Sun 90, Fire 87: Back to winning ways, but still room for improvement

 I guess it’s a sign of progress when we can get frustrated with a Sun victory (their first over Portland in three meetings this season), but the fourth quarter was again a tough watch as the Sun finally held on. The collapse actually began late in the third quarter as Connecticut was cruising with a 15-point lead before things suddenly went awry and the Fire pressure stepped up.

Portland had absolutely no answer for the Sun’s size and strength with Rachid Meziane using two of Brittany Griner, Olivia Nelson-Ododa, and Aaliyah Edwards at (almost) all times, and it’s becoming somewhat of an identity for the Sun as they pounded the ball to the basket at will, particularly effective against the vertically challenged and expansion Fire.


Still, what seemed like an easy victory turned into a nailbiter, as it took a couple of big Edwards buckets down the stretch and eventually a defensive stop to finish it off.


If you watched this game, there seemed to be no doubt that the Sun were the better team, but a peek at the standings sees Portland four full games ahead of Connecticut including two previous wins over the Sun.


As I’ve said before, although the record doesn’t necessarily show it, the Sun are objectively much better this season than last and the advanced metrics bear that out. There’s also the matter of Griner, certainly Connecticut is much better with her on the floor as she was Tuesday.


There’s a good case to be made that the fruits of the Sun’s improvement really won’t be seen until next season when they will add a Top 2 draft pick to their already young roster. But that, of course, will be in Houston. How much improvement can they make in the last 20 games (with a long road trip coming up)? We shall see.


What else did we see in the Sun’s 90-87 win over Portland on the last Camp Day at Mohegan Sun Arena Tuesday?:



 

  1. Forming an identity  - The Sun are the worst outside shooting team in the league (a woeful 27.6% from behind the arc currently) and there’s hope that might improve in the future, but the coaching staff has been smart enough to figure out that their biggest strength is at the rim, so why bother even shooting many threes? They took just 14 (making just three) on Tuesday and just 26.6% of their field goal attempts are from behind the arc, by far the lowest in the WNBA (Golden State is at 45.0% with New York at 44.0%). Again, if they can add some long-range shooting in the future, it will definitely help. Speaking of …

  2. Tough run for Kennedy Burke - Burke was the big free agent signing (other than Griner, of course), but it’s been an increasing struggle for her this season, getting only 14 minutes (and scoring just two points), despite Aneesah Morrow and Saniya Rivers being out. She is shooting 30.1% from behind the arc and just hasn’t been able to get into the flow as a featured part of the offense, and even with Diamond Miller’s shooting being a struggle, she’s been a better option.

  3. Alex Sarama may be building something -  The young Fire coach is no Natalie Nakase yet, but he seems to have overachieved so far this season, and - like Nakase - seems to have an identity he wants to achieve: forcing turnovers and looking to create havoc. He hasn’t quite been able to pull it off in 2026, but we’ll see as the roster builds in the next couple of seasons whether he can. 


Player of the game:  Aaliyah Edwards - Perhaps her best game in a Sun uniform, she scored 13 in the first quarter and finished with 21 points and eight rebounds. Once she gets rolling, she is very strong going to the basket, and the Fire certainly had no one to match up with her.


Inside the numbers : 14 -  Number of turnovers for the Sun, which isn’t great, especially a stretch at the end of the third quarter where Lacan was out of the game, but it was worse in Portland and 14 was just low enough to get the job done.


Under the radar: Portland doubled Griner any time they could, which led to the Sun just trying to reverse the ball to find better angles to get it to her. The doubles allowed Griner to get six assists and free things up for the likes of Edwards and Nelson-Ododa, but I don’t think Portland had much of a choice with the lack of size on their roster.


If Morrow and Rivers return soon, it will be interesting to see where their minutes come from. I already mentioned Burke got just 14 minutes, even with this alignment. Nell Angloma played 11 minutes, but they were pretty effective, so it will be interesting to see how Meziane tries to manage things if and when the Sun ever become completely healthy.


Quotable:  “Athletically it was just difficult to contain them. We’ve struggled this year with teams that have those athletic bigs like the Sun do. Their length, size, and skill was tough to deal with. BG and Edwards just got what they wanted tonight. We weren’t disruptive enough, although it was better in the second half." - Portland coach Alex Sarama


Next up: Friday at Phoenix, 10 p.m.

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