{"id":42661,"date":"2026-05-12T22:59:29","date_gmt":"2026-05-12T22:59:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/42661\/"},"modified":"2026-05-12T22:59:29","modified_gmt":"2026-05-12T22:59:29","slug":"tempo-turn-the-page-from-wnba-debut-look-ahead-to-improve-through-experience","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/42661\/","title":{"rendered":"Tempo turn the page from WNBA debut, look ahead to improve through experience"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Toronto Tempo head coach Sandy Brondello talks to her team during their inaugural WNBA game against the Washington Mystics in Toronto last Friday.Chris Young\/The Canadian Press<\/p>\n

Toronto Tempo head coach Sandy Brondello said there was nervousness, and some excitement. But with Game 1 out of the way, it\u2019s time to settle in.<\/p>\n

The league\u2019s 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 \u201cwhirlwind\u201d process leading up to the debut, Brondello now wants to see her team build.<\/p>\n

\u201cI 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\u2019t coached many of them either,\u201d Brondello said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we\u2019ve made good steps forward,\u201d she added. \u201cI think it\u2019s just time, understanding the chemistry and how we want to do things, the habits.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

The team practised on its home court at Coca-Cola Coliseum on Monday and Tuesday, something Brondello found beneficial in considering Toronto\u2019s struggling offence in its season opener. Toronto shot 27 per cent from the field and 20 per cent from three-point range.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we don\u2019t shoot the ball so well, you want to get used to the new rims and just the surroundings too,\u201d Brondello said. \u201cThe depth of where the seats are and just to feel comfortable. So it\u2019s been a good week for that.\u201d<\/p>\n

There was also film work, which showed centre Nyara Sabally one glaring need for improvement.<\/p>\n

\u201cHonestly, I thought I was fast and then I looked at the film and I was like, \u2019Oh!\u2019 And it\u2019s not even like just in the open floor, it\u2019s spinning the screens quicker actions … not holding the ball so long,\u201d Sabally said. \u201cSeeing it on film was like, \u2019OK, wow, we need to like just do better.\u2019 <\/p>\n

\u201cAnd I mean, we\u2019ve 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\u2019ll get.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brondello concurred.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe running habits in particular, we could be a great running team,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd some of them, we just got to make them, let\u2019s go, and being disciplined in those areas, moving the ball, the spacing. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe track corner threes and all that, some of who don\u2019t, and who does it and why when it works when you do it and when you don\u2019t. The more experiences we have, you get opportunities to get film and to show them and to learn.\u201d<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

The 28-year-old rookie had seven points, six rebounds and a steal in 15 minutes of play in the team\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think I was a bit surprised by the physicality and all the contact levels here, which sometimes it\u2019s too much, sometimes it is not enough,\u201d Juskaite said. \u201cEvery 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.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: Toronto Tempo head coach Sandy Brondello talks to her team during their inaugural…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":42662,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[164,224,238,214,212,239,17,211,230,231,227,213,210,235,171,234,143,222,249,215,216,229,225,226,219,240,220,244,245,247,242,246,94,243,217,142,233,113,232,241,223,236,48,237,228,221,218,248],"class_list":{"0":"post-42661","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-toronto","8":"tag-alberta","9":"tag-arts-news","10":"tag-bc","11":"tag-breaking-news","12":"tag-breaking-news-video","13":"tag-british-columbia","14":"tag-canada","15":"tag-canada-news","16":"tag-canada-sports","17":"tag-canada-sports-news","18":"tag-canada-trafficcanada-weather","19":"tag-canadian-breaking-news","20":"tag-canadian-news","21":"tag-economy","22":"tag-education","23":"tag-environment","24":"tag-federal-government","25":"tag-foreign-news","26":"tag-globe-and-mail","27":"tag-globe-and-mail-breaking-news","28":"tag-globe-and-mail-canada-news","29":"tag-government","30":"tag-life-news","31":"tag-lifestyle","32":"tag-local-news","33":"tag-manitoba","34":"tag-national-news","35":"tag-new-brunswick","36":"tag-newfoundland-and-labrador","37":"tag-northwest-territories","38":"tag-nova-scotia","39":"tag-nunavut","40":"tag-ontario","41":"tag-pei","42":"tag-photos","43":"tag-political-news","44":"tag-political-opinion","45":"tag-politics","46":"tag-politics-news","47":"tag-quebec","48":"tag-sports-news","49":"tag-technology","50":"tag-toronto","51":"tag-travel","52":"tag-trudeau","53":"tag-us-news","54":"tag-world-news","55":"tag-yukon"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42661","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42661"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42661\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/42662"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42661"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42661"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42661"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}