Minnesota star Napheesa Collier was injured Friday in a loss that left the Lynx on the brink of elimination from the WNBA playoffs, and coach Cheryl Reeve didn’t hold back her opinion of the way the referees handled the physical contest.
The Phoenix Mercury beat the visiting Lynx 84-76 to take a 2-1 lead in a best-of-five semifinal series.
Reeve wasn’t around to see the end of it after she was ejected with 23.8 seconds later, arguing that Phoenix’s Alyssa Thomas should have been called for a foul while stealing the ball from Collier. The play ended with Thomas hitting a layup that put the Mercury up by six.
After running onto the floor to dispute the call, Reeve was given her second technical foul of the night, resulting in an ejection.
Postgame, Reeve didn’t hold back on the profanities while weighing in on the officials.
“This is the look that our league wants, for some reason,” she said of the game’s physicality. “We were trying to play through it, we tried not to make excuses. One of the best players in the league (Collier) shot zero free throws. Zero, and she had five fouls. Zero free throws. Got her shoulder pulled out and finished the game with her leg being taken out, and probably has a fracture.
“And so this is what our league wants. OK. But I want to call for a change in leadership at the league level when it comes to officiating. It’s bad for the game.”
Reeve added, “The officiating crew that we had for tonight, for the leadership to deem those three people semifinals playoff worthy is (bleeping) malpractice. I can take an L with the best of them. I don’t think we should have to play through more than what they did.
“We’ve got players — (Maria Kliundikova is) on the glass and gets (bleeping) cracked, and there’s no call. And all of them decided, ‘It wasn’t my call, I don’t know, I didn’t see it that way.’ They’re (bleeping) awful.”
The Mercury shot 22 free throws in the game, hitting 18. The Lynx ended up 10 of 11 at the line.
Collier, 29, scored 17 points and grabbed six rebounds. She was the runner-up for WNBA Most Valuable Player for the second season in a row after averaging a career-high 22.9 points to go with 7.3 rebounds and 3.2 assists per game.
–Field Level Media
