Brittney Sykes left Toronto’s 113-91 loss to the Indiana Fever on Tuesday, June 16, after an apparent non-contact foot injury in the third quarter, adding to a growing list of absences. Toronto coach Sandy Brondello said Sykes would be evaluated, while the tea
Toronto’s bench went quiet early in Tuesday night’s game against the Indiana Fever, and it happened fast—Brittney Sykes dropped to the floor during the third quarter and immediately signaled pain.
With the Fever leading 62-59 with 6:46 remaining in the quarter. Sykes drove to the basket before falling with what appeared to be a non-contact injury. She grimaced in pain. covered her face with her jersey as teammates surrounded her with towels. and Toronto head coach Sandy Brondello headed toward the court to motion for referees to review the play.
Sykes was eventually helped to her feet and assisted off the court to the locker room by team personnel. She finished the game with 11 points, going 5-of-8 from the field and 1-of-1 from 3-point range.
Brondello said she did not have an immediate update after the game and that Sykes would be evaluated.
“Hopefully it’s nothing too serious,” Brondello said. “She’s been playing so good for us and doing so much for us at both ends of the floor. So when you lose one of your best players, it’s tough. But no one’s going to feel pity for us. We just got to next player up mentality, and I thought we competed hard, but… we couldn’t find ways that we could fill Slim’s shoes. That’s going to be really hard, but we just got to hope that she’s not too injured.”.
The injury comes at a brutal time for Toronto, which was already dealing with multiple absences.
Kiki Rice (left ankle) and Nyara Sabally (right hamstring) were ruled out ahead of Tuesday’s game. Julie Allemand was also ruled out after the first half on Tuesday with a headache.
Brondello pointed to that stretch of limited availability when asked about the situation.
“This injury bug, this has got to get behind us. How many players have you got injured?” Brondello added. “It was a tough night for us in terms of players’ availability, but yeah, Julie (Allemand) had this really bad headache, so she couldn’t continue in the game and then Slim going down.”
For Sykes. the exit is especially jarring because she has been in the middle of what the team described as a career-best season in her first year with Toronto. Through 14 games (all starts), she is averaging 20.7 points, 3.9 rebounds, and 3.5 assists. She is shooting 41.4% from the field and 25.9% from the 3-point line.
“It was a tough night for us,” Marina Mabrey said after the game. “You saw my face when Slim went down, that says it all. I don’t need to speak on that.”
Mabrey and Brondello both said the next step is to create opportunities for other players to step in.
“We have players that can play basketball that are really good. That’s kind of the beauty of this league. There’s people waiting for their opportunity every chance,” Mabrey said. “Obviously we never wish for anybody to get injured. but now maybe we’ll see a different look at our team. We’ve lost a couple. so maybe we can kind of put something together that looks a little bit different so we could get a win under our belt and start to gel in a different way until we get our players back.”.
Toronto will try to reset quickly after the 113-91 defeat, traveling to Connecticut to face the Sun on Friday.
Brittney Sykes Toronto Tempo Indiana Fever Sandy Brondello Marina Mabrey Kiki Rice Nyara Sabally Julie Allemand WNBA injuries Sun vs Tempo