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.
“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.
