The Toronto Tempo begin a nine-game home sequence in Canada on Thursday, and the Los Angeles Sparks arrive without Kelsey Plum. The guard will miss at least four weeks because of a left lower leg injury, turning a regular-season game into an early test of depth for both sides.
That matters because Thursday is the third and final regular-season meeting between Toronto and Los Angeles, and the teams have already split their two games in southern California. Toronto lost 99-95 on 15 May before winning 106-96 on 17 May, with Brittney Sykes scoring 38 points in the victory. Now the Tempo will try to extend that edge while starting a long stretch that will be played in Toronto or Montreal.
For Toronto, the timing is more complicated than the schedule alone. The Tempo remain without Sykes, who has been sidelined since 16 June with a foot injury, and Kiki Rice has been out since 3 June with an ankle sprain. That has pushed more of the scoring load onto Marina Mabrey, who has scored at least 18 points in each of Toronto's last three games and entered Thursday averaging 19.4 points per game after a career-high 37 in last Friday's 101-97 win over Connecticut.
Los Angeles also comes in reshaped. Plum scored a career-high 43 points in a win over Phoenix on 13 June and ranks second in the WNBA at 23.9 points per game, but she was limited Sunday against New York, when she played with her left leg heavily wrapped and made just 1 of 7 three-point attempts before the Sparks announced Wednesday morning that she would be out for at least four weeks. Nneka Ogwumike led the way in that win with 24 points and also leads Los Angeles with 8.7 rebounds per game, while Dearica Hamby and Rae Burrell provide additional scoring behind her.
The first game of the Canada stretch now becomes more than a calendar marker. Toronto will have nine straight home games in Canada to shape its season, but the first one comes with the roster still short-handed and the opponent missing its second-leading scorer. How well Toronto and Los Angeles survive that imbalance may tell more about both teams than the result on Thursday itself.
