Thanks to an amazing buzzer beater by Sonia Citron, the Toronto Tempo fell 86-85 to the Washington Mystics despite a heroic second half performance by Marina Mabrey.
We break down the good, bad, and outlook from this game.
The Good
The story of this game really began in the third quarter. The Tempo had played a less-than-average but still competitive game up until that point; however, at the start of the 3rd quarter, the Tempo started to lose their focus and composure. The Mystics took full advantage of all the Tempo’s poor shots and turnovers, increasing their lead from 3 to 17 points.
Credit also goes to Coach Sandy Brondello and her decision to pull the lineup with most of our starters with 3:32 left in the 3rd quarter and inserted Tima Pouye, Julie Allemand, Laura Juškaitė to play alongside Izzy and Maria Conde (or as we affectionately call the Euros and Izzy). The Tempo were down by 18 at that point and this lineup showcased ball movement, crisp and multiple passes, and a more fluid offense.
While we cannot credit this lineup with the Tempo’s comeback, it did shrink the lead to 11 and the lineup battled hard to shift the energy of this game.
Then, with 6 minutes left in the 4th, Marina Mabrey checked back in and, if you haven’t seen the highlights, you must. She went into God-mode and scored 13 points in just under 3 minutes (including three 3-pointers) to shave the Mystics’ lead from 13 to 3. With thirty seconds to go, she hit yet another 3 pointer making this unlikely comeback suddenly a possibility.
With 17.7 seconds left, the Tempo – down by 1 – drew up a play where Slim drove using a screen all the way to the basket for an easy layup for the Tempo to go up by 1 with 11 seconds left. Could she have held it longer for the last shot? Sure. But, when you are that open, you take the points and let your defense win you the game. Ultimately, it was the right decision.
Unfortunately, for the Tempo, Sonia Citron – who did not have a great offensive night – hit a fadeaway buzzer beater to win it for the Mystics.
The Bad
As inspired as we were by Mabrey’s epic performance in the 4th quarter, we have to be honest: the Tempo had no business winning this game. Similar to the Sun, the Mystics exposed the Tempo’s lack of frontcourt size and either dumped it into the post for Lauren Betts to use her size and impeccable footwork to score easily or they would kick it out to Onyenwere or Dugalic and they would attack the Tempo defender’s closeouts for a clear lane to the basket or muscle their way to the basket.
The Mystics have not been shooting the 3-ball well this season (even Sonia Citron is just shooting 32% from 3) and they shot just 11% from 3 in this game, but the Tempo were still not able to defend the paint well. Overall, the Mystics outscored the Tempo 54-40 points in the paint.
Similar to the Sun game, the Mystics also outrebounded the Tempo by a large margin, including ten more offensive rebounds – a recurring issue for the Tempo defense.
The Outlook
Next up for the Tempo is the Atlanta Dream. If we thought giving up offensive rebounds was an issue against both Connecticut and Washington, get ready for Angel Reese who leads the league in both defensive and offensive rebounds.
Atlanta is currently 8 – 4 in the season and fourth in the standings. They feature Reese in the front court, sharpshooters Allisha Gray and Rhyne Howard in the back court, last season’s sixth player of the year award winner Naz Hillmon, and dynamic point guards in Jordin Canada and Te’hina Pao Pao.
In short, this game won’t be easy. The hope is that Nyara Sabally will be able to return to the lineup and we can finally get a glimpse of the Tempo’s frontcourt together in action now that Temi Fagbenle is back in action. Even if Sabally can return, the Tempo will have to play their best ball to keep up with the Dream.
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[…] Tempo continue to struggle with physicality in the paint. As seen in our previous game against the Mystics, they once again exposed our lack of frontcourt size. The Mystics out-rebounded 47-26 holding us to […]