The Toronto Tempo visit the Atlanta Dream on Monday night, trying to snap an eight-game losing streak against an opponent they are winless against this season.
The teams have played each other three previous times this season, with the Dream walking away with decisive wins each time. The most recent game came on July 17 in Toronto, when the Dream emerged with a 111-92 win. It was the second loss in the Tempo’s current eight-game skid. Dream forward Angel Reese finished that game with 23 points on 7-of-11 shooting to go along with 12 rebounds and three steals.
Centre Nyara Sabally led the Tempo with 17 points in Thursday’s 97-83 loss to the Portland Fire. Point guard Julie Allemand chipped in a double-double with 11 points and 12 assists.
Tempo all-star Marina Mabrey had a tough shooting night against the Fire, adding nine points on 3-of-9 shooting. The sharp-shooter has now been held under 20 points in each of her last three games.
“We were just passive the whole time,” Allemand said after Thursday’s loss to the Fire. “We need everyone to be ready to play from the beginning, so we need to look at ourselves first in the mirror, and we just need to be tougher.”
Toronto has struggled defensively all season, especially without all-star guard Brittney Sykes in the lineup, who continues to be sidelined due to plantar fasciitis. The Tempo allow the highest points-per-game in the WNBA at 93.7, while allowing the third-highest field-goal percentage (47.4 per cent) in the league.
“We probably should have gotten more aggressive earlier, but in the end, they just hunt our poor defenders,” Tempo head coach Sandy Brondello said of her team’s defensive struggles. “We had to take some pride in doing the one-on-one, the tough stuff. We’ve worked on it all season long, so now we just got to do it.
The Tempo (10-21) continue to slip in the WNBA standings and are now 15.5 games behind the league-leading Minnesota Lynx and eight games behind the Dallas Wings for the WNBA’s final playoff spot. They are two games ahead of the 13th-place Connecticut Sun and 5.5 games ahead of the last-place Seattle Storm, who have been eliminated from playoff contention.
The Tempo have 13 games remaining in their inaugural season.
The Dream (19-12) enter having won six of their past eight games but have dropped two of three after their five-game winning streak was snapped by the Las Vegas Aces last Monday. Leading-scorer Allisha Gray led the Dream with 26 points as they dropped a 79-74 decision to the Washington Mystics on Friday.
