{"id":196775,"date":"2026-05-26T18:14:29","date_gmt":"2026-05-26T22:14:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=196775"},"modified":"2026-05-26T18:14:29","modified_gmt":"2026-05-26T22:14:29","slug":"tempo-fire-wnba-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2026\/05\/26\/tempo-fire-wnba-season\/","title":{"rendered":"Tempo and Fire Finding Their Footing in First WNBA Season"},"content":{"rendered":"
The 2026 WNBA season is off to a great start, and there have already been several causes for celebration. The WNBA is celebrating its 30th season, which is a fantastic achievement. On top of that, two new teams joined the league to bring the total number of teams to 15: the Toronto Tempo and the Portland Fire. After an expansion draft and the 2026 entry draft, the two teams were ready to take on the league.<\/div>\n
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The Tempo are already off to a historic season, becoming the first WNBA team to be based in Canada. The Fire originally played in the W from 2000 to 2002, but the franchise inevitably folded. In 2024, WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert announced the Fire would be the league’s 15th franchise; Portland was getting its team back. Everyone had counted out both the Tempo and the Fire this season, but they have already proven they should not be ignored just yet.<\/div>\n

Tempo and Fire Finding Their Footing in First WNBA Season<\/h2>\n
The Tempo have been making a push to be a contender this season<\/a>. Their debut game was a 68-65 loss to the Washington Mystics. It was their first game on the road, and although it was a close battle, the Mystics prevailed in the end. The next game resulted in the Tempo’s first win — and also their first at home — beating the Seattle Storm 86-73.<\/div>\n
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After those two games, the Tempo hit the road to play on the West Coast. They split a two-game stint with the Los Angeles Sparks. Toronto then took on the Phoenix Mercury and won 98-90, marking their first back-to-back wins<\/a> in franchise history.<\/div>\n
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A road loss to the Minnesota Lynx brought the Tempo to a 3-3 start and a .500 win percentage to start the season. They have since dropped their last two games and now sit with a .429 win percentage.<\/div>\n
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The Fire had the opposite situation happen. They opened the season at home against the Chicago Sky and lost in the debut of their white uniforms<\/a>. Their next game was also at home, hosting the New York Liberty. It was an intense back-and-forth contest, with the Fire winning on a last-second buzzer-beater<\/a> by Sarah Ashlee Barker<\/a>. The Fire faced the Liberty again two nights later, but they fell in blowout fashion 100-82. The final game of their first homestand ended in an 83-82 win over the Connecticut Sun.<\/div>\n
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Portland’s first road game was in a 90-73 loss against the Indiana Fever. However, they have since beaten the Tempo in the first matchup between the expansion teams and defeated the Liberty once again. With their latest consecutive wins, the Fire improve to a 4-3 record (.571 winning percentage) and are sitting in the middle of the pack at seventh place<\/a> in the overall standings.<\/div>\n

Mabrey and Sykes Have Been Stellar for Toronto<\/h3>\n
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A large part of the Tempo’s early-season success can be credited to the duo of Marina Mabrey<\/a> and Brittney Sykes<\/a>. The pair have been on point to start the campaign.<\/div>\n
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After a strong past two seasons as a starter for the Connecticut Sun, Mabrey was selected by the Tempo in the expansion draft. She has put up impressive numbers in the past and is already doing so for the Tempo. Through Toronto’s first seven contests, she’s averaged 18 points, four rebounds and three assists per game. On May 19 against the Mercury, she dropped 30 points in 32 minutes.<\/div>\n
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Sykes is also having a strong start to her career in Toronto<\/a>, who signed her to a multi-year deal in free agency. She’s averaging 20.6 points, 3.7 rebounds and 4.7 assists per game. She recently had back-to-back 30-point outings, including a career-high 38<\/a> against the Sparks.<\/div>\n
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It is clear that the presence of Mabrey and Sykes has been a huge benefit to the Tempo, whose veterans are clear indicators of the group’s strength.<\/div>\n
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Mabrey and Sykes are the\u00a0first teammates<\/a> to each drop 30 or more points in a single game during a franchise’s first season. That alone is enough proof they are the Tempo’s backbone. Despite early losses, Toronto just needs to keep its foot on the gas, and it’ll be in better shape to take on the rest of the season.<\/div>\n

Barker’s Heroics Contribute to Fire’s Early Success<\/h3>\n
The Tempo are trying to make their case to be a contender while the Fire are already there. A big part of why they are in that position is the heroics of Sarah Ashlee Barker.<\/div>\n
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In addition to her game winner on May 12, Barker had another moment that proved she is New York’s greatest opponent. In the final minutes of Monday night’s matchup, Barker drilled a go-ahead 3-pointer <\/a>to give the Fire a 67-65 lead with over three minutes to play. The Fire ended up winning both this game and the season series against the Liberty.<\/div>\n
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Barker is in her second WNBA season after spending her rookie year with the Los Angeles Sparks. She is currently averaging 9.9 points per game, five more than she did with LA. The season has just started, but Barker is already finding her groove. Hopefully, she can continue to put up points — not just against the Liberty.<\/div>\n

Tempo and Fire Proving They Belong<\/h3>\n
The Tempo and the Fire might be the newest teams in the WNBA, but that doesn’t negate the expert talent their players already have. Many of them are veterans, and their experience and expertise are giving the Fire and the Tempo a chance to be contenders for the 2026 season.<\/div>\n
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It will be interesting to see how the rest of the campaign pans out for both of these teams.<\/div>\n
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\u00a9 Kevin Sousa-Imagn Images<\/span><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The 2026 WNBA season is off to a great start, and there have already been several causes for celebration. The WNBA is celebrating its 30th season, which is a fantastic achievement. On top of that, two new teams joined the league to bring the total number of teams to 15: the Toronto Tempo and the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5840,"featured_media":197594,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1608,3,49709],"tags":[49679],"class_list":["post-196775","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-basketball","category-news","category-wnba","tag-marina-mabrey"],"modified_by":"Jordan Pagkalinawan, Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/196775","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5840"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=196775"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/196775\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":197580,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/196775\/revisions\/197580"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/197594"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=196775"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=196775"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=196775"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}