Fire vs. Storm: Bridget Carleton Scores 24 as Portland Hands Seattle Its 11th Straight Loss

Seattle had it down to four with under five minutes to play. Four points, on the road, against a team that had been sitting on a five-game skid until two nights earlier. For a franchise searching for anything resembling a break, this was the opening. Then Nyadiew Puoch and Bridget Carleton pulled up from deep on consecutive trips, and the 15,294 at Moda Center started celebrating early.

Carleton scored 24, Puoch added 19, and the Portland Fire held off a late charge to beat the Storm 100-93 on Saturday night, handing Seattle its 11th straight loss. According to the Associated Press, the Storm are now the first team in WNBA history with two double-digit losing streaks in the same season.

Thirty Points, Then a Very Long Silence

Seattle actually started like the better team, pouring in 30 first-quarter points and leading 30-25 in the final minute of the period. Portland answered with 14 straight, a run that began late in the first and stretched into the second, flipping the game to 39-30 with 7:01 left before halftime. A Carleton 3 later made it 44-35, and the Fire went to the locker room up 56-47.

The third quarter was a slow leak. Portland pushed its lead to 14, Seattle kept nibbling, and by the end of the period it was 75-70. Ezi Magbegor's jumper early in the fourth cut it to 75-72, and for a stretch the Storm looked like they had remembered how this is supposed to go. Jordan Harrison's 3 made it 82-75 with 7:26 left, Seattle got back within 82-78, and that was when Portland delivered the decisive blow.

Puoch hit a 3. Carleton hit a 3. Puoch drove for an and-one. That was nine points in 67 seconds, and when Carleton buried another one from 24 feet with 2:58 left, it was 94-79, a 12-1 burst and Portland's largest lead of the night.

Seattle, to its credit, refused to fade. Jordan Horston hit two 3s and Dominique Malonga scored inside as the Storm ripped off nine straight in 81 seconds, making it 94-88 with 1:15 left. Holly Winterburn's layup and two free throws from Harrison took the air back out of it, and Malonga's 25-footer with 14.5 seconds remaining only made the final look closer than it felt.

Carleton Steady, Puoch Dangerous

Carleton was the adult in the room: 24 points on 9-of-19 shooting, four 3s, six rebounds, four assists and no drama. Puoch might have been the more interesting story. She scored 19 on just nine shots, went 4 of 7 from deep, collected three steals and made her biggest plays when Portland needed somebody other than Carleton to take the pressure.

Starter Carla Leite logged just four minutes, all four of her points coming at the line, and Portland barely blinked. Harrison stepped in for 13 points, seven rebounds and six assists in 28 minutes, and Winterburn came off the bench to add seven assists in 17 minutes. Karlie Samuelson went 3 of 4 from deep for nine points, and five Fire players finished in double figures.

Jade Melbourne led Seattle with 23, making four 3s but needing 12 tries to get them. Malonga was a problem all night with 21 points, nine rebounds, four of them offensive, and a perfect 6 of 6 at the line. Horston may have been the most effective Storm player of all, scoring 17 on 6-of-10 shooting off the bench and finishing plus-13 for a team that lost by seven. Natisha Hiedeman, meanwhile, played 32 minutes and scored two.

It was also a rough evening for Flau'jae Johnson, who went 3 of 10. The AP reports she needed help getting off the floor in the third, with 5:14 on the clock and what looked like an ankle injury. She was back on the bench before the quarter ended and returned to the game briefly in the fourth. The Storm were already without Katie Lou Samuelson, who had been questionable with a knee injury.

Three Trips, Three Winterburn Assists

That 82-78 score was the last real pressure point of the night, and the way Portland answered it is worth a second look. All three baskets in the 9-0 run came off Winterburn feeds. Three trips, three assists, nine points, and a Seattle defense that was a step behind on each of them. The Storm's late 9-0 charge only shows how expensive that minute was. Trim those 67 seconds down to a normal exchange and Seattle is playing a one-possession game at the end instead of chasing the clock.

Stats That Matter

• 3-pointers: Portland 15 of 36, Seattle 13 of 36. Same volume, six extra points.
• Fast-break points: Portland 12, Seattle 4.
• Assists: Portland 25, Seattle 19.
• Blocks: Seattle 6, Portland 1, the one category the Storm truly owned.
• Control: Despite nine lead changes, Portland held the lead for 80 percent of the game.

A Modest Win Streak and a Historic Losing One

Portland is 13-19 overall and 8-9 at home. The Fire have won two straight, starting with Thursday's 97-83 result against fellow expansion team Toronto that ended the five-game slide, and they have now beaten Seattle in all three meetings this season. Minnesota comes to Moda Center on Wednesday night.

Seattle is 6-28 and 2-17 on the road. The Storm also dropped 11 in a row between May 27 and June 22, per the AP. They have not won since July 6, an 82-64 result in Los Angeles. Chicago visits on Monday night.

This One Goes to 11

In This Is Spinal Tap, the whole joke is an amp that goes to 11 because 11 is one louder. Seattle has now turned that into a season-long bit, reaching 11 twice in the same summer and doing it with a completely straight face. The difference is that nobody in Seattle is laughing. On a night the Storm scored 93, made the home team sweat in the final minutes and still lost by seven, the band just kept playing, and the volume never came down.

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