PORTLAND, ORE. — With thirty minutes to go before tipoff, the fully sold out Moda Center was buzzing with a kind of soft hum. Kids wearing headphones were seated between their parents, smiling and excitedly looking around. Upon finding their seats, various fans smiled at the black t-shirts waiting for them, most throwing them on immediately over what they wore to the game. The Moda Center was like a lot of Portlanders themselves: cheerful but reserved, willing to make room for others and eagerly awaiting whatever’s about to happen.
But that soft hum gave way to a kind of electric energy as the clock crept closer to the game’s beginning. People wearing sequined red jackets and Fire jerseys took their seats; a number of red caps filled the arena. Portland was, is, ready to welcome their team — and that team was ready for them.
The Fire took the court to shoot around 24 minutes before the game with sirens blaring, something that sent a roar through the crowd and also resulted in the volume of the pregame music to shoot way up. The song was rhythmic, pulsating and wordless. Player facts flashed on the Jumbotron, interspersed with close-up shots of the team.
Fire GM Vanja Černivec told reporters before the game that she’s seen all the articles putting the team at dead last this season. She’s seen them, but she’s not convinced they tell the truth — and she knows they don’t tell the whole story.
“I think we just have players that, you know, similar to last year [with the Golden State Valkyries]… If I remember the stories was the same last year, right?” Černivec said. “So the roster that was on the paper — everybody was just okay. No one has had significant minutes. No one has been a major role player in any of the teams, right?”
“So there were players that were on a verge of getting more minutes, but no one has done it yet, not in this league, maybe internationally. And I think we look kind of the same outside and even Bridget [Carleton]… I know how we value Bridget, but in Minnesota, she always came from the bench and was a role player. So I think that’s the part that they were missing. Like, who are these players that you know will be able to be another Veronica Burton story?”
Listen now to The IX Sports Podcast and Women’s Sports Daily
We are excited to announce the launch of TWO new podcasts for all the women’s sports fans out there looking for a daily dose of women’s sports news and analysis. Stream on Spotify, Apple Podcasts or anywhere you listen to podcasts, and make sure to subscribe!
The team was introduced with all of the elements you’d expect: a dance team called the Firewerks, plenty of flames (both literal and artistically rendered), and even actual fireworks. The players of the visiting Chicago Sky were introduced to varying degrees of applause (Skylar Diggins and Gabriela Jaquez received the most), before the Fire took to the court and were introduced.
At the Jumbotron’s urging, fans got loud. The Sky took the floor quickly for tipoff, and within minutes the Fire was officially back.
Carla Leite scored the team’s first points just over a minute into the game, and moments later Geiselsöder thrilled with a three that encouraged parts of the crowd to their feet. The teams traded shots and fouls as a simmering crowd alternately groaned and cheered. The Fire pulled ahead by two (to great excitement) for the first time with 4:45 left on the clock.
The teams headed into their locker rooms with the Sky up by 13 at the half, something that didn’t stop fans from applauding them off the court, but did set a requirement for the third: getting buckets.
Leite attempted to answer the call immediately and got fouled in the process; Emily Engstler added two to the team’s total to bring the score to 52-43. Carleton knocked back two threes soon after to get some good trouble going — all of the sudden, the score was 52-49 and just under eight minutes were left.
The third quarter saw a spark of disruption when the Fire stole the ball and thoroughly confused the Sky. That’s the kind of good trouble coach Alex Sarama hopes the Fire gets up to this season, and was something that had him jumping out of his chair to celebrate. Tension returned to the Moda Center — fans with furrowed brows cheered when Megan Gustafson hit a pair of threes, when Jordan Harrison zoomed up and down the court with her trademark speed, when the Sky made any kind of mistake at all.
When the last minute of the quarter saw Geiselsöder completely stop the Sky in their tracks, Sarama was again on his feet. The Moda half-filled with a rousing “Let’s go, Fire” chant for the first time in the game, to which Sarah Ashlee Barker responded with two points. Seconds later, the Moda was thundering with fans encouraging defensive prowess at top volume and full participation, many jumping to their feet as the quarter ended 68-67.
They didn’t have long to wait. Carleton soon hit another three to tie the game 70-70, a tie that was quickly broken after Rickea Jackson shot and made two free throws (despite the best efforts of Fire fans, who booed and waved their arms in an attempt to throw her off).
Sarama gained more fans when he challenged a call four and a half minutes into the fourth; the review period prompted a sustained wave that circled the bowl. The resulting boos after Sarama’s challenge proved unsuccessful were loud and rife with disdain.
The game ended with a Sky 98-83 win (and a big three from Leite) and by many measures wasn’t the Fire’s night, but there’s a lot to be proud of, and a lot that was pretty singularly representative of the city the team calls home.
A timeout halfway through the fourth prompted a t-shirt toss as Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit” played; fans screamed the chorus with a gusto that possibly hasn’t been felt since the band last played Portland in 1992. Fans stood to applaud the team at the game’s end, and have next week’s match against the New York Liberty to look forward to.
Despite the loss, the Fire is back.