Tempo turn the page from WNBA debut, look ahead to improve through experience

TORONTO — Toronto Tempo head coach Sandy Brondello said there was nervousness, and some excitement. But with Game 1 out of the way, it’s time to settle in.

The league’s first team outside of the United States has turned the page on its historic WNBA debut on Friday, a 68-65 loss to the Washington Mystics on home court. With the “whirlwind” process leading up to the debut, Brondello now wants to see her team build.

“I always thought this first month is going to be the hardest month, because we need those experiences to learn, the coaches too, to learn a little more about these players, because we haven’t coached many of them either,” Brondello said.

“I think we’ve made good steps forward,” she added. “I think it’s just time, understanding the chemistry and how we want to do things, the habits.”

Toronto is in preparation to host the Seattle Storm on Wednesday before embarking on a four-game road trip, playing in Los Angeles twice, Phoenix and Minnesota.

The team practised on its home court at Coca-Cola Coliseum on Monday and Tuesday, something Brondello found beneficial in considering Toronto’s struggling offence in its season opener. Toronto shot 27 per cent from the field and 20 per cent from three-point range.

“When we don’t shoot the ball so well, you want to get used to the new rims and just the surroundings too,” Brondello said. “The depth of where the seats are and just to feel comfortable. So it’s been a good week for that.”

There was also film work, which showed centre Nyara Sabally one glaring need for improvement.

“Honestly, I thought I was fast and then I looked at the film and I was like, ‘Oh!’ And it’s not even like just in the open floor, it’s spinning the screens quicker actions … not holding the ball so long,” Sabally said. “Seeing it on film was like, ‘OK, wow, we need to like just do better.’

“And I mean, we’ve played basketball for so long and people are very aware of it, what we need do to be better. So hopefully as we go on playing games the better we’ll get.”

Brondello concurred.

“The running habits in particular, we could be a great running team,” she said. “And some of them, we just got to make them, let’s go, and being disciplined in those areas, moving the ball, the spacing.

“We track corner threes and all that, some of who don’t, and who does it and why when it works when you do it and when you don’t. The more experiences we have, you get opportunities to get film and to show them and to learn.”

In addition to the on-court adjustments as a team, the veteran-laden Tempo also have five new players adjusting to the WNBA style. One of them is Lithuanian forward Laura Juskaite, who previously played overseas her entire career.

The 28-year-old rookie had seven points, six rebounds and a steal in 15 minutes of play in the team’s season-opening loss. The physicality of the WNBA was a surprise for her, but like the rest of her team, with time, the experience will come.

“I think I was a bit surprised by the physicality and all the contact levels here, which sometimes it’s too much, sometimes it is not enough,” Juskaite said. “Every game probably I will have more understanding how it works here, because I played basketball half of my life, but I never played it here and I see some differences.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 12, 2026.

Abdulhamid Ibrahim, The Canadian Press