Kaitlyn Chen and Laeticia Amihere ignite Valkyries’ breakaway in 82-66 win over Portland

The game turned when the ball started moving

The opening quarter belonged to the kind of uncertainty that keeps a favorite from getting comfortable. Golden State scored the first four points through Kayla Thornton and Tiffany Hayes, but Portland kept answering. Nyadiew Puoch hit a step-back jumper, Emily Engstler drilled a three, and by the time Holly Winterburn completed a three-point play at 2:38, the Fire had pulled even. Frieda Buhner’s layup with 33.2 seconds left nudged Portland ahead 18-16, Juste Jocyte answered with a step-back three at 11.6 seconds, and Carla Leite’s late free throws sent the Fire into the break up 20-19. It was a real contest then, one with four lead changes and no sign yet of the separation to come.

Golden State created that separation in the second quarter by turning scattered offense into connected offense. Jocyte opened the period with a jumper, Laeticia Amihere scored twice at the rim, Hayes added another driving finish, and suddenly a 22-22 game had become 28-22. Portland stayed close for a few possessions, but the Valkyries closed the half with the cleaner stretch: Kaitlyn Chen hit from deep at 2:54, Thornton followed with another three at 2:25, and Golden State took a 40-30 lead into halftime after winning the quarter 21-10.

The third quarter was where the game stopped looking negotiable. Portland trimmed the score to 44-39 on Winterburn’s short jumper at 7:13, close enough to make the next few minutes matter. Golden State responded with a 23-10 finish to the period. Thornton buried a three at 4:53, Amihere hit from long range at 3:06 and scored inside again at 2:43, Hayes kept producing around the basket, and Chen closed the quarter with a 30-footer at 10.2 seconds. What had been a workable deficit became 67-49, and that was the decisive turn.

Chen and Amihere supplied the extra gear

Chen and Amihere gave Golden State the kind of secondary scoring punch that changes a game’s feel. Chen finished with 17 points on 6-of-10 shooting and went 5-of-8 from three, with makes that arrived at important moments rather than in empty time. Her second-quarter three helped build the halftime cushion, her deep make at the end of the third put a stamp on the period, and her early fourth-quarter shots pushed the margin from comfortable to commanding. Amihere matched her with 17 points of her own on 6-of-10 shooting, adding four rebounds, three assists, two steals and two blocks. Her pair of second-quarter layups started the middle-game swing, and her third- and fourth-quarter threes helped make sure Portland never got a final push.

Hayes and Veronica Burton stitched the whole thing together. Hayes scored 13 points and handed out seven assists, which is another way of saying she was involved in nearly every important Golden State stretch. Burton scored only four, but six steals from a guard line up neatly with the bigger defensive picture: the Valkyries finished with 14 steals and seven blocks as a team. Add Jocyte’s nine points, including a three late in the first quarter and another early in the fourth, and Golden State’s team line starts to explain itself: 21 assists on 29 made field goals and 13 made threes overall.

Portland had useful performances, just not enough of them at once. Buhner was the sharpest finisher, scoring 14 points on 6-of-10 shooting and hitting twice from beyond the arc. Leite added 12 points and six assists, while Puoch contributed 11 points and eight rebounds. Engstler’s nine rebounds mattered too. But the Fire shot 36.1 percent from the field and 27.6 percent from three, and those numbers left little margin for the giveaways that followed.

Our take: the margin came from repeatable edges

This was not a mysterious 16-point result. Golden State shot better overall, 42.0 percent to Portland’s 36.1. The Valkyries made 13 threes to the Fire’s eight. Most important, they forced 22 Portland turnovers while committing 14 of their own, and that gap turned into a 17-10 edge in points off turnovers. Portland actually won the rebounding battle 38-34, which keeps this from reading like a total wipeout on every line. But when one team shoots better, shares the ball better, and gets more extra possessions, the scoreboard usually stops arguing.

For Portland, the clearest place to start is ball security and the possessions that follow it. A team that gathered 38 rebounds and nine steals gave itself enough chances to stay in the game, but 22 turnovers kept handing those chances back. The scoring by quarter tells the same story in smaller print: after a strong enough first period, the Fire managed only 10 points in the second and had 49 through three quarters. Better care with the ball and more efficient perimeter shooting would be a reasonable target after an 8-for-29 night from deep.

For Golden State, even a convincing win left a couple of honest nits to pick. The Valkyries shot just 11-of-17 at the line and were edged on the glass. Those are not fatal flaws in an 82-66 victory, but they are the parts of the box score that still invite cleanup. The broader takeaway, though, is encouraging: when Chen, Amihere, Hayes, Thornton and Jocyte are all contributing, this team has enough shooting and enough defensive activity to turn a close WNBA game into a long fourth quarter for the opponent.

Scoring moments

1. 1st Quarter · 7:40

   Kayla Thornton makes layup

2. 1st Quarter · 6:59

   Tiffany Hayes makes driving layup

3. 1st Quarter · 6:43

   Nyadiew Puoch makes 21-foot step back jumpshot (Carla Leite assists)

4. 1st Quarter · 6:24

   Kayla Thornton makes 23-foot three point jumper (Tiffany Hayes assists)

5. 1st Quarter · 6:11

   Emily Engstler makes 26-foot three point jumper (Carla Leite assists)

6. 1st Quarter · 5:57

   Kaila Charles makes 6-foot two point shot (Veronica Burton assists)

7. 1st Quarter · 5:14

   Tiffany Hayes makes driving layup (Veronica Burton assists)

8. 1st Quarter · 4:27

   Megan DiLeo makes 27-foot three point jumper (Jordan Harrison assists)

9. 1st Quarter · 3:06

   Kaila Charles makes running layup

10. 1st Quarter · 2:51

    Jordan Harrison makes 7-foot two point shot

11. 1st Quarter · 2:38

    Holly Winterburn makes running layup (Frieda Buhner assists)

12. 1st Quarter · 2:38

    Holly Winterburn makes free throw 1 of 1

13. 1st Quarter · 1:03

    Kaitlyn Chen makes 27-foot three point jumper (Juste Jocyte assists)

14. 1st Quarter · 48.9

    Holly Winterburn makes 23-foot three point jumper (Emily Engstler assists)

15. 1st Quarter · 33.2

    Frieda Buhner makes 3-foot layup (Carla Leite assists)

16. 1st Quarter · 11.6

    Juste Jocyte makes 24-foot three point step back jumpshot (Laeticia Amihere assists)

17. 1st Quarter · 5.4

    Carla Leite makes free throw 1 of 2

18. 1st Quarter · 5.4

    Carla Leite makes free throw 2 of 2

19. 2nd Quarter · 9:37

    Juste Jocyte makes 23-foot running jump shot (Kaila Charles assists)

20. 2nd Quarter · 8:25

    Laeticia Amihere makes driving layup (Tiffany Hayes assists)

21. 2nd Quarter · 8:07

    Megan DiLeo makes free throw 1 of 2

22. 2nd Quarter · 8:07

    Megan DiLeo makes free throw 2 of 2

23. 2nd Quarter · 7:51

    Laeticia Amihere makes driving layup (Tiffany Hayes assists)

24. 2nd Quarter · 6:50

    Tiffany Hayes makes driving layup

25. 2nd Quarter · 5:49

    Laeticia Amihere makes 4-foot layup (Kayla Thornton assists)

26. 2nd Quarter · 5:12

    Frieda Buhner makes 1-foot layup (Nyadiew Puoch assists)

27. 2nd Quarter · 5:03

    Veronica Burton makes free throw 1 of 2

28. 2nd Quarter · 5:03

    Veronica Burton makes free throw 2 of 2

29. 2nd Quarter · 4:28

    Tiffany Hayes makes free throw 2 of 2

30. 2nd Quarter · 3:46

    Frieda Buhner makes 24-foot three point jumper (Carla Leite assists)

31. 2nd Quarter · 2:54

    Kaitlyn Chen makes 24-foot three pointer

32. 2nd Quarter · 2:25

    Kayla Thornton makes 23-foot three point jumper (Kaitlyn Chen assists)

33. 2nd Quarter · 1:56

    Kayla Thornton makes free throw 2 of 2

34. 2nd Quarter · 1:03

    Nyadiew Puoch makes layup (Carla Leite assists)

35. 2nd Quarter · 13.3

    Carla Leite makes free throw 2 of 2

36. 3rd Quarter · 9:45

    Carla Leite makes 11-foot two point shot (Megan DiLeo assists)

37. 3rd Quarter · 9:22

    Kiah Stokes makes 18-foot jumper (Tiffany Hayes assists)

38. 3rd Quarter · 8:16

    Karlie Samuelson makes driving layup

39. 3rd Quarter · 8:16

    Karlie Samuelson makes free throw 1 of 1

40. 3rd Quarter · 8:01

    Tiffany Hayes makes 3-foot driving floating jump shot

41. 3rd Quarter · 7:50

    Carla Leite makes technical free throw

42. 3rd Quarter · 7:50

    Carla Leite makes free throw 1 of 2

43. 3rd Quarter · 7:13

    Holly Winterburn makes 8-foot two point shot

44. 3rd Quarter · 7:08

    Kayla Thornton makes technical free throw

45. 3rd Quarter · 5:28

    Veronica Burton makes free throw 1 of 2

46. 3rd Quarter · 5:28

    Veronica Burton makes free throw 2 of 2

47. 3rd Quarter · 5:16

    Frieda Buhner makes 4-foot layup (Holly Winterburn assists)

48. 3rd Quarter · 4:53

    Kayla Thornton makes 24-foot three point jumper (Veronica Burton assists)

49. 3rd Quarter · 4:30

    Carla Leite makes driving layup

50. 3rd Quarter · 4:16

    Laeticia Amihere makes free throw 1 of 2

51. 3rd Quarter · 4:16

    Laeticia Amihere makes free throw 2 of 2

52. 3rd Quarter · 3:24

    Frieda Buhner makes 25-foot three point jumper (Nyadiew Puoch assists)

53. 3rd Quarter · 3:06

    Laeticia Amihere makes 24-foot three point jumper (Kaitlyn Chen assists)

54. 3rd Quarter · 2:43

    Laeticia Amihere makes 2-foot layup (Kaitlyn Chen assists)

55. 3rd Quarter · 1:49

    Kaila Charles makes free throw 1 of 2

56. 3rd Quarter · 1:38

    Kaila Charles makes layup (Laeticia Amihere assists)

57. 3rd Quarter · 1:08

    Tiffany Hayes makes driving layup

58. 3rd Quarter · 53.5

    Megan DiLeo makes driving layup (Charisma Osborne assists)

59. 3rd Quarter · 53.5

    Megan DiLeo makes free throw 1 of 1

60. 3rd Quarter · 42.4

    Tiffany Hayes makes two point shot

61. 3rd Quarter · 10.2

    Kaitlyn Chen makes 30-foot three point jumper (Tiffany Hayes assists)

62. 4th Quarter · 9:43

    Kaitlyn Chen makes 23-foot three point jumper (Tiffany Hayes assists)

63. 4th Quarter · 8:22

    Juste Jocyte makes 22-foot three point jumper (Tiffany Hayes assists)

64. 4th Quarter · 7:37

    Kaitlyn Chen makes 10-foot driving floating jump shot (Juste Jocyte assists)

65. 4th Quarter · 7:19

    Nyadiew Puoch makes 24-foot three point jumper (Carla Leite assists)

66. 4th Quarter · 6:12

    Kaitlyn Chen makes 25-foot three point jumper (Laeticia Amihere assists)

67. 4th Quarter · 5:50

    Carla Leite makes 28-foot three point step back jumpshot (Frieda Buhner assists)

68. 4th Quarter · 5:01

    Laeticia Amihere makes 23-foot three point jumper (Kaila Charles assists)

69. 4th Quarter · 3:38

    Nyadiew Puoch makes free throw 1 of 2

70. 4th Quarter · 3:38

    Nyadiew Puoch makes free throw 2 of 2

71. 4th Quarter · 2:24

    Frieda Buhner makes 11-foot driving floating jump shot (Charisma Osborne assists)

72. 4th Quarter · 2:01

    Charisma Osborne makes free throw 1 of 2

73. 4th Quarter · 2:01

    Charisma Osborne makes free throw 2 of 2

74. 4th Quarter · 1:08

    Nyadiew Puoch makes running layup

75. 4th Quarter · 39.6

    Laeticia Amihere makes free throw 1 of 2

76. 4th Quarter · 31.1

    Charisma Osborne makes 30-foot three point jumper (Frieda Buhner assists)