Tempo Will Have to Face Toughest Challenge Yet After Brittney Sykes Injury
The Toronto Tempo suffered their third consecutive loss and fell to ninth in the standings after a 113-91 defeat at the hands of the Indiana Fever. But the loss was not the worst thing that happened in the game. Brittney Sykes went down with a non-contact injury. While there has been no official update yet, non-contact injuries are never good, and the Tempo will struggle without their leading scorer if she misses any games.
“We couldn’t find ways that we could fill Slim’s shoes,” head coach Sandy Brondello said in the postgame media availability, per the team’s YouTube channel. “That’s going to be really hard.”
Even if Sykes misses “just” a handful of games and didn’t suffer a season-ending injury, losing her could seriously jeopardize the Tempo’s playoff aspirations. The team is already short-handed with Kiki Rice sidelined with an ankle injury and Nyara Sabally dealing with a hamstring issue. Making up for Sykes’s absence without Rice and Sabally would require a big group effort and great performances from Marina Mabrey, Julie Allemand, Laura Juskaite, and Maria Conde above all others.
Some of those players are bound to step up, but winning without Sykes will still be an uphill battle for however much time she will have to miss.
Brittney Sykes is key to everything Toronto does
Brittney Sykes was the Tempo’s biggest get outside of the expansion draft this offseason, and she’s been playing like it. She averaged 20.1 points, 3.8 rebounds, 3.5 assists, and 1.3 steals over her first fifteen games in a Tempo uniform. Those 20.1 points are the fifth-best average in the WNBA, and Sykes has a very strong case to receive the second All-Star nod of her career.
Without her, Toronto will struggle to put points on the board and keep up with high-scoring offenses.
But Sykes is much more than the Tempo’s leading scorer. She is also a veteran leader and the team’s go-to defender on the perimeter. Her absence was felt especially in the Caitlin Clark matchup on Tuesday.
“When Slim wasn’t there, when Julie [Allemand] wasn’t there—they were our two main players that were guarding her to a high level, and Maria [Conde], she played hard, but Caitlin [Clark] is just really too crafty,” Brondello said in the postgame media availability.
Skyes’s absence on that end of the floor will also be felt in the Tempo’s upcoming games. Three of their next five games are against the Atlanta Dream, Los Angeles Sparks, and Dallas Wings, meaning that someone else will have to guard Allisha Gray, Rhyne Howard, Kelsey Plum, and Paige Bueckers if Sykes has to miss those games.
Caitlin Clark and Sophie Cunningham wished Skyes well
The Fever got to celebrate a win, but made sure to send Sykes well-wishes after the win.
Sophie Cunningham ended her postgame media availability by saying, “We also want to shout out Brittney Sykes. Praying for her, healthy vibes. We don’t really know what happens, but know our team is praying for her and wishing her well.”
Kelsey Mitchell also chimed in, saying, “We appreciate you, B Sykes.”
Clark shared the same sentiment in a postgame interview with Mick Tidrow.
“I want to send my best wishes to Brittney Sykes,” Clark said.
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Elaine Blum covers women’s basketball for On SI from Europe. She has been writing about women's hoops since 2023 and holds a Bachelor’s degree in English and Journalism and a master’s degree in American Studies with a focus on women’s and gender studies. She started playing basketball when she was 10 years old and won several league and state championships at the youth and senior level.