The Toronto Tempo aim to win the final home game of their first season on Sunday afternoon when they face the New York Liberty.
The Tempo (11-30) have lost five in a row after their 103-85 home loss to the Indiana Fever on Friday.
The Liberty (25-16), who will wrap up their road schedule in Toronto, won their second in a row on Friday, 93-81 over the host and first-place Minnesota Lynx.
The Tempo defeated the Liberty 93-91 on July 17 and have gone 1-17 since that point.
The game against the Fever had a familiar look for the Tempo, who have had to deal with numerous injuries. They were outscored 24-12 in the fourth quarter when their lack of depth caught up to them.
“We were pretty close there until the 35-minute mark,” Toronto coach Sandy Brondello said. “Obviously, you have some pretty special guards on that team, and they were hard for us (to guard) tonight. But I thought we competed, and we were right there.”
Toronto could not cope with Fever stars Kelsey Mitchell, who scored 33 points to set a WNBA single-season scoring record with 1,034 points, and Caitlin Clark, who had 28 points and 14 assists.
The Tempo led by two with 3:47 to play in the third quarter but could not keep up without Marina Mabrey (adductor), Brittney Sykes (foot) and Aneesah Morrow (knee), who are all out for the season. Maria Conde (illness) also was out Friday.
The Liberty, meanwhile, look ready for the playoffs.
“It was huge,” said Sabrina Ionescu, who scored 17 points in the win over the Lynx. “The way we just played together hard, locked in for 40 minutes and weathered their runs, and I’m really proud of the group.”
The Liberty shot 44.8% (13 of 29) from 3-point range while holding the Lynx to 27.3% (6 of 22) from beyond the arc.
“It was not only on offense but defense, the defensive part was much better,” said Marine Johannes, who scored 13 points. “We played with aggressiveness again. The physicality tonight was great and it was the difference.”
Breanna Stewart scored 24 points for the Liberty.
“This is a team,” New York coach Chris DeMarco said. “The energy was phenomenal, everyone was pulling in the same direction.”
The Tempo announced Saturday that they have signed 6-foot-7 Polish center Kamila Borkowska to a developmental contract.
–Field Level Media
