She can insist that it’s “just another game,” but the spotlight will be on Sandy Brondello and her new team in Brooklyn on Thursday night (7:30 p.m. ET, USA Network).
The head coach of the Toronto Tempo was dismissed from the top position with the New York Liberty after the 2025 WNBA season, despite leading the Liberty to the franchise’s long-sought first title in 2024 and receiving the endorsement of the team’s key stars.
New York general manager Jonathan Kolb cited a need for “evolution and innovation”
in explaining why the organization chose to part ways with Brondello, with his comments implying the Brondello, who began her WNBA coaching career in 2005 as an assistant and is now in her 14th season as a head coach, lacked the acumen need to “keep pushing the New York Liberty to new heights.”
He, instead, found what he thought his team needed in the NBA, hiring Golden State Warriors’ assistant coach Chris DeMarco, who had no prior experience coaching women’s basketball.
An early three-game losing streak, the team’s longest since 2022, Brondello’s first season in Brooklyn, called into question Kolb’s confidence in DeMarco. Injuries and absences, certainly, can excuse the team’s issues, even though those same issues weren’t enough to grant Brondello grace last season.
Brondello, however, is nothing but class. When asked about her impending return game, she expressed appreciation for her time with the Liberty before redirecting the focus back to her current team.
Similar to DeMarco’s Liberty, it’s been an uneven start to the 2026 season for Brondello and the Tempo. Toronto also has had to manage injuries and absences, except with an entirely new team with no established stars.
Both teams enter the game with matching 5-4 records, putting them at No. 7 and No. 8 in standings. Sitting just inside the playoff picture, that current spot is in line with the expectations for expansion Tempo, but way below those for the Liberty, widely projected as the top team in the league prior to the start of the season.
Toronto, surprisingly, owns a better offense, ranking third in the league with a 110.0 offensive rating while scoring almost 90 points per game. After a fast start, the Liberty have slipped to 107.3 offensive rating, which is good for eighth in the league. New York is scoring just under 87 points per game.
On the other end, New York is solid, with a sixth-ranked 103.6 defensive rating. Toronto, in contrast, has to improve on that side of the ball, as their 109.7 defensive rating is only better than the Phoenix Mercury and Los Angeles Sparks.
So, for Brondello’s new squad to deliver her a win over her old squad, they’re probably going to have to put a lot of points on the board. And while it might seem too simplistic, that likely will come down to the Tempo’s ability to make their 3s.
In wins, Toronto has shot almost 40 percent from deep, registering over 11 3-point makes. In losses, they’re hitting barely 28 percent of their triples. Even in a WNBA that increasingly has embraced the importance of high-volume 3-point shooting, Toronto’s win-vs.-loss percentage differential from deep is striking and, eventually, will will regress to a less extreme mean.
But on Wednesday night in Brooklyn, Toronto will be perfectly satisfied if some unsustainably hot shooting leads to another victory.
What’s your assessment of the “Brondello Bowl”?
Do you want to see Sandy to get revenge on the Liberty? And even if revenge doesn’t motivate Brondello, do you agree that Eastern Conference Player of the Week Marina Mabrey surely will be fired up to hand it to the Liberty on her head coach’s behalf? And should Ellie celebrate Sandy’s return by dressing up in an old-school Australian Opals kit?
On the New York side, do you think DeMarco and the team found something in their two-straight wins? Or, did they just benefit from playing the flailing Mercury?
