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The Toronto Tempo (10-23) haven’t technically been eliminated from playoff contention in 2026, yet it feels all but certain with the WNBA standings showing a stark difference between the league’s haves and have-nots. The eighth-seeded Dallas Wings have 20 wins, and with the Tempo maxing out at 21 wins, the math isn’t in Toronto’s favour. The games haven’t been in Toronto’s favour recently either, with the Tempo riding a 10-game losing streak into their next game (Tuesday at home against Caitlin Clark and the Indiana Fever). The Tempo, all but certainly, has slowed. Tempo Check: Season in Rice? Breaking down Kiki Rice’s impressive performance against Paige Bueckers, and explaining the Spain pick-and-roll. Kiki, We Hope You Love Toronto If there’s been any bright spot of late, it’s first-round pick Kiki Rice (drafted No. 6 overall), who ranks fifth among all WNBA rookies in per-game scoring (11.2 PPG). Rice held Paige Bueckers, her direct matchup, to zero points in the first half (a very rare occurrence) in the Wings’ 94-88 win over Toronto on August 12. Flashing a lot of the defensive traits that made her such a highly valued prospect coming out of UCLA, Rice’s screen navigation, isolation defence, and low centre of gravity consistently frustrated the former No. 1 pick in the first half. “Defensively, I thought she did a great job on Paige,” head coach Sandy Brondello told TSN’s Chelsea Leite after the game. “She has that physical strength, she can get over screens, she has high IQ. We think the world of Kiki, and we are going to keep developing her.” Rice doesn’t sacrifice team defence for the sake of individual matchups. She is happily switchable and, with an extremely high motor and degree of competitiveness on both sides of the ball, a player who projects as a defensive leader for many seasons to come. With great defensive instincts off the ball, Rice can shut down offensive advantages both by rotation and by creating turnovers. Look at her tremendous rotation: with Rice trailing, Bueckers curls around the screen in Dallas’ pistol action. Toronto rotates to stop the ball in the paint, but does so from both the low and high help points, leaving two players open on the weakside. Bueckers makes the read, but Rice not only sees the read immediately, but also anticipates Alanna Smith’s extra pass and slices out to take away both weakside options (with a tidy closeout to polish it off, too). Rice also created a turnover that was reminiscent of a steal she made in the national championship game (which UCLA won convincingly). Guarding two deep routes, as it were, Rice is able to show on one and flip her hips to recover to the other one, taking away a transition advantage by doing so. Against Dallas, however, Rice did struggle guarding in transition when cross-matched against bigs. Smith got her revenge by sneaking past Rice three times, twice for a bucket and once for a foul, and Odyssey Sims outran Rice to create an easy layup (which she luckily missed). Rice has such good defensive instincts that she’s rarely out of position, but, without elite acceleration and closing speed, she’s at her most disadvantaged when playing from behind as seen in the last two clips above. That’s how Bueckers got back into the game in the second half, too, moving off the ball to gain a step on Rice before getting to her midrange jumper (and making them for a change). It would work well to pair Rice with a guard who possesses that elite acceleration. Luckily, Toronto has such a player in Brittney Sykes. With Rice and Sykes sharing the court, per Databallr, Toronto has posted a +0.4 net rating, which far surpasses the team’s -13.2 net rating with both off the court and -8.0 season-long net rating (-5.7 Rice on/Sykes off, -4.6 Sykes on/Rice off, for reference). Of course, Rice and Sykes have both missed copious time to injury, but overall the Tempo play much better with Rice on the court. The offence has been better with Rice too: nearly five points per 100 possessions better, per Databallr. Rice is crafty with and without the screen, dangerous when allowed to get into the paint (she’s shooting 73.6 per cent in the restricted area, per HerHoopStats), and—to the high motor point—not someone who gives up on a miss. Her 0.64 “zbounds” (offensive rebounds of one’s own miss) per 40 minutes leads the Tempo, per pbpstats. Kiki, do you love Toronto? Toronto sure loves you. Explained: Spain (or Stack) Pick-and-Roll Let’s stick with Rice’s offence for a second to explain “Spain” (also called “stack”) pick-and-rolls, which are popular with the Tempo and across the WNBA (and across the basketball landscape as a whole). The action involves a ball screen and then a backscreen for the initial screener, greatly complicating the defence’s coverage responsibilities. For example, if 2’s defender doesn’t help on the roll, it’s a free layup for the big. If both backend defenders follow the roller, 2 pops to the top for an open three. In the first clip, the screens create downhill separation for Rice, making Bri Jones rotate to the drive, which leaves Nyara Sabally’s roll wide open for Rice’s find. Toronto has also used Marina Mabrey as the first screener, as in clip two, which can create a real downhill threat as teams are so loath to leave the sniper uncovered. Of course, just because you run it doesn’t mean you can always stop it. The Tempo will have to lean heavily on Rice to stop Indiana’s league-leading offence, and potentially mathematical elimination, on Tuesday at Scotiabank Arena.