Marina Mabrey is having the kind of individual season that usually ends with a trophy, a documentary and a parade. She tied the WNBA single-game scoring record with 53 points in June, she set a league record for the most points ever scored across a three-game stretch, and she leads the WNBA in three-pointers made. She is, by any statistical measure, one of the best stories in the league this year. So why does her signature moment of the week involve a shoving match, a technical foul and an 11-game losing streak?
That's the strange, frustrating reality of the Toronto Tempo's expansion season. Mabrey is playing the best basketball of her life while her team is falling apart around her. Tuesday night's 101-95 loss to the Indiana Fever at a sold-out Scotiabank Arena was the Tempo's 11th straight defeat, tying the Seattle Storm (twice) for the longest losing streak in the WNBA this season. Toronto entered August at 10-18 and has since gone 0-6, tumbling from the playoff picture to the third-worst record in the league.
The night the record book bent around her
The foundation of Mabrey's breakout was laid on June 25, when she poured in 53 points on 17-of-28 shooting in a 125-97 win over the Los Angeles Sparks. That tied the WNBA single-game scoring record shared by Liz Cambage and A'ja Wilson. She also drilled nine three-pointers that night, tying the league's single-game record for makes from deep, and she did it again six days later — becoming the only player in WNBA history to tie that mark twice.
Her historic June 19-25 stretch produced 113 total points, a new WNBA record for the most points scored over a three-game span. It was the kind of scoring barrage that turns an All-Star nod into a national conversation. Mabrey earned her first career All-Star selection this summer, becoming the first All-Star in Tempo franchise history, and she was named to the league's 3-point contest at All-Star weekend after leading the league in made threes.
A career year hiding inside a lost season
Through 31 games, Mabrey is averaging 20.8 points per game while shooting 38.6 percent from three on more than eight attempts per night. She leads the WNBA in three-pointers made and sits top-four in scoring, a stunning leap for a 29-year-old guard who has bounced around the league for years. On Aug. 11 she passed Maya Moore for 19th on the WNBA's all-time three-point list, and she has reached the 30-point threshold six times this season while knocking down at least five threes in seven different games.
The numbers are undeniable. The wins, however, are not. Toronto has now lost 14 of its last 15 games, and with nine wins and four teams separating the Tempo from the eighth-place Washington Mystics, the playoff math is essentially dead. The expansion honeymoon is officially over, and Mabrey is left carrying a franchise that can't get out of its own way.
The shove heard around the league
The Fever game crystallized everything about Toronto's season. Kelsey Mitchell scored 29 points before sitting out the fourth quarter, extending her absurd streak of 20-point games to 20 straight and tying A'ja Wilson's WNBA record. Caitlin Clark added 24 points, and the Clark-Mitchell duo reached 20-plus points in the same game for a record 16th time. Indiana led nearly wire-to-wire, and Mabrey's late flurry of back-to-back threes cut the deficit to 97-93 before the Fever closed it out.
But the most-talked-about moment came in the third quarter, when Mabrey swiped at Mitchell on defense and Mitchell responded by shoving her in the chest and pointing a finger in her face. Both players were assessed technical fouls, and the clip went viral. For Mabrey, it was her fifth tech of the season — a $1,000 fine and a warning letter from the league as she closes in on the eight-tech threshold that triggers a one-game suspension. For Mitchell, it was just her second, a $500 fine and nothing more.
The contrast was fitting: Mabrey is one misstep away from watching from the bench while her team's season spirals, and there's no margin left for error in Toronto. Even her late three-pointer with seconds remaining — a shot that would have made it a one-possession game — was wiped out by a palming call.
What's left for the Tempo
The schedule offers no mercy. Toronto faces Washington on Wednesday night — the Mystics have beaten the Tempo in all three meetings this season, and the streak began with a 79-62 loss to Washington on July 14. After that come Portland, Las Vegas, Seattle and Phoenix. The Tempo have also lost five straight at home and seven straight on the road, and Brittney Sykes' return from a two-month foot injury (15 points Tuesday) was one of the few bright spots, along with Aneesah Morrow's franchise-record double-double of 14 points and 16 rebounds.
For bettors, the Tempo's collapse has been a gift: Toronto has failed to cover with alarming regularity during the skid, and the fading season-long props on their win total look increasingly safe. Mabrey's player props remain the only consistently profitable angle — her points line has been set in the low 20s most nights, and she's cleared it in three straight games. But with her tech count climbing, even that carries risk.
Mabrey tied a record in June that will be on her résumé forever. The tragedy of this season is that nobody in Toronto will get to enjoy it. The individual brilliance is real; the team around her is broken. That's the story of the 2026 Tempo — a franchise player having a historic year for a franchise having a historically bad one.
Nathan Caldwell
Nathan Caldwell edits and writes multi-sport coverage for True Grit Sports, turning game notes, market movement, and key trends into readable context.