The Toronto Tempo were eliminated from playoff contention earlier this month, but still have a chance to pick up a late win in their inaugural season as they travel to Seattle to battle the Storm.
The Tempo enter this game at 11-26, third-worst in the WNBA ahead of only the Connecticut Sun (10-27) and tonight’s opponent, the Storm (7-31).
It’s been a trying first season for Canada’s first WNBA team - after a promising start that saw them sitting at 9-9 through the first eight weeks of the campaign, the team has won just two of its past 19 games.
A lot of blame for the struggles are owed to injuries, as the Tempo have had to overcome absences of a number of key players throughout the year, including guards Kiki Rice and Brittney Sykes, two starters from opening night, as well as Nyara Sabally, Temi Fagbenle and Isabelle Harrison, among others.
“I think it’s just the tale of our season,” Harrison said after the Tempo beat the expansion Portland Fire 82-79 on Friday. “Players in and out, injuries, whatever the case is, is really messing us up. Our coach told me once, the more you seize those opportunities, the more that come about. I think about that a lot.”
“We may be down, but we’re not out,” she continued. “We are not out, and we keep fighting no matter what’s going on.”
That win over the Fire snapped a 12-game losing streak that essentially ended the Tempo’s season.
“It was great. We felt good leading into the game,” Tempo head coach Sandy Brondello said. “I thought we made some decent progress these last two games, and I thought the game plan was good. We want to be really aggressive, and they just bought into it.”
That game was played in Vancouver in front of over 12,000 fans at Rogers Arena. The Tempo also hosted the Las Vegas Aces on Sunday in Vancouver in a game they lost 88-78.
This game against the Storm will complete the season series, with Toronto having won the first two matchups against Seattle in May. They have a chance to sweep the series against Seattle, and will also have a chance to complete a season sweep over the Sun in the final game of the year in September.
While the result of these games down the stretch won’t change the fact that the Tempo are mathematically eliminated from the playoffs, the team has a unique advantage heading into the upcoming draft lottery. The WNBA has confirmed that the Tempo will only have their 2026 record weighed into their draft lottery odds, while every other team (except Portland) will be weighed by the 2025 and 2026 seasons.
Toronto currently has the second-best odds to secure the No. 1 pick in the 2027 WNBA draft, with the presumed best player available being Juju Watkins out of USC.
