Tempo vs. Sky: Brittney Sykes Drops 25 and Isabelle Harrison's Season Debut Fuels Toronto's 85-68 Win

Four made 3-pointers. That was Toronto's entire haul from deep on Sunday, the lowest total of its season, and it barely registered as a problem. Brittney Sykes spent the afternoon going through the Chicago defense instead of over it, Isabelle Harrison played her season debut like someone who had been quietly running the group chat for a month, and the Sky did not hold a lead for one second at Coca-Cola Coliseum.

The Toronto Tempo beat the Chicago Sky 85-68 in front of 8,210 fans. Sykes scored 25, Nyara Sabally added 15 and Harrison put up 14 in only 17 minutes. Two days after Chicago finally ended a five-game losing streak, the good feeling had the shelf life of an open avocado.

Toronto Made This a Formality Early

The Tempo won the first quarter 29-15, and the damage came in waves. Harrison's first big moment arrived with 4:12 left in the period, a 3-pointer that pushed the lead to 20-9. From that shot on, the margin never slipped back into single digits, and there was an awful lot of basketball left for that to happen.

An 8-0 run that began in the final half-minute of the first quarter and ended at the 8:37 mark of the second turned a 27-15 edge into 35-15. Credit Chicago for stopping the bleeding for a while, because the Sky clawed back to 48-33 by the break. Toronto then erased that work almost immediately. Another 8-0 burst, this one straddling halftime, took the score from 46-33 to 54-33 by the 8:33 mark of the third. That 21-point cushion was the biggest of the day.

The final quarter and a half mostly served as paperwork. Toronto carried a 70-53 lead into the fourth, Natasha Cloud and Gabriela Jaquez hit back-to-back Chicago 3s to make it 80-65 with 3:47 left, and Marina Mabrey answered with two free throws and later a layup to close the book. The fourth finished 15-15, which tells you how badly anyone needed it to matter.

Sykes Picked a Lane and Stayed in It

Nobody is framing 9-of-23 and hanging it in the hallway. Sykes' line makes more sense once you read the rest of it, though: 0-for-3 from long range, 7-of-9 at the foul line, seven rebounds, three assists and zero turnovers in 30 minutes. With Toronto's jumpers clanking, she kept pressuring the rim and never handed the ball back, and her plus-17 was the best mark on the floor.

Harrison was the story underneath the story. She missed Toronto's first 10 games with a thumb injury, then shot 6-of-9, went 2-for-2 from deep and grabbed six rebounds. The rest of the Tempo went 2-for-20 from 3. Half of the team's made 3s came from the one player who had not suited up all season, which is either a great sign for Toronto or a very funny one.

Sabally is becoming a recurring Chicago problem. She had 15 points on 7-of-14 shooting and six boards, after a career-high 29 against this same team on May 27. Mabrey's nine points undersold her afternoon, because six assists, four rebounds, two steals, a block and zero fouls in 30 minutes is the line of someone quietly working three jobs. Laura Juskaite got to 10 almost entirely at the stripe, going 6-of-7 there. Toronto managed all of it without rookie Kiki Rice, who sat with an ankle issue.

For Chicago, Azura Stevens was the bright spot, posting a season-high 18 points and 10 rebounds for a double-double in back-to-back games. Jaquez returned from four games out with a knee issue and gave the Sky 11 off the bench, while Jacy Sheldon scored 10 but committed five of the team's 16 turnovers. Skylar Diggins, who torched Connecticut for 24 on Friday, managed seven on 2-of-8. Kamilla Cardoso had nine points and eight rebounds in 23 minutes, with five fouls cutting into her afternoon.

The Run That Ended the Suspense

Take the 8-0 that bridged the first two quarters. Chicago trailed by 12 with 26.5 seconds left in the opening period, which is a bad quarter and nothing worse. Toronto scored the last two points of the first and the first six of the second, and suddenly the Sky were down 20 with 8:37 to go in the half.

That is a very different assignment, especially for a team that finished 23-of-65 from the field. A 12-point hole asks you to get a few stops. A 20-point hole asks you to shoot your way out, and Chicago hit 6-of-25 from 3. There was never a rope long enough to climb out on, so the Sky spent the rest of the day trading baskets with a team that seemed perfectly happy to trade.

Stats That Matter

• 4-of-22 (18.2%): Toronto's season lows for both made 3s and 3-point percentage. The Tempo won by 17 anyway.
• 46-30: Toronto's edge in the paint, which is where this game was actually decided.
• 16-of-26: Chicago at the foul line, good for 62 percent. Ten misses erased whatever slim comeback math existed.
• 13-6: Toronto's advantage in points off turnovers.
• 44-37: The Tempo's rebounding margin, with 11 of theirs on the offensive glass.

Where Everybody Stands

Toronto moves to 6-5 and 3-2 at home, with three wins in its last four games after a 97-82 loss at New York on Wednesday broke up a nice little run. The Tempo have also won both meetings with Chicago so far this season. They stay home to host Connecticut on Wednesday, and Harrison gets her second game of the year.

The Sky drop to 4-7 and 3-3 on the road. Friday's win over Connecticut is their only victory in their last seven games, and that makes Tuesday's home date with a 7-3 Atlanta team feel rather pressing. Chicago's offense has now gone from 85 points to 68 in two days, and the Sky will need more than one reliable scorer at a time.

Winning Chopped After Dropping the Basket

The modern game keeps telling us you live and die by the 3. Toronto went 4-of-22 and won by 17 by walking into the paint, getting to the line and letting Chicago fire away from deep at 24 percent. It is the basketball equivalent of winning Chopped after dropping the mystery basket on the kitchen floor. You still need a plan, and Toronto's plan was Sykes, a returning Harrison and a lot of layups. For one Sunday in June, that was plenty, and it is hard to watch those 17 Harrison minutes without wondering what this rotation looks like once she has a few more games under her.

Stats from the official box score via ESPN. Game details as reported by the Associated Press.