The Toronto Tempo will play the final game of their inaugural WNBA season Thursday night when they take on the Connecticut Sun on the road LIVE on TSN.
It would have taken a lot of negatives for the Tempo to disappoint their fans as the first WNBA team north of the border. This was best exemplified by the standing ovation the team received at the conclusion of their final home game on Sunday - a 106-69 blowout loss to the New York Liberty.
The fans were supportive of a team that started strong with a 9-9 record through the first month and a half of the season, only to plummet to a 2-23 record the rest of the way, struggling to navigate a plethora of injuries and inconsistent play in the team’s first season together.
The season comes to an end with a road matchup against the worst team in the WNBA, the 10-33 Sun.
The Sun have something to play for, as Thursday’s game marks the final game played in Connecticut before the team makes the move over to Houston next year.
On the other hand, if the Sun win this game, they will move into a tie with the Tempo for the highest odds to receive the top pick in the upcoming WNBA draft, where phenom guard JuJu Watkins out of USC is expected to be the prize.
With just one win in their past 20 games, the Tempo have been looking ahead to a potential top draft pick over the past month or so.
Even down the stretch with essentially nothing to play for, the team still has to figure out a gameplan for returning to contention next season whether they get the top pick in the draft or not.
“How hard are you going to compete? Who can execute scouts and play in the right way? That’s important as we’re evaluating,” head coach Sandy Brondello said after Tuesday’s loss to the Liberty about planning for next season.
The Tempo have also struggled with consistency all season, and that’s something Brondello would also like to address in the offseason. Brondello said there seems to be a wall the team hits in the game that they can’t recover from – whether that’s a poor start, or not coming out of the halftime break with energy.
“That kind of that’s been a story of our season. Really, doesn’t matter who’s playing and who’s not,” Brondello said. “There’s that one quarter that we don’t come out with the energy or the execution, and that hurts us.”
“I think that we need to do more if we want to win games. I think we need to be more of a team, but it’s not only about offence,” point guard Julie Allemand added. “It’s also about defence. I think that today it’s about the defence, and like coach was saying, how hard you want to compete.”
The Tempo have already won both matchups against the Sun this season, and will go for the sweep in Thursday’s season finale.
