Marina Mabrey gave Toronto a reason to believe in the middle of a loss, but the Tempo still walk into a second meeting with the New York Liberty needing more than one hot scoring night. Toronto hosts New York after Mabrey scored 34 points in a 108-95 loss to the Dallas Wings.
That is the search now because this is the next game on Toronto's schedule, and it comes against a Liberty team that already beat the Tempo once this season. New York won the June 3 meeting 97-82, with Jonquel Jones scoring 22 points and Mabrey finishing with 17 for Toronto. The matchup also carries weight in the Eastern Conference, where New York is 13-10 overall and 8-1 in conference play while Toronto is 9-13 and 4-6.
The numbers point to a contrast that has not favored Toronto. Mabrey is averaging 23.1 points over the last 10 games, and Laura Juskaite is at 9.1 points per game, but the Tempo are only 2-8 over their last 10. New York has been uneven too at 4-6 over its last 10, yet it still brings more balance on paper behind Breanna Stewart, who is scoring 20.3 points per game and grabbing 8.4 rebounds, and Jones, who is averaging 2.4 made 3-pointers over the last 10 games.
Toronto's problem is not that it lacks a scorer. It is that Mabrey's production has not yet turned into enough wins, and the team's 4-6 Eastern Conference record leaves little room to waste another strong night from her. The injury list adds more uncertainty, with Temi Fagbenle and Nyara Sabally day to day, while Kiki Rice, Brittney Sykes, Leonie Fiebich and Satou Sabally are out.
So the Liberty Vs Tempo meeting is less about whether Mabrey can score again and more about whether Toronto can make that scoring matter against a team that already handled it once. New York has the better conference record and the cleaner recent head-to-head result, and Toronto now has to show that 34 points can lead to something larger than a close look at the box score.
