ARLINGTON, Texas — The Dallas Wings enter tonight’s matchup against the Toronto Tempo in need of a reset and with little room for more setbacks.
Dallas has dropped five of its last six games, a slide that has pulled the Wings back into the middle of a crowded playoff race. With a 19-14 record, Dallas currently occupies the eighth and final playoff spot, making every remaining game increasingly important.
Veteran Wings guard Alysha Clark said the Wings understand the urgency.
“We have to approach every game from this point on as a playoff game,” Clark said. “Tonight, our focus is really just getting back on track.”
Dallas will also enter the game with several players on the injury report. Clark is questionable with a back injury, while Azzi Fudd has been ruled out with a right knee injury. Jessica Shepard is also out with a right ankle injury.
The Wings and Tempo tip off at 7 p.m. CT at College Park Center. The game will air nationally on USA Network and locally in the Dallas-Fort Worth market on KFAA.
Dallas Wings Face Struggling Toronto Tempo
The Tempo are 10-22 and have lost nine straight, ranking last in the league in both offensive and defensive rating. Toronto is averaging just 87.6 points per game while allowing 94.1, leaving the team searching for an answer to its current skid.
Still, Dallas can’t afford to overlook the Tempo’s ability to make shots from the perimeter. Toronto ranks fourth in 3-point shooting at 35.8%, giving the Wings a clear defensive priority despite the Tempo’s struggles elsewhere.
And the Wings have fresh reason to be especially wary of giving up clean looks from outside.
In their most recent game, Dallas allowed a historic shooting performance from Minnesota’s Kayla McBride. McBride scored a career-high 43 points and made a WNBA-record 10 3-pointers in the Lynx’s 103-90 victory over the Wings.
Clark noted that Toronto is among the league’s top 3-point shooting teams and emphasized the need to eliminate open attempts.
“Great shooters are gonna hit shots, contested shots, tough shots, those types of things,” Clark said. “But just making sure nothing is open (is the priority).”
Dallas has already beaten Toronto twice this season. The Wings won 89-76 on July 5 before a 108-95 victory five days later at the Bell Centre in Montreal. Paige Bueckers scored a season-high 34 points with six rebounds and six assists in the second meeting.
Dallas Wings Prepare For Marina Mabrey
That starts with Marina Mabrey, Toronto’s leading scorer and one of the league’s most dangerous high-volume shooters. Mabrey is averaging 20.7 points per game while shooting 38.8 percent from 3-point range on more than eight attempts per game. She also recently erupted for 36 points in just 33 minutes against Atlanta.
Veteran guard Odyssey Sims said the plan isn’t necessarily to stop Mabrey outright, but to make life as difficult as possible.
“She’s an elite scorer,” Sims said. “We’ll play defense, like we’ve been doing against every other opponent and just try to limit her touches as much as we can, but she’s gonna score the ball. I mean, I don’t think we can hold her scoreless…so I think just trying to maintain (her) and hopefully she has an off night.”
Alysha Clark: ‘Tonight’s Game Is About The Dallas Wings’
For the Wings, though, the focus is not looking past Toronto or getting caught up in the opponent’s struggles; it’s about fixing what has gone wrong on their own side.
“Tonight’s game is about the Dallas Wings,” Clark said. “We haven’t necessarily liked the way we’ve shown up the last few games and we just want to really feel good about when we step on the floor. We understand what’s at stake, playoffs aren’t a locked-in guarantee…and so I think for us, just kind of having that mentality going into tonight is really what we’re focused on.”
