53 Points. One Record. And a Draft Day Grudge Marina Mabrey Won’t Forget.

Marina Mabrey just did something that only two other players in WNBA history have done. She dropped 53 points on the Los Angeles Sparks, tying the league’s single-game scoring record. And she did it against the team that drafted her, then traded her away. That part matters.

The Toronto Tempo guard was unstoppable on Monday night. She shot 17-of-28 from the floor, hit 9-of-18 from three, and went 10-of-12 at the free throw line. The Sparks tried switching defenders, they tried traps, they tried everything. Nothing worked.

Mabrey joins Liz Cambage (2018) and A’ja Wilson (2023) as the only players to reach 53 in a game. Riquna Williams’ 51-point night for Tulsa in 2013 is the only other 50-point game in league history.

But here’s the context that makes this even better. Los Angeles drafted Mabrey in the second round of the 2019 draft. They traded her to Dallas a year later. You think she forgot? Players remember that stuff. Dropping 53 on them in a blowout win is about as loud a statement as you can make.

This wasn’t a one-off either. Just days earlier, Mabrey tied the WNBA record with nine threes in a 37-point game against Connecticut. So within one week, she’s tied two all-time records. That’s a heater, plain and simple.

The Tempo’s gamble is paying off

Toronto signed Mabrey to a max deal in the offseason — $1.2 million per year, the league maximum. For an expansion team in its first season, that was a bet. She’s the cornerstone, the player they’re building around. Performances like this are the payoff.

The Tempo are Canada’s first WNBA franchise, and they’re trying to establish an identity fast. Having a guard who can go for 50 on any given night speeds that process up considerably. The crowd in Toronto has something real to rally around now.

Mabrey has always had scoring bursts. She’s capable of those stretches where the rim looks like an ocean. But 53 points on that kind of efficiency — 60.7% from the field, 50% from deep — is a different tier entirely. It’s the kind of night that changes how defenses prepare for you.

The Sparks are left to explain how a player they once let go just carved them up for a record-tying performance. And the rest of the league is left figuring out how to slow down a Toronto team that suddenly looks dangerous.

Mabrey’s career high was 37 six days ago. Now it’s 53. What’s next is the question nobody has an answer for.