With WNBA star Caitlin Clark on deck, battered Tempo search for positives amid 10-game losing streak
In the throes of a 10-game losing streak, the Toronto Tempo are hanging on to the little things.
“I mean, finally we kept a team under 100 points, that’s probably the biggest thing and improvement,” forward Laura Juskaite said after practice on Friday, two days after the Tempo lost 94-88 against the Dallas Wings to cap a five-game road trip.
“But in general, we had different lineups again, Julie [Allemand] and Maria [Conde] were out. So just a lot of things that we can’t control. So we just come to the game and we see who is available and we just play and try to do our best.”
With seven games remaining until the WNBA breaks for the FIBA World Cup, the Tempo’s expansion season has gone off the rails. Having dropped 14 of their past 15 games to fall to 10-23, Toronto’s playoff hopes have essentially vanished. Nine wins and four teams separate them from the eighth-place Washington Mystics.
Next up, that defence that Juskaite cited as the team’s main issue during the skid will welcome Caitlin Clark and the Indiana Fever on Tuesday at Scotiabank Arena. The Fever lead the WNBA with 96.2 points per game and 115 points per 100 possessions.
The Tempo have six days off at home to figure out some solutions.
Toronto Tempo fell 94–88 to the Dallas Wings on Wednesday night. The loss marked Toronto’s 10th straight defeat and completed a season sweep by Dallas. The Tempo now head back to Toronto looking to regroup.
“We had a lot of games and it’s been a tough, tough couple weeks, tough month because we couldn’t win any games. I think it’s good to have some practices because also we have new players so put them more into the concept and just keep working on the flow and defence,” Juskaite said.
Whatever happens in that Fever game, however, will go more toward informing how the Tempo evolve down the stretch of this season and into next.
Toronto is integrating forward Aneesah Morrow, acquired at the trade deadline for a second-round pick and the player rights to Maria Kliundikova, as it looks to build frontcourt depth to support the star backcourt duo of Marina Mabrey and Brittney Sykes along with rookie Kiki Rice.
Morrow, 23, has averaged 9.5 points and five rebounds per game since joining the Tempo, solidifying a spot in the rotation.
With the post-season out of sight, some fans and front-office types may be more focused on the reverse standings, hoping the Tempo fall even further to land the best lottery odds for a draft expected to include USC phenom JuJu Watkins.
The players and coaches who still have 11 more games to play, however, can’t carry that mindset.
“Just because at this point, it doesn’t seem like we’ll make the playoffs, that doesn’t mean that there’s still not stuff to be gotten out of the season. So just got to continue to build,” said Rice, who added that she lightly reaggravated her ankle injury late against the Wings but will be “fine” moving forward.
As the team’s first-round pick this season, Rice knows that she may be in Toronto for the long haul.
“This is not a one-year project. We are going to be a team in this league for a while. So you just got to build. It takes time,” Rice said.
Time is not a luxury the Tempo have had this season. From the frenzied expansion process and pre-season right into a busy WNBA schedule and a spate of injuries from Day 1, the Tempo have not had a good long look at their ideal lineups and roster construction.
Juskaite is the only Tempo player to have appeared in every game this season. Sykes, one of three million-dollar contracts on the team, has not taken the court since June 16 because of a left plantar fascia injury. Temi Fagbenle, another million-dollar player, has appeared in just 16 games amid injury and underperformance, averaging just 15.3 minutes and 4.6 points per contest.
Constant uncertainty
The constant uncertainty may be taking its toll during the losing streak. Rice said the team’s compete level has been inconsistent at times.
“I think sometimes we haven’t played as hard as we needed to, but I think in the Dallas game, especially down numbers, end of a very long road trip, I thought we competed at a high level until the end of the game and had different lineups out there. And I think that’s something that we’ve got to continue to do and we can build on,” said Rice, who has impressed (11.2 points, four rebounds, 2.8 assists) in just 17 games due to her ankle.
She said part of the culture the team is trying to build is bringing the same mindset every day regardless of the circumstances.
“When you’re down, when you’re losing, for me it’s every day showing up with good energy, finding ways to get better in the little ways and continue to impact a winning culture,” Rice said.
The circumstances will not be easy for the Tempo over the next two weeks, either. After what is expected to be a sellout home game against the Fever, the team won’t play at home again until September. The final six games prior to the September break include one in Washington, followed by five games on the west coast starting with two home dates in Vancouver.
“We keep trying to build for better days and we believe we will win some games and it was never a question,” Juskaite said. “Also last game we were close, we were missing, still, players. I don’t know, we are basketball players, we always want to win, so that’s what we try to do and that’s it.”
Source link
