If things around the Moda Center seem a little less glittery over the next two weeks, there’s a reason.
The Portland Fire (along with the rest of the WNBA) is taking a big ol’ break for the 2026 FIBA World Cup in Berlin, Germany. Though the Fire doesn’t have a player on Team USA, six members of the team will travel overseas to support their home nations. Carla Leite will represent France, Frieda Bühner and Luisa Geiselsöder will represent Germany, Amy Okonkwo will represent Nigeria, and Megan DiLeo will represent Spain, where she’ll play alongside one of the team’s 2026 WNBA draft picks, Iyana Martín.
(For the curious, the Team USA roster includes the Indiana Fever’s Aliyah Boston and Caitlin Clark, the Atlanta Dream’s Angel Reese and Rhyne Howard, the Las Vegas Aces’ Chelsea Gray and Jackie Young, the Washington Mystics’ Sonia Citron and Kiki Iriafen, the Minnesota Lynx’s Napheesa Collier, the Dallas Wings’ Paige Bueckers, the Phoenix Mercury’s Kahleah Copper, and the New York Liberty’s Breanna Stewart.)
In fact, DiLeo is on a bit of a special basketball mission in Germany. She’ll link up with Martín, who opted to stay in Spain this season and will join the Fire next year. As she told reporters this weekend, the pair haven’t been super connected this season—but all of that will change.
“I’m excited to play with Iyana again and get her into the fold with Portland Fire and how we work,” she told reporters after the team’s loss to the Golden State Valkyries on August 30.
Head coach Alex Sarama (who’s getting married over the break!) also said he appreciates that Martín will get a crash course in all things Fire. “I think it’s great for Iyana to know more about what’s going on here. We think we’ve got something really special here,” he said.
The break will also give the rest of the team a little time to relax, hoop, and enjoy the city that many of them are living in for the first time. That’s likely to be something they deeply appreciate, especially after embarking on a bit of a grueling hurtle towards the season’s end.
The Fire traveled to Atlanta and put on a show.
The Fire dominated the Atlanta Dream on August 28 with a commanding beginning-to-end showdown led by Leite and Emily Engstler, who had 26 and 25 points, respectively. Engstler, who has not been shy about her desire to win as many games as possible, even though the team will miss the playoffs, put on a career-high performance in terms of points scored, but also reminded everyone (yet again! As if we could forget!) just how strong her defensive prowess is with four steals and four blocks.
The win was a big one for the Fire for several reasons. The Dream are a top-five WNBA team, and they aren’t easy to take down, but the Fire’s had their number all season. They kept Atlanta out of the paint, thus limiting their opp’s chances to score. All in all, the game was a defensive masterclass and a great example of what the Fire needs to do more of next season.
Sarama had high praise for the team. “I thought [it was] one of the better games we played all season,” he told reporters in Atlanta. “As a group, ‘relentless’ is one of our values. I think to show that with the number of games left in the season, when we’re out of the playoffs race, it says a lot about the character we have on this team.”
The Valkyries beat the Fire—but at least the corgis were cute.
The Fire returned home to host the Golden State Valkyries on August 30 in the Fire Pit, a game that was always going to be tough. When the Fire is on, the team is defensively strong, but the Valkyries are the top defensive team in the WNBA.
Fans were treated to a visit from Sarah Ashlee Barker, who’s been missing in action since tearing her ACL on July 22. Barker, who was decked out in a pink blazer that very nearly matched the team’s mascot Rose, waved to fans and spoke to reporters ahead of the game.
She noted it was “really nice” to return to Birmingham, Alabama, and that she wanted the same surgeon who had previously worked on her knee to perform the necessary operation following her tear. But then around “week three,” she realized, “I got to get back to Portland. This feels like my home now. It is my home now.”
The Fire’s 86-69 loss to the Valkyries didn’t feel good, but Sarama still celebrated the “group’s effort in the second half” of the match, and noted that their “disruptive” style of play will be “great to get a look at next season.”
The halftime show also featured a corgi race, something that delighted fans of the breed and which apparently didn’t rattle the dogs too much. DiLeo’s own corgi, Pancake, served as the race’s “rufferee,” and the Fire determined that “whether they raced for glory or just for the post-race snacks, every corgi is a winner.” (In true Portland fashion, “everyone’s a winner” was not the takeaway from the team’s toddler dunk contest a few weeks ago, when only one child was awarded a trophy.)
The Fire’s next game is September 17, when the team hosts the Phoenix Mercury. Fans who want to watch the FIBA World Cup can do so via TNT, TruTV, and HBO Max from September 4 through September 13.