Toronto’s inaugural season did not just fall apart. It practically collapsed under the weight of its own injury list. With at least 11 reported injuries or health issues hitting eight different players over the course of the season, fans had already started pointing to the obvious: this roster was running on fumes. Now, after a 12th straight loss officially knocked Toronto out of the playoffs, Sandy Brondello is staring at an ugly career first. For the first time in 13 seasons as a WNBA head coach, she will be watching the postseason from home.

After a 93-82 loss to the Washington Mystics on August 19, the Tempo were officially eliminated from playoff contention, as noted by Yahoo Sports on X. This marks a tough end for the Tempo, who came into this game on an astounding downturn.

“I think these are all lessons; they’re not failures,” Brondello said, per TSN’s Chelsea Leite. “They’re lessons as we prepare for the big picture. Unfortunately, we haven’t been able to evaluate us at full strength, but we’ve been able to evaluate individual talent.” After the loss, head coach Brondello directly addressed the team.

Toronto looked respectable at 9-9, then completely fell off a cliff. The Tempo went 1-16 over their next 17 games and spiraled into a 12-game losing streak that turned a promising start into a season-long collapse. Brittney Sykes’ foot injury on June 16 only made things worse, sidelining one of Toronto’s most important guards for two months and exposing just how thin and fragile the roster really was.

That collapse was not one bad stretch on paper. It played out game by game like this:

• July 14 vs. Washington: L 62-79 (L1)
• July 17 vs. Atlanta: L 92-111 (L2)
• July 20 vs. Las Vegas: L 83-109 (L3)
• July 28 at Minnesota: L 93-100 (L4)
• July 30 vs. Minnesota: L 72-104 (L5)
• Aug. 2 at Golden State: L 79-96 (L6)
• Aug. 4 at Golden State: L 81-92 (L7)
• Aug. 6 at Portland: L 83-97 (L8)
• Aug. 10 at Atlanta: L 95-107 (L9)
• Aug. 12 at Dallas: L 88-94 (L10)
• Aug. 18 vs. Indiana: L 95-101 (L11)
• Aug. 19 at Washington: L 82-93 (L12)

“It’s about building that strong foundation, isn’t it?” Brondello continued. “Then making sure we have high standards. There are still a lot of areas we need to work on, but it’s really hard when your lineup changes all the time, your rotations change, and a lot of players haven’t played together.”

The team played 18 games without Sykes while she rested her foot and lost 15 of them, mostly due to major defensive flaws. According to StatMuse, the team has the worst defense in the league by Defensive Rating, at 117.1, over four points higher than the next-lowest team, the Los Angeles Sparks, and ranks in the bottom three for blocks per game due to not having a solid rim protector for most of the season.

Toronto has spent most of its season dealing with injuries and drastic lineup shifts due to an awkward roster with no real rim protector, and that has made Brondello’s job all the more difficult. This season also marks the first time Brondello hasn’t made the playoffs after 13 years as a head coach, and she acknowledged the instability the team needs to work on moving forward.

As ugly as Toronto’s collapse has been, missing the playoffs in Year 1 is hardly unusual for a WNBA expansion franchise. The benchmark changed only last year, when the Golden State Valkyries became the first expansion team in league history to make the playoffs in their inaugural season.

Golden State finished 23-21 in 2025, set a WNBA record for wins by an expansion team, and clinched a postseason berth with a late-season victory over Dallas. Before that breakthrough, even some respectable first-year teams fell short.

The 1998 Detroit Shock, for example, went 17-13 and still missed the postseason under the league’s playoff format at the time. That history puts Toronto’s elimination into better perspective.

What stands out is not the elimination itself, but how sharply Toronto unraveled and how it handed Brondello her first missed postseason in 13 seasons as a WNBA head coach.

Against Washington, all those issues were on full display.

Sandy Brondello’s Tempo Left Shorthanded as Mystics Extend Toronto’s Losing Streak

Brondello entered the Washington game with a roster already falling apart. Toronto’s playoff hopes were hanging by a thread, and injuries had stripped away too many key pieces for the Tempo to look like a serious postseason threat.

The two leading scorers were both missing; Marina Mabrey was ruled out due to a hamstring issue before the game, and Brittney Sykes was sitting due to injury management on her previously hampered foot on the second night of a back-to-back. Together, the two average over 40 points per game, leaving Brondello without most of Toronto’s offensive production.

For one quarter, the game didn’t look too bad for the team. The Tempo knocked down four threes to head into the second trailing 24-25, but Washington quickly showed why they were one of the WNBA’s best defenses. The Mystics completely shut down Toronto’s offense, limiting them to just nine points in the second quarter, leading 47-33 at the half.

From there, not much changed for the Tempo. Despite rookie guard Kiki Rice’s best efforts, including 19 points, Toronto struggled to generate offense consistently without its top players.

Washington’s duo of Kiki Iriafen and Shakira Austin both recorded double-doubles, combining for 32 points and 23 rebounds, all while the team dominated the Tempo in the paint. Washington held a 43-27 advantage on the boards and a 38-30 advantage for points in the paint.

For now, the remaining slate of games for the Tempo is a time for them to reflect and reevaluate on a tough first season, and develop young talent, like Rice and Aneesah Morrow.