Does Cheryl Reeve have a point about WNBA officiating?

PHOENIX – Before Friday’s Game 3 of the WNBA semifinals, Phoenix Mercury coach Nate Tibbetts complimented the way the two prior games against the Minnesota Lynx had been officiated — lightly, minimal free throws, letting physical defense play out.

“I’ve loved how the officials have called our two games,” he said. “I don’t know how Cheryl feels.”

Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve feels differently, to say the least.

Reeve was ejected with 21.8 seconds remaining in Friday’s 84-76 loss by picking up a second technical foul disputing a no-call against Minnesota star Napheesa Collier.

The league announced Saturday that Reeve would serve a one-game suspension in Game 4 Sunday as a result of “aggressively pursuing and verbally abusing a game official on the court, failure to leave the court in a timely manner upon her ejection … (and) inappropriate comments made to fans while exiting the court and remarks made in a post-game press conference."

The no-call in question came as Phoenix’s Alyssa Thomas stole the ball from Collier near the Lynx’s three-point line, and Thomas’ lower body collided with Collier’s knee on the follow through, causing the Lynx forward’s left ankle to roll. Collier will miss Game 4 as well because of the injury.

Reeve’s first technical came in the second quarter as Thomas defended Collier with an elbow at her back. Collier, who finished runner-up in MVP voting this year, shot zero free throws but picked up a game-high fifth personal foul before the late collision forced her to exit the game.

“You’re hearing [Las Vegas Aces coach] Becky [Hammon] talk about, when you let the physicality happen, people get hurt, there’s fights,” Reeve said. “And this is the look our league wants, for some reason.”

After the Aces beat the Indiana Fever 90-68 in Game 2 of the playoff semifinals on the other side of the bracket, Hammon questioned why league MVP A’ja Wilson only shot one free throw in 38 minutes — the comments Reeve was referring to postgame on Friday.

“The physicality’s out of control for sure,” Hammon told reporters. “You can bump and grab a wide receiver in the NFL for those first five yards, but you can do it in the W for the whole half court. You put two hands on somebody, it should be an automatic foul. The freedom of movement? There’s no freedom. I’m not saying we’re not fouling, too. I’m not saying that. I’m saying it’s out of control.”

Hammon had also called the first-round series between the Atlanta Dream and Indiana a “football match.”

Other coaches have taken issue with the consistency, rather than just the physicality, of the guardrails being implemented, such as Fever coach Stephanie White and the league Coach of the Year, Golden State’s Natalie Nakase. Nakase said she was “begging for consistency” earlier this season.

Tibbetts had a different take after Game 3 in Phoenix: “We haven’t talked about the officiating all playoffs. We just play and worry about us.”

Commissioner Cathy Engelbert addressed early-season officiating concerns with reporters during July’s All-Star weekend.

“We hear the concerns, we take that input, and every play is reviewed,” she said then. “I realize consistency is the name of the game.”

The National Basketball Referees Association, which expanded to include the officials of the WNBA and G League in 2017, posted on social media platform X Saturday morning, weighing in that the particular late-game play by Thomas “is NOT a foul.”

Per the WNBA 2025 Rule Book, on incidental contact:

A season-long assessment of the WNBA’s advanced statistics shows that the Lynx tend to play in games with less foul shooting — not just for the Lynx, but for both Minnesota and its opponent.

In the regular season, the Lynx finished second-to-last in free throw attempts, shooting 16.1 per game, only more than the Seattle Storm’s 16.0 average attempts. Only a league-low 14.2% of Lynx points were scored from the line this season.

But the Lynx also faced a league-low in free throw attempts by their opponents, with opposing teams shooting just 15.4 times per game on average.

And in four playoff games, the Lynx’s 12.0 free-throw attempts per game is the lowest in the eight-team field. Their opponents are taking an average of 15.0 shots per game from the charity stripe, second-lowest behind just the Mercury (who, of course, have now played half of their six playoff games against Minnesota).

“I’m not sure what to make of the commentators bragging about setting records of no fouls and how fun it is to watch,” Reeve said pregame when asked about the officiating in Games 1 and 2. “It’s not easy for the players to play in those conditions all the time.

Collier, in particular, averaged 5.2 free throw attempts per game this regular season, eighth-most in the league on 5.6 personal fouls drawn per game, second in the WNBA. Wilson led the league in both, shooting 7.3 free throws per game on 6.3 personal fouls drawn.

Collier’s average count of fouls drawn per game has dipped this year in the playoffs to 3.4 fouls. Others like Wilson (7.2 drawn per game) and Thomas (4.5 drawn per game) have seen slight bumps in a small postseason sample size of six games.

In Game 3, the Lynx were trailing ahead of the no-call against Collier, down 80-76. The Mercury’s physicality gave Minnesota trouble down the stretch as the Lynx’s shooting cooled and they were outscored 21-9 in the fourth quarter.

The Mercury finished Friday night having picked up 15 fouls, while the Lynx were called for 14. Phoenix shot 18-for-22 from the free-throw line, while the Lynx were 10-for-11. In Game 2, Phoenix had the edge, 13-9, from the line. In Game 1, the teams combined for just ten free throw attempts, 6-4 in favor of the Lynx.

“One of the best players in the league [Collier] shot zero free throws, and she had five fouls. Zero free throws,” Reeve said postgame. Collier has shot just two free throws in the series. “Had her shoulder pulled out and finished the game with her leg being taken out and probably has a fracture.”