The Toronto Tempo suffered a brutal 89-76 loss to the Dallas Wings on Sunday night. While a 13-point loss doesn’t seem too drastic, Dallas led by 20 at one point and was in the driver's seat all game. The main reason for that was how easily the Tempo gave up clean looks in the paint.
All season, the Tempo have been known as an offensive team that tries to outscore and outshoot their opponents every single night. This plan of attack works in situations where Marina Mabrey catches fire and explodes from the perimeter for five or six threes, but when shots aren’t falling, things look rough, and it leads to games like this one against the Wings. Obviously, the flaws in this Tempo team's defense start on the perimeter, especially with Brittney Sykes sidelined, as the team lacks a high-level point-of-attack defender.
But when things blow up on the perimeter, and you are lacking that last line of defense in the paint, it creates a world of problems when facing off with an elite creator like Paige Bueckers. It’s even more problematic when Jessica Shepard is rolling towards the basket with her.
A paint presence could raise the Tempo’s ceiling
Now, this is not to throw any shade at Nyara Sabally because she’s done an excellent job on both ends of the court.
However, having her be the team's primary force in the paint, specifically defensively, is a clear miscasting, as she is far stronger as a weakside help defender than as a primary rim deterrent. Sure, you can make the argument that Isabelle Harrison is more of a center type, and now that she's starting in the frontcourt, Toronto has the size to hang defensively. But the tape tells a different story. Harrison isn’t some imposing inside threat who bangs in the post and battles for rebounds, as her game is much more perimeter-oriented.
The downsides of a Harrison and Sabally frontcourt were on full display against the Wings, with Dallas scoring 38 points in the paint and 20 second-chance points. Toronto also gave up six offensive rebounds and 15 total rebounds to Jessica Shepard.
If the Tempo’s front office is hoping to leapfrog Washington for that final playoff spot as they start to shift their focus to the second half of the season, adding a rim protector and rebounder should be priority No. 1. This team needs someone to close out possessions with defensive rebounds and make the easy looks at the rim not as common for opponents.
Toronto is unlikely to become an elite defensive team because they lack perimeter stoppers. That being said, having someone to serve as the last line of defense would give this team enough to keep its head above water on the defensive end in most matchups.
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