The Toronto Tempo will be without one of their most important guards for the final three games before the WNBA\u2019s international break.<\/p>\n
Toronto temporarily suspended Julie Allemand\u2019s contract after she left the team to join Belgium ahead of the FIBA Women\u2019s World Cup, according to TSN reporter Chelsea Leite.<\/a> The move is procedural and is not a disciplinary action. Allemand is expected to return to Toronto after the tournament.<\/p>\n Her absence nevertheless creates another challenge for an expansion team that has struggled throughout August.<\/p>\n MORE:\u00a0Angel Reese makes WNBA history with rebounding performance never seen before<\/a><\/p>\n Allemand leaves major hole in Toronto lineup<\/p>\n Allemand has averaged 6.3 points, 5.6 assists, 3.1 rebounds and 1.4 steals in 29 appearances this season. She has started 27 games while playing 28.7 minutes per contest.<\/p>\n The 5-foot-8 guard will miss Wednesday\u2019s road game against the Seattle Storm<\/a>, Friday\u2019s matchup with the Las Vegas Aces<\/a> and Saturday\u2019s visit to the Phoenix Mercury<\/a>.<\/p>\n Toronto then will join the rest of the league for a scheduled pause from Aug. 31 through Sept. 17 while the World Cup is played in Berlin. Allemand is expected to represent Belgium during the Sept. 4-13 tournament. Her next opportunity to play for Toronto is expected to come Sept. 18 against the Indiana Fever<\/a>.<\/p>\n The timing of her departure leaves the Tempo short-handed during a difficult stretch. Toronto fell to 11-26 after Sunday\u2019s 88-78 loss to Las Vegas. It was the Tempo\u2019s eighth defeat in nine August games, and the expansion club already had been eliminated from playoff contention.<\/p>\n That does not make the remaining schedule meaningless.<\/p>\n Toronto can use its final games to evaluate players, develop its rotation and identify pieces for its second season. Allemand has established herself as one of those foundational pieces, particularly because of her ability to create opportunities for teammates.<\/p>\n For the next three games, however, the Tempo must find another way to organize their offense without their regular starting point guard.<\/p>\n More WNBA news:\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Toronto Tempo will be without one of their most important guards for the final three games before…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":826222,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[99,434],"class_list":["post-826221","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wnba","tag-sports","tag-wnba"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/826221","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=826221"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/826221\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/826222"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=826221"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=826221"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=826221"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}