Toronto tempo opens its nine-game home stretch on Thursday against the Los Angeles Sparks, and the matchup arrives with Kelsey Plum ruled out for at least four weeks. Toronto enters at 8-9, Los Angeles at 8-8, with the teams meeting for the third and final time in the regular season.
Toronto and Los Angeles split two games in Southern California in May. Toronto won 106-96 on May 17 after Los Angeles took the first meeting 99-95 on May 15, and Brittney Sykes scored 38 points in the victory. Toronto has been without Sykes since a foot injury in the June 16 loss to Indiana, and Kiki Rice has also been out since June 3 with an ankle sprain.
Marina Mabrey carries Toronto
Marina Mabrey has taken on more of the scoring load. She has scored at least 18 points in each of Toronto's last three games and set a career high with 37 points in the 101-97 win over Connecticut last Friday. She entered that game averaging 19.4 points per game, and her 3.2 three-point attempts per game ranked second in the WNBA.
Sandy Brondello said of Mabrey, "Ela é uma das melhores arremessadoras que já vi, e já treinei algumas jogadoras incríveis". She also added, "É de elite. É algo muito especial. Temos sorte de tê-la."
Kelsey Plum leaves a gap
Los Angeles loses its second-leading scorer for a month or more. Plum scored 43 points in the June 13 win over Phoenix and ranks second in the league with 23.9 points per game, but she went 1 for 7 on three-point shots in the 98-97 overtime win over New York on Sunday before the injury news arrived Wednesday morning.
That leaves the Sparks leaning more heavily on Nneka Ogwumike, who scored the winning basket against New York and finished with 24 points. Lynne Roberts called her "unique" and said, "É difícil descrever tudo o que ela já fez. Ela tem uma presença marcante. Há uma seriedade em suas palavras, e isso se reflete em quadra." Ogwumike averages 15.8 points per game and leads Los Angeles with 8.7 rebounds per game, while Dearica Hamby averages 13.7 points, Rae Burrell 11.6, Isabelle Harrison 13.0 and Nyara Sabally 12.1.
Toronto and Los Angeles
The home stretch also has a built-in test for Toronto's short-handed backcourt. The Tempo begin a nine-game sequence in Toronto or Montreal while missing Brittney Sykes, their 20.1-points-per-game leader, and Kiki Rice, so Mabrey's scoring has become central to the next month.
Thursday's game gives Toronto a first look at how that stretch plays without its top scorer available, and it puts Los Angeles into the same problem on the other side with Plum gone for at least four weeks. A split in May set up a tight season series; this meeting now asks whether Toronto can hold up at home while both teams manage major scoring absences. Marina Mabrey backs 19.5 points as Toronto Tempo visit Atlanta Dream
