The story of the Toronto Tempo’s inaugural season has been injuries, and that didn’t stop as the team’s west coast road trip kicked off Sunday. After a physical game at Scotiabank Arena on Thursday, all-star Marina Mabrey was ruled out of the Tempo’s first of two games against the Golden State Valkyries with a neck injury.
“It’s my 27th year in this league, and I’ve never experienced anything quite like this,” head coach Sandy Brondello said about the team’s injury woes before the game..
Mabrey, whose 20.9 points per game lead the Tempo this season, missed one game on June 27 with a neck injury as well. That time, she had over a week until the team’s next game to recover – now the Tempo have about 48 hours until they play again. Mabrey is considered day-to-day.
Despite missing their No. 1 option, the Tempo went to halftime on Sunday down just one point to the Valkyries. A 29-18 fourth quarter set the Tempo too far back to recover, and they dropped the game 96-79 to Golden State, their sixth consecutive loss.
“After a really tough loss in the last game, I was happy with our effort and our resiliency,” Brondello said after the game.
The last game Brondello referred to was their 32-point loss to the Minnesota Lynx on Thursday, an effort which the coach called “embarrassing” at the time. It was the most they had lost by in any game this season.
Toronto had another near-scare when centre Nyara Sabally headed back to the locker room in the first half of Sunday’s game, especially since she has suffered a large portion of the team’s wounds. Sabally was able to make a return, and led with 19 points and eight rebounds.
Toronto has some backup to be integrated into the lineup in their next game, if all goes to plan. The franchise made a trade prior to Sunday’s WNBA trade deadline, adding Aneesah Morrow from the Connecticut Sun to their roster. The second-year player adds depth to their frontcourt and gets busy on the glass, something the Tempo need.
Morrow was held out of the game Sunday as she arrived with the team that afternoon. Brondello mentioned in her pregame availability that they will build up Morrow in the coming days, with hopes she will be on the court for her Tempo debut soon.
Perhaps energized by their new teammate, the Tempo won the battle on the boards in Sunday’s game, out-rebounding Golden State 34-26. With Morrow possibly playing as soon as Tuesday, and having scored 21 points in each of her last two games with the Sun, she could be the fresh energy this struggling Tempo team needs. Her 8.9 rebounds per game this season will automatically lead Toronto in that category.
With this latest loss, the Tempo are now 10-19 in their season, and sit in 13th place in the WNBA standings. They are 6.5 games behind the New York Liberty, who currently sit in the eighth and final playoff spot. Their current six-game slide is second in the league, behind the Storm’s current eight-game losing streak.
It’s chess, not checkers, for the Tempo, though. The Morrow trade was overall a very good move for the franchise, not just because Morrow, herself, is a good prospect. While she solves a current need for the team, and is locked in for potentially two more seasons, the Tempo also did not have to give up a first-round draft pick for her. Keeping their first-round draft pick puts them in a decent position for the WNBA draft lottery.
The other positive for Toronto is that their recent struggles aren’t a result of much more beyond an injured roster. They just got their star rookie Kiki Rice back last week after she missed nearly two months healing from an ankle sprain.
Brittney Sykes was having an all-star season before sustaining a plantar fascia injury. Their frontcourt of Sabally, Isabelle Harrison and Temi Fagbenle has only a handful of games where all three have been available this entire season.
The team itself has not had a clear injury report once in 29 games this summer.
“Each game I feel a little bit more like myself, just getting my wind back,” Rice said after the game of re-adjusting to on-court play, “I think today I’ve probably felt the best out of the first three games I played. I know it’s a process, and I just got to continue to stack games.”
The Tempo have the benefit of a day of rest in San Francisco before playing the Valkyries again on Tuesday. They can go back to the drawing board and prepare for the same team once again, something that players and coaches alike say can feel like a mini playoff series.
