creally nice\u201d to return to Birmingham, Alabama, and that she wanted the same surgeon who had previously worked on her knee to perform the necessary operation following her tear. But then around \u201cweek three,\u201d she realized, \u201cI got to get back to Portland. This feels like my home now. It is my home now.\u201d<\/p>\n The Fire\u2019s 86-69 loss to the Valkyries didn\u2019t feel good, but Sarama still celebrated the \u201cgroup\u2019s effort in the second half\u201d of the match, and noted that their \u201cdisruptive\u201d style of play will be \u201cgreat to get a look at next season.\u201d<\/p>\n The halftime show also featured a corgi race, something that delighted fans of the breed and which apparently didn\u2019t rattle the dogs too much. DiLeo\u2019s own corgi, Pancake, served as the race\u2019s \u201crufferee,\u201d and the Fire determined<\/a> that \u201cwhether they raced for glory or just for the post-race snacks, every corgi is a winner.\u201d (In true Portland fashion, \u201ceveryone\u2019s a winner\u201d was not the takeaway from the team\u2019s toddler dunk contest<\/a> a few weeks ago, when only one child was awarded a trophy.)<\/p>\n The Fire\u2019s next game is September 17, when the team hosts the Phoenix Mercury. Fans who want to watch the FIBA World Cup can do so via TNT, TruTV, and HBO Max from September 4 through September 13.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"If things around the Moda Center seem a little less glittery over the next two weeks, there\u2019s a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":833626,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[99,434],"class_list":["post-833625","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wnba","tag-sports","tag-wnba"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/833625","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=833625"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/833625\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/833626"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=833625"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=833625"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=833625"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}