The Toronto Tempo are in the middle of an unusual six-game trip.
They played their last two games at a neutral site in Vancouver to give fans in Western Canada a look at the country’s lone WNBA franchise.
After playing Friday and Sunday in British Columbia, the Tempo (11-26) return to the United States for the final three games of the trip — starting with Wednesday’s visit to the Seattle Storm (7-31).
The Tempo defeated Portland 82-79 in their first game in Vancouver to snap a 12-game losing streak, then dropped an 88-78 decision to the Las Vegas Aces.
All-Star guard Marina Mabrey (adductor), Brittney Sykes (left foot), Nyara Sabally (left calf), Maria Conde (left calf) and Aneesah Morrow (left knee) didn’t play for the Tempo on Sunday.
Team officials announced Sykes and Morrow will miss the remainder of the season and that Mabrey, who averages a team-best 20.8 points per game, will be “evaluated in a few weeks.” Sabally is out for Wednesday’s contest and Conde is questionable.
“Pretty tough luck this season, isn’t it?” Tempo coach Sandy Brondello said.
Kia Nurse led Toronto, which suited up just eight healthy players, with 19 points against the Aces.
The cellar-dwelling Storm, who had a pair of 11-game losing streaks earlier this season, have dropped three in a row. After two-point losses to Portland and Chicago, they were blown out 92-70 by the host Dallas Wings on Sunday. With four minutes left in the first half, Dallas’ Paige Bueckers had 23 points to Seattle’s 21.
Rookie Flau’jae Johnson finished with 23 points and five 3-pointers for the Storm.
“I think the quality of basketball that we played was decent, but we can’t have decent games,” Johnson said. “You have to have great games, on every side.”
Seattle played its second straight game without guard Natisha Hiedeman (left shoulder), who averages 15.4 points and a team-high 4.8 assists. She’s been ruled out for Wednesday.
Center Dominique Malonga leads the Storm with 17.0 points and 8.9 rebounds per game.
Storm coach Sonia Raman started the 6-foot-6 Malonga on Sunday alongside 6-foot-6 Ezi Magbegor and 6-foot-4 rookie Awa Fam.
“It just takes time for them to kind of play together and see how that looks,” Raman said. “So they haven’t had much (time), right?
“I thought they generated some good shots, and they didn’t all fall. There were some good plays, I think, early on with that group in together.”
–Field Level Media
