Carla Leite referred to as for the iso.
Dribbling out the clock, the 5’9 guard shooed away her teammates with confidence. The one factor standing between the 22-year-old and the Barclays Heart basket?
Stewart is an elite defender — one of many WNBA’s most constant. She’s additionally 6’4. However that didn’t matter. Leite, a 17.3% profession three-point shooter within the WNBA, pulled up for 3.
Leite smiled, understanding she had simply iced the sport. Because of her huge triple, the Portland Hearth led the New York Liberty by 6 factors with 14.4 seconds to spare. Liberty guard Marine Johannes responded with a three-pointer of her personal, however the recreation was out of attain.
The pull-up three was Leite’s second consecutive clutch basket within the ultimate seconds of Monday evening’s 81-74 Hearth win over the Liberty. Twenty-five seconds earlier, Leite drove to the basket to offer the Hearth a 5-point lead with 40 seconds to play.
And, Monday wasn’t the primary time she took over within the clutch, both.
Two weeks earlier, when the Hearth pulled out the franchise’s first-ever win, Leite additionally stepped up down the stretch in opposition to the Liberty. She drove to the basket with 27.1 seconds to play, tying up the sport in opposition to New York. A Sarah Ashlee Barker game-winner ended up securing that Could twelfth win.
Leite is having a robust all-around season. On Monday, she scored a team-high 18 factors on 8-14 taking pictures; the Hearth outscored the Liberty by 8 factors in her 22 minutes on the ground.
Leite’s factors, rebounds, and assists per recreation have all greater than doubled; she averaged 7.2 factors, 1.3 rebounds, and a pair of assists per recreation, and has seen these numbers rise to fifteen factors, 2.8 rebounds, and 4.8 assists per recreation this season. Her effectivity has additionally risen; she averaged 38.7% in her rookie marketing campaign and is taking pictures 5% higher this 12 months in Portland.
The Hearth are 3-2 within the 5 video games the sophomore guard has performed.
Leite is way from the one cause why the Hearth, one in every of two 2026 enlargement groups, have begun the season 4-3. Bridget Carleton, the No. 1 general decide within the enlargement draft, is averaging 16.5 factors per recreation, 10 greater than she averaged final 12 months as a job participant on the Minnesota Lynx. Emily Engslter, Megan Gustafson, Nyadiew Puoch, and Luisa Geiselsoder have all been key contributors.
And, Ashlee Barker, who’s averaging 10.3 factors off the bench, has additionally been a monster within the clutch. Along with her game-winner earlier within the month, Barker accomplished an and-one driving layup within the ultimate minute of a crunch-time victory over the Connecticut Solar. In Monday’s win over the Liberty, she hit a go-ahead nook three to offer the Hearth a one-point edge with slightly below 4 minutes to spare. The Hearth by no means trailed once more.
However, Leite — left unprotected by the Golden State Valkyries after her rookie season — has been the first scoring possibility within the clutch.
And, on Monday, she did it once more.
#WNBA #clutchtime #celebrity
Supply hyperlink
