Seattle Storm Unable to Make Final Push in 84-82 Loss Against Portland Fire
By Teren Kowatsch
Seattle, WA - With just a few seconds left in a game between the Seattle Storm and Portland Fire on Friday at Climate Pledge Arena, the Storm inbounded the ball with a chance to either send the game to overtime or earn the win.
A long two-point attempt on the wing from guard Natisha Hiedeman bounced off the glass and ricocheted off the near-side of the rim, and Seattle’s attempt fell short, resulting in an 84-82 win for Portland.
Seattle Storm guard Natisha Hiedeman during the team’s 84-82 loss to the Portland Fire on Friday, August 14th, 2026, at Climate Pledge Arena. (Photos by Bryant Garduque for Circling Seattle Sports)
The Fire, in their first season in the WNBA since the first iteration of the franchise folded back in 2002, earned the season sweep against their Pacific Northwest rivals. The hosts lost all four games they played against their southbound I-5 neighbors.
The Storm didn’t have the lead at all Friday, but they came within a hair of making the final push several times throughout the game.
Seattle was down by as much as 16 in the fourth quarter before mounting its comeback that fell a shot attempt shy.
Center Awa Fam was the engine behind the Storm’s second-half surge. The rookie had 20 points off the bench, a team-high.
“We know that Portland are gonna crash into the paint,” Seattle center Ezi Magbegor said in a postgame interview Friday. “We kind of went through that at practice, at shoot-around, knowing that we needed to find open players, and I think we did a great job at that.”
Seattle Storm forward/center Awa Fam during the team’s 84-82 loss to the Portland Fire on Friday, August 14th, 2026, at Climate Pledge Arena. (Photos by Bryant Garduque for Circling Seattle Sports)
In addition to adding nine rebounds and a steal, Fam went 7-for-12 from the field, including a 4-for-8 mark from 3-point range. The rookie played 22 minutes on Friday, a high for her since moving to the bench.
“I think seeing what the spacing is going to be on the court or what the team’s defense rotations are … I think Awa’s done a really good job in that department, overall,” Seattle head coach Sonia Raman said after the game. “Part of it is she’s really good on the perimeter and she’s a really good shooter. … We were trying to be really intentional in the last couple days in practice of talking about that and making sure we do find her and we are trying to target here when she’s on the floor.”
The Storm’s comeback came after it was down 48-36 going into halftime. Their early deficit was spurred by a 26-16 first quarter from Portland. Sixteen of those points came from Fire guard Holly Winterburn. She finished the game with 20 points on 8-for-14 shooting.
“(Winterburn) had a really good first quarter; I think she had 16 in that first quarter,” Raman said. “Just some lapses. I thought she took advantage in transition and some one-on-one stuff. … I would say a lot of that was we just weren’t playing in gaps enough defensively in our shell.”
Another contributing factor to Seattle’s deficit was its scoring in the paint. Portland’s defense, which gave the Storm trouble in the paint in the last matchup Aug. 8, allowed just 12 makes on 39 attempts inside from Seattle.
As the game progressed, this led to more 3-point shooting opportunities for the Storm, which resulted in Fam’s aforementioned 4-for-8 clip beyond the arc, a 2-for-4 day for Magbegor, a 3-for-5 mark for guard Jade Melbourne and a 3-for-9 night for forward Jordan Horston.
Seattle Storm forward/center Ezi Magbegor during the team’s 84-82 loss to the Portland Fire on Friday, August 14th, 2026, at Climate Pledge Arena. (Photos by Bryant Garduque for Circling Seattle Sports)
With the interior mostly cut off, the 3-point attempts helped Seattle chip its deficit down to a single possession multiple times in the second half, culminating in a 3-pointer from Hiedeman with six seconds to go that brought the Storm to within one.
Quick notes from Storm PR
12,596 was the announced attendance at Climate Pledge Arena for this WNBA regular season game between the visiting Portland Fire and the Seattle Storm.
Seattle is still looking to find that extra push in close contests, and it has eight more games left on the schedule to do so. The next game the Storm will have to find that extra gear will be the final of their three-game homestand at 2 p.m. PT on Sunday against the Chicago Sky at Climate Pledge Arena.
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