The fast start by the expansion Portland Fire has evaporated, and the club has dropped seven of its last nine games.

Portland (8-11) will attempt to recover from back-to-back whippings in the Windy City when it visits the Washington Mystics on Sunday afternoon.

The Fire started a four-game road trip, part of a stretch in which eight of nine games are away, losing by a combined 53 points in a two-game series at the Chicago Fire.

The 101-78 shellacking on Wednesday was bad enough, but the defense outright disappeared in Friday’s 124-94 setback to the Fire.

Chicago set franchise records for points and shooting percentage (66.2%) in a game, while post player Kamilla Cardoso set a WNBA mark for most baskets (13) without a miss while scoring 30 points.

“We just got exposed defensively,” Portland coach Alex Sarama told reporters afterward.

Making the two blowout losses more stunning was that Chicago had lost six straight games and 11 of 12 entering the set.

But Cardoso did anything she wanted on the inside and Sydney Taylor was hot from outside with 6-of-7 3-point shooting while scoring 29 points.

“Defensively, I felt we had no solutions,” Sarama said. “We tried changing pick-and-roll covers. Had to double the post, but their bigs got whatever they wanted at the rim.”

Bridget Carleton scored 20 points for the Fire on Friday. Carla Leite added 18.

Washington also has dropped consecutive games, and its latest setback was because it couldn’t score.

The Mystics shot just 34.5% from the field and established a season low for points in a 68-57 road loss against the Connecticut Sun.

Washington coach Sydney Johnson was stunned at the offensive struggles.

“To score 57 points, you give the Sun credit; you also look at yourself in terms of what you can do better,” Johnson said. “It’s something that plagues us from time to time. We lost the possession (battle), and that’s never really a good thing.”

Georgia Amoore led Washington with 14 points while Sonia Citron and Kiki Iriafen added 11 each.

Citron was just 2-of-10 shooting and missed all four 3-point attempts one game after having 28 points on 9-of-14 shooting (4 of 5 treys) in a 78-76 loss to the visiting Minnesota Lynx on Wednesday.

Against the Sun, Washington had quarters of 14, 12 and 10 points. It scored 21 points in the third.

Johnson expects a turnaround against Portland.

“It’s not something that’s going to weigh us down,” said Johnson, “but certainly we need to be pros and turn the page and gear up for the next one.”

–Field Level Media