Photo credit: Troy Wayrynen
It was a battle of two teams with much in common on Thursday night. Two expansion franchises, two teams on extended skids, and two teams that struggle in the grittier areas of the game — defending and rebounding the basketball.
Ultimately, it was the Portland Fire that snapped their five-game losing streak, extending the Toronto Tempo’s to eight, and it wasn’t particularly close. The Tempo kept sliding as they lost the one game on this stretch of schedule that looked winnable 97-83.
Fire guard Carla Leite shredded the Tempo defence with her shifty dribble, pinpoint passing, and pull-up shooting. She finished with 27 points on 12 shots and 11 assists.
Bearing in mind the road-heavy gauntlet the Tempo are facing right now, this was a must-have game. They had played 11 straight games against teams above .500 ahead of Thursday, and are 1-17 against winning teams. Many of these were against the elite of the league – the Dallas Wings, New York Liberty, Las Vegas Aces, Golden State Valkyries, Atlanta Dream, and Minnesota Lynx — and their next three games go Dream, Wings, Indiana Fever.
Marina Mabrey went without a made 3 against the Valkyries on Tuesday, and made sure it didn’t happen again, ripping a quick-trigger triple directly off the catch — and well behind the line — for the Tempo’s first points. Then she came off a Zoom action and banged another on the move. Mabrey was questionable with the neck issue that’s plagued her of late but appeared to be firing on all cylinders out of the gate. That was until she took a hit to the head, appeared to be shaken up, and didn’t make another basket until a few minutes into the second half. Those were the only nine points Mabrey scored in the game.
But the Tempo fought back with their own physicality. Aneesah Morrow missed a hook shot but grabbed her own board and deposited the putback. Izzy Harrison ducked into the paint and made an aggressive hook shot for an and-1. Then she drew free throws on the next possession with an early seal. Morrow mixed in a little finesse too, driving into the crowded paint and making a live-dribble read to Kia Nurse for a corner 3. Woah.
But Leite went to work, stepping into a pull-up triple and dicing up the Tempo defence by changing speeds, finding openings and taking advantage. It was an impressive display from the lead guard.
The first two picks in the expansion draft, Canadian Bridget Carleton and Tempo guard Julie Allemand, exchanged layups. The score was near even, 34-31 Portland, and Toronto was plus-four on the glass. But Frieda Buhner and the Fire caught, ahem, fire from 3, and Leite kept boogying on the Tempo defence. Meanwhile, Toronto’s touch around the rim just wasn’t there as some solid offensive process led to layups that didn’t go down. It was a 17-6 run for Portland over the back half of the second quarter and the Tempo were down 51-37.
These periodic lapses have become all too familiar for the Tempo, and it only continued as Portland kept raining 3s out of the half and scored another seven straight points.
To my eye, one big issue on offence is the Tempo’s tendency to hold the ball for too long and survey, allowing defenders to recover. Sandy Brondello’s offence is built on point-five principles. Meaning make quick decisions, and ideally as soon as they get a small advantage — a step on a defender, a mismatch, an open teammate — it gets turned into a larger one. Too often Allemand receives the ball after the initial action and slows down, letting the opposing defence reset. Mabrey gets trapped off ball screens, and the pass comes out too late.
But their defence is a bigger problem, ranked last in the W in defensive rating, and that’s more complicated. Missing their best defender in Brittney Sykes and lacking a staunch rim-protector is undoubtedly the starting point of their troubles, but it goes beyond that. Toronto has a tendency to pressure, allow blow-bys, overhelp, and eventually leave opponents with too good a look. Brondello has spoken about this.
“You know, we might play well, and that’s why I say to the girls, we may play well for 15 seconds, but then we overhelp, and then we get in rotation, so we’re not very good,” Brondello said out of the all-star break.
“And that’s our biggest area (of focus), like the one-on-one defence on closeouts, and then finishing plays, and having failed discipline.”
The breakdowns weren’t always early in the clock, though, as the Tempo defence was easily manipulated to helping out of the strong side, and Nyadiew Puoch was left wide open on a backdoor cut. That made the score 89-66 in the final frame.
The deficit seemed all but insurmountable. But the Tempo gave it a run anyway. Through all their struggles on this extended skid, they’ve maintained their fight. Even though Allemand kills advantages at times, she is also able to orchestrate and put teammates in good spots. She did for Nyara Sabally on a three and then with a pocket pass for a roll to the rim. There’s more than one way to play offence.
Sabally finished with a team-high 17 points, and Allemand had an 11-point, 12-assist double-double.
Allemand kept dishing to teammates: Morrow on a cut, Juskaite on a drive, and splashed a deep 3 of her own. Morrow grabbed an offensive rebound for yet another putback. Then grabbed a steal. It was exactly the kind of scrappy play the Tempo acquired her for. But it wasn’t enough. It turned out a 23-point fourth-quarter lead was insurmountable. The Tempo have now lost 12 of their last 13, and the Dream are up next on Monday.