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Toronto will finish its inaugural WNBA season without Brittney Sykes and Aneesah Morrow, leaving bettors with a very different team to assess over the closing stretch.
Two More Names Added to Toronto’s Injury List
The Toronto Tempo’s difficult first WNBA season has taken another hit, with guard Brittney Sykes and forward Aneesah Morrow ruled out for the remainder of the 2026 campaign.
Both players were injured during Toronto’s 82-79 win over the Portland Fire on August 21. Sykes suffered a foot injury shortly after the game began, while Morrow hurt her left knee during the second quarter. Head coach Sandy Brondello said neither injury is expected to require a lengthy recovery, but there is not enough time for either player to return before Toronto’s season ends.
It is especially frustrating timing for Sykes, who had only recently returned following an eight-week absence caused by a plantar fascia injury. She had been one of Toronto’s main scoring options when healthy and was averaging 18.6 points across 17 appearances.
Morrow’s spell with Toronto was even shorter. The forward joined the Tempo in a July trade with the Connecticut Sun and managed only seven appearances before suffering the knee injury. She averaged 9.3 points and 6.6 rebounds during that run.
A Thin Rotation Gets Even Thinner
Sykes and Morrow are hardly the only absentees Toronto has been dealing with.
All-Star guard Marina Mabrey has also been sidelined with an adductor problem, while Nyara Sabally and Maria Conde have missed time with calf injuries. Toronto had only eight players available for its recent loss to the Las Vegas Aces, and that number dropped again when Julie Allemand left the game after hitting her head on the floor.
The shortage has forced Brondello into lineups she admitted she would not normally use, while also making workload management increasingly difficult. Toronto has already been eliminated from postseason contention, so the final portion of the schedule is becoming as much about getting through the season as chasing results.
Bettors Have a Different Tempo Team to Judge
For bettors, the important point is that Toronto’s previous season-long numbers are becoming less useful.
A team missing several high-usage players can look very different from the one that produced those averages earlier in the year. Sykes’ scoring and defensive presence are gone, Morrow’s rebounding minutes need to be redistributed, and Mabrey’s uncertain status creates another major hole in the offense.
That can affect how bettors approach Toronto’s remaining games, particularly when assessing team performance and individual player markets. Less familiar players could receive heavier minutes and more shot attempts, while opponents may find themselves facing a much thinner rotation than Toronto’s overall record suggests.
There is also the motivation question. Toronto is no longer playing for a postseason place, while several opponents still have more at stake late in the season. That does not automatically make the Tempo an easy opponent, as their win over Portland already demonstrated, but it gives bettors another factor to weigh alongside the injuries.
For anyone betting the WNBA down the stretch, Toronto is now a team that requires a fresh read before every game rather than one that can be judged simply by its season averages.
