Date, Time, and Location: Sunday, August 30th, 4:00pm, Moda Center (Portland)
Broadcast Information: KPYX (San Francisco Bay Area) and KMAX (Sacramento Area), KPDX/Rose City Sportsnet/live.theportlandfire.com (opposition’s home broadcast area), WNBA League Pass (streaming outside of teams’ broadcast areas)
The Golden State Valkyries finish this road trip and play their last game before the World Cup break on Sunday when they visit the Portland Fire. They won the first ever meeting between the teams in San Francisco at the start of June and will play them two more times after the break. The hosts have had a strong debut season, currently sitting in the last spot outside of the playoffs and have proven to be a tough test for the teams above them. Both sides will be affected by players leaving for national team duty so it is a little bit tougher to know what to expect. The game will be broadcast locally in both home markets with only streaming nationally.
The Valkyries
There is no additional player news for the Valkyries as it was already known that Cecilia Zandalasini, Gabby Williams, and Janelle Salaun would be joining their national teams after the last game. It seems most likely that Tiffany Hayes and Kaila Charles would step into the starting lineup with Kaitlyn Chen and Laeticia Amihere be the bench players with the most experience in the rotation. It seems likely that there would at least be a few more minutes available even in a close game, so Juste Jocyte would be in line to play in the backcourt and activating Ashten Prechtel would also seem likely to add to frontcourt depth.
The Opposition
Portland had a winning record before that loss in San Francisco and have not gotten back to that level since, having a record of 10-17 since that day. Their loss on Tuesday to Dallas officially eliminated them from playoff contention, but they won pretty impressively in Atlanta on Friday. Carla Leite will not get to face her former team this time after joining France’s national team while both Luisa Geiselsoder and Frieda Buhner had already joined Germany’s group. Karlie Samuelson is also listed as questionable for this game with a left knee contusion.
Portland has made a few moves since playing the Valkyries. They signed Sania Feagin to their vacant developmental player spot, but she ended up suffering a season-ending knee injury before she could even make an appearance for the team. Luisa Geiselsoder left the team fairly early to link up with her national team after not getting much playing time. The Fire had the salary cap room to sign developmental player Jordan Harrison to a regular contract to fill the roster spot and she gotten a solid number of minutes at guard. Amy Okonkwo was their most recent signing after briefly spending time in Atlanta as a developmental player.
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