Fire vs. Dream: Portland Shoots 60 Percent, Gets 17 From Megan DiLeo in 102-92 Win Over Reese-Less Atlanta

Three Portland reserves shot 14 for 15 on Saturday. That's not a hot quarter or a nice stretch before regression showed up. Serah Williams, Frieda Buhner and Teja Oblak did it across the entire game, and by the end Atlanta looked like a team trying to bail out a boat with a cocktail fork.

The Portland Fire won 102-92 at Gateway Center, shooting 60 percent and hitting 14 threes against an Atlanta Dream team playing without Angel Reese. Megan DiLeo led with 17 points, seven Fire players reached double figures, and two of them, Emily Engstler and Carla Leite, posted double-doubles. Reese watched from the bench with her right foot in a boot, and she had a good view of the problem.

Eight Threes Short of a Fair Fight

Portland set the tone early by getting whatever it wanted in two different ways. The Fire went 5 for 5 inside the arc and 4 of 9 from three in the first quarter, weathering an 8-0 Atlanta run and answering with an 8-0 stretch of their own that bridged the quarters. It was 25-23 after one. Five more threes in the second pushed the lead to 51-44 at the break.

Atlanta's best moment came right after halftime. Rhyne Howard hit two early threes, a 9-0 run in about a minute turned a 59-51 deficit into a 60-59 lead, and the Dream eventually went up 70-67 with under four minutes to go in the third. In a game that featured 14 lead changes, it looked like the home team had finally found its footing.

It hadn't. Portland scored 16 of the next 21 points to close the third at 83-75, a 32-point quarter that was the Fire's best of the night. Atlanta would not lead again. Oblak's 24-foot three with 4:51 left made it 91-81, Portland's first double-digit lead, and her floater at 3:28 stretched it to 95-83.

The Dream made one last push when Madina Okot and Howard got to the line and Naz Hillmon hit a 23-footer at 1:16, cutting it to 98-92. Nyadiew Puoch's layup off an Engstler feed at 54.2 ended that, and Leite's two free throws with 29.5 seconds left closed the scoring.

Seven Scorers and Nobody to Stop

DiLeo was the most consistent of the group, scoring 17 on 7-of-11 shooting with two threes and four rebounds in 27 minutes. Engstler filled up everything: 14 points, 11 rebounds, four assists, three steals and a block. Leite had 13 points and 10 assists, eight of the points at the line, despite six turnovers and five fouls. Bridget Carleton scored 12 and did all of it from three, going 4 of 8, with two blocks and two steals on the side.

Then came the second unit. Williams scored 15 in 13 minutes without missing a shot, going 6 of 6 from the field and 3 of 3 at the line. Buhner had 11 on 4-of-5 shooting, three of them threes. Oblak scored 10 on 4-of-4 shooting and dished seven assists. Those three were the difference. Portland's bench outscored Atlanta's 37-18, and Oblak's plus-12 was the best of the group.

Atlanta had its own bright spots. Allisha Gray scored 20, though she went 8 of 18 and 1 of 6 from three. Okot, starting in Reese's spot, had a career-high 19 points and eight rebounds and made all five of her free throws. Hillmon added 15 and eight boards, Sika Kone gave the Dream 11 off the bench, and Jordin Canada had 10 points and 12 assists. Howard scored 10 but needed nine shots and went 2 of 8 from deep. And yet the Dream shot 44 percent to Portland's 60, which is a gap no amount of effort on the glass can fully close.

Portland's 16-5 Finish to the Third

If you want one stretch that decided it, take the last few minutes of the third quarter. Atlanta had just wiped out an eight-point deficit and gone up three, with the crowd of 3,577 back in it. A road team that had just watched a 51-44 halftime lead vanish could have folded right there. Instead Portland closed the quarter on a 16-5 run and took an eight-point lead into the fourth.

That response is what stood out. Reese's absence didn't show up on the offensive glass, where the Dream grabbed 12 rebounds to Portland's two, or in the paint, where Atlanta won 52-40. It showed up at the other end, in a defense that couldn't keep pace with a Fire offense assisting on 28 of its 36 baskets. Atlanta also lost the turnover math, even with 17 Portland giveaways, because every empty Dream trip seemed to end with another Fire three.

The Numbers That Mattered

• 3-pointers: Portland 14 of 29, Atlanta 6 of 30. That's a 24-point gap from deep.
• Field goals: Portland 36 of 60, Atlanta 33 of 75.
• Assists: Portland 28, Atlanta 25.
• Bench points: Portland 37, Atlanta 18.
• Offensive rebounds: Atlanta 12, Portland 2, the one category that kept the Dream alive.

Where Things Stand

The Fire improve to 10-13 and 4-7 on the road, evening the season series after an 86-66 loss to Atlanta in Portland in May. They head to Connecticut on Tuesday.

The Dream fall to 13-10 and 7-4 at home. Thursday's 89-78 win over Seattle ended a five-game skid, and this loss makes it six defeats in seven games. The Sparks come to College Park on Monday, and the first order of business will be finding out whether Reese can get out of that boot.

Put a Three on It

Portlandia had a running bit about putting a bird on everything, whether or not the thing needed one. The Fire spent Saturday in Atlanta putting a three on it, 14 times in 29 tries, with a bench that barely bothered to miss. It's a simple approach, it was funny when it started, and by the fourth quarter nobody in College Park was laughing.

Stats from the official box score via ESPN. Game details as reported by the Associated Press.