Fire’s Upset of Shorthanded Liberty Was Notable

The Portland Fire’s win over the New York Liberty will likely go down as the biggest upset we see in the WNBA this season.

That does not mean we suddenly need to rewrite the entire league outlook. I am still confident Portland is the worst team in the league, although the Connecticut Sun are certainly in that conversation too. New York, meanwhile, remains one of the best teams in the W. One shocking result does not create league-wide parity overnight.

But it does create a moment.

The Fire entered the season with a young roster built mostly from role players, development projects, and pieces other teams chose to leave unprotected in the expansion draft. That is not usually a recipe for early success. Expansion teams generally need time, patience, and a lot of ugly nights before they find any kind of rhythm.

Portland needed only two games to get its first win.

Even more surprising, the Fire did not beat a rebuilding team like Connecticut or Seattle. They beat the New York Liberty.

Now, context matters. New York was short-handed, with Satou Sabally and Sabrina Ionescu sidelined and Leonie Fiebich still competing in Spain. That absolutely changes the Liberty’s ceiling and offensive structure.

Still, this is New York. A team featuring Breanna Stewart, Jonquel Jones, and Betnijah Laney-Hamilton should be able to beat an expansion team led by Bridget Carleton, Carla Leite, and Luisa Geiselsöder.

That is what makes this result so jarring.

The Fire deserve credit. They competed, stayed connected, and took advantage of the opportunity in front of them. But I would be careful overreacting. This still looks like a very limited Portland roster over the long haul.

For one night, though, the Fire delivered a shocker.

And New York gave away a game it had no business losing.