For the second time in two weeks, the New York Liberty were iced by a clutch basket from the Portland Fire. In their first matchup, it was a Sarah Ashlee Barker put-back. Now it was a Carla Leite dagger that put the game firmly in Portland’s lap. The expansion team eventually won the game 81-74 and the regular-season series 2-1 against the Liberty. But how did a team comprised of previously role players go past a side expected to contend for the title twice? Vindication. 

The Liberty and Portland were firmly on opposite sides of the spectrum during preseason previews. New York was aiming to be the crème de la crème with a coaching change and additions like Satou Sabally. “The way this roster is being set up, they’re not worried so much about this season. They’re looking far into the future, not just this season,” Lawrencia Moten said regarding the Portland Fire on the ESPN deep dive. Alex Sarama and Co. were hell-bent on destroying this exact narrative. 

“What we just spoke about in the locker room is the resiliency we’ve shown throughout the season,” Sarama said in his opening statement after the game. “We have a chip on our shoulder, trying to prove everyone wrong, and we feel in that locker room that we’ve got something special going on in Portland.”

Slowly but surely, they are succeeding. The first win over Liberty could have been seen as a one-off, but now they have defeated them twice in a span of a few days. And the confidence was oozing in the players as well. Especially Carla Leite, who waved off her teammates and called an iso against Breanna Stewart to hit the crucial three-pointer. 

“I would say, prove to the people that they’re wrong. Because we saw the comments,” Leite said. “There is a lot of negative parts, so I think, like, we show to everybody that we can compete in this league.”

Sarama’s side is now 4-3 with two other wins coming against Toronto and the Sun. The Toronto win is also significant because they are going with a win-now attitude. With Sandy Brondello at the helm, the Tempo have a million-dollar backcourt in Brittney Sykes and Marina Mabrey and this team blew them out by 19 points. Keep in mind that no player in this team averaged in double digits until this season. 

After averaging 7.2 points a game in 2025, Leite is now scoring 15.6 points a game while dishing out 4.2 assists. Bridget Carleton has gone from being a role player in Minnesota to averaging 15.6 points a game for Portland. The central reason behind this early success is the clear identity formed by Alex Sarama. 

Alex Sarama Details Defensive Identity After Bridget Carleton’s Clear Admission

A couple of weeks ago, Bridget Carleton summarized the team’s goal in eight words. “We want to be annoying to play against,” said Carleton. And so far they have certainly been the team that teams can’t get off their backs. Three of their four wins have come in games where they were down by significant points at one point. 

Even in the games they did lose, they made the teams run for their money. Against Chicago, they had a 30 point third quarter, while against Indiana, they had a late rally that eventually proved too late.  And Sarama agrees with that characterization, focusing on defense as the starting point for the Portland Fire. 

“Defensively, we’ve continuously talked about taking calculated risks. What I don’t believe in defensively is playing conservatively and letting offenses get freely to the spots and positions where they want to initiate actions,” he said. “We’re trying to disrupt that the whole time—disrupt their timing, spacing, and positioning. Being intentional with that is what’s allowing us to get steals and force turnovers, and that fuels our offense because we’re getting out in transition.”

The Fire leads the league in steals, with 8.4 per game and also induces turnovers at 15.9 per game. Nearly a quarter of their points (23.7%) come off turnovers, the highest rate in the league. However, to really compete in this league, the team needs to evolve with time to gain consistency. They are conceding 10.1 points per game from fastbreaks on the other end and the defensive rating lags at 110. 3. But Sarama and Co. have made a clear statement that they are not a team to underestimate.