Toronto Tempo look to Brittney Sykes for a lift after a 10-game slide and with a packed week ahead

NEW YORK (AP) — The expansion Toronto Tempo are struggling for wins in their first season, but help could be on the way soon with the return of Brittney Sykes.

The Tempo guard has been out for two months with a left plantar fascia injury she suffered in a June 16 game against the Indiana Fever. Without her the team has struggled, dropping 10 straight games . Toronto was in the mix for a playoff spot before the skid that has left the Tempo at 10-23 for the season, the third-worst record in the league.

Sykes said at practice Monday that she just needed to get cleared by the doctor to be able to play.

"It’s been a testing eight weeks, but, you know, it taught me a lot about myself. I got to show up for my teammates and the org in a different way,” Sykes said. “I’m just grateful that I got that time. I got a lot of therapy sessions in. I got to find out a lot about myself. In this point in my career, I’ve been here before, but it seems like this injury was way harder to deal with.”

Even when she wasn't able to play, Sykes was a veteran presence on the team, trying to keep her teammates' heads up during the skid.

She could make her return against Caitlin Clark and the Fever on Tuesday. The Tempo have a busy week ahead, with back-to-back games against Indiana at home and then against Washington on the road. Then Toronto will trek across Canada to Vancouver to face Portland on Friday and Las Vegas on Sunday.

It will be the second straight season that the WNBA will play games in Vancouver; Atlanta faced Seattle last season there in front of a sold-out crowd.

The timing is tough because the Tempo just came back from a five-game road trip that saw them criss-cross the U.S., with games on the West Coast, Atlanta and Dallas before returning home.

After the two games in Vancouver, the team finishes off its pre-World Cup schedule with three more road games in Seattle, Las Vegas and Phoenix.

The Tempo also played a pair of games in Montreal in July, splitting with Dallas and New York.

Minnesota held onto the top spot in the power poll again this week as the unanimous choice. The Lynx beat Portland and Las Vegas on the road last week. Golden State was second and the Aces were third. Indiana, Washington and New York were next. Atlanta was seventh, with Dallas, Portland and Chicago following the Dream. Phoenix, Los Angeles, Connecticut, Seattle/Toronto rounded out the poll.

The Phoenix Mercury retired Diana Taurasi's No. 3 jersey on Sunday in a halftime ceremony with a star-studded crowd in attendance. At the end of the evening, Taurasi stepped to the microphone one more time, pausing as the crowd gave her a 45-second standing ovation. Her 30-minute speech was a mixture of seriousness and comedy, drawing laugh from the thousands of fans who stayed after the Mercury lost to Portland.

Clark was the AP player of the week. Indiana's star guard averaged 25.7 points, 9.7 assists and 3.3 rebounds to help the team win all three of its games last week. Other players receiving votes were Allisha Gray of Atlanta, Olivia Miles of Minnesota and A'ja Wilson of Las Vegas.

Indiana at Dallas, Thursday. The teams will play for the second time in two weeks, with the Wings looking to get a measure of revenge for the loss last week in Indiana. Paige Bueckers put on a show for Dallas, but it wasn't enough to overcome the play of Clark, Kelsey Mitchell and Aliyah Boston.

AP WNBA: https://apnews.com/hub/wnba-basketball