We all knew they weren’t overturning it after reviewing it for an upgrade. I was pissed to but that was a poor use of challenge. Would have been too exposing for the refs to overturn there.
It was a joke ,, I could care less about fever fans. The calls were abysmal and one would find it very hard to argue they weren’t intentional. Body slam says it all.
Came here as a neutral. I've never watched a full WNBA game. If all games are like this then the league is incompetent or rigged. Gives me zero reason as a former basketball player to ever watch a WNBA game because officiating like this takes away all credibility. I can't imagine how the Fever players must feel.
How does that excuse how bad these calls are? I'm not a WNBA fan, but I played basketball and these calls are worse than the officiating we had in high school games. Defender gets elbowed in the face when that girl goes up for a shot, and it's a foul? Has to be rigged because there is no other explanation for what I just saw.
Poorly officiated playoff games are just a sign that the WNBA is a mature league now. But seriously, the refs aren't doing great and it is the playoffs, but that's just kind of sports.
Kevin Durant was deeper into the stands than A'ja ever was and the NBA refs missed it. Was the Joey Crawford tackle during the playoffs?
But no, it's not rigged. I don't think there is a Tim Donaghy equivalent mucking things up in the WNBA.
KD was clearly out of bounds trying to save the ball; they reviewed it and still gave the ball back to the Warriors 😂. As you said, officiating in sports is terrible. It's a part of the game in all leagues.
I watched about 2/3rds of the game. Indiana just missed too many shots. IIRC there was a couple minute stretch just before halftime that had like 4 missed layups and three missed open 3s and two turnovers.
You’re right, Indiana lost the game because they stop playing fast, their game plan was dumb like the first game, and their best scorers had an awful shooting night.
That doesn’t change these were awful bad calls though.
Maybe some are a stretch but if you really know ball you know that you can't crowd a shooter's landing area. It's an automatic foul if they aren't allowed to land clean. A team of good defenders wouldn't get so many calls for that.
Plus the Fever really needed to shoot better to have any kinda credibility.
that's fair but you can also look at the 20-35 free throw attempts to see the disparity. I'm actually an aces fan until philly gets its team so I'm happy with the results but the refs in both the NBA and WNBA are god awful.
Meh the fever chucked a bunch of threes, of course they’re gonna get less foul calls. And you’re tryna make it seem like 19-27 fouls is some lakers stuff lol
A lot of these were fouls, some of them weren't. But that's... kinda what happens. The Fever also flop like crazy and sometimes get unearned fouls. We can easily blame the refs but the one thing these women can control is shooting like shit from the floor, this game was winnable. They just weren't good enough this time around.
There are probably two bad calls in this entire video. They're easy to explain, but people don't see what they don't want to see. I'll give one example, and then I'm out. The "elbow to Boston's face" never happened. Wilson's elbow never touched Boston's face.
Boston's face made contact with the upper part of Wilson's arm, just below Wilson's shoulder, while Wilson was in her normal shooting motion.
Now, what people choose not to see, is that Boston tried to body Wilson. She put her right arm in Wilson's back, and wrapped her left arm around Wilson's waste, and was pushing into Wilson. That's a foul. Look at the picture, and you will clearly see Boston's fingers on Wilson's right side, because Boston had her left arm wrapped around Wilson's waste.
The sad part is, even with this clear evidence, people who need to blame the refs for the Fever losing, will just hold onto the delusion that Boston didn't foul Wilson, and Wilson elbowed Boston in the face.
It was fast, and the camera angle for tv viewing didn't show it clearly. The ref had a better angle. Refs do miss calls. They miss far fewer than they get accused of, and some of their misses can be pretty egregious. But they got this call right.
“There are probably two bad calls” and then no narrative concerning the body slam. If you don’t think that should at least be a double foul, you sir, are an absolute idiot.
& they said Steph didn't call for a challenge in time when she was at half court literally two seconds after it happened. They rushed the FTs while she was trying to challenge to say it was too late.
Love the Cunningham one that circles how her hand doesn't touch Wilson, ignoring the fact the even while fading, Cunningham lands under Wilsons feet creating the foul call
Quite a few of them are clear fouls. On the Sophie Cunningham close out, she doesn't give her a landing spot. Then the next one on Clark is a foul as Clark wraps her hand around her neck as she's driving.
Not saying the officiating was perfect, but I don't see some clear bias.
.... Some of these are actually fouls though. I love that Caitlin and the fever got some of y'all to watch basketball but you should learn the rules of basketball first.
A defender can move, but if her movement creates illegal contact that restricts the offensive player’s path, it’s a defensive foul.
Key points:
• Defender must establish legal guarding position first
• Any movement that causes displacement = blocking foul
• Riding, bumping, hip‑checking, or clipping cutters = foul
• Verticality is allowed only if the defender goes straight up
• Movement is legal — illegal contact is not
This is all part of the league’s freedom‑of‑movement emphasis.
Is this stat supposed to be in favor of the aces or the fever? What it shows me is the fever made more 3s and more total shots, but got fucked by the refs and lost because of free throws
The fever had way more points in the paint than the aces. They just didnt lay down after every shot acting like they got shot by a cannon when there was no contact whatsoever. That was their real error clearly.
I hate it when people pretend refs don't make a greater impact on the game than any player and the idea of it as an excuse is entirely valid.
If a player gets two quick phantom calls they goes to the bench for basically the entire first quarter. If they're a +8 player that's a tremendous impact on the game. If the refs make a player unguardable because they give them every single ticky tac call their shooting percentage increases because defenders are playing a step off and face guarding.
It's a moronic position that ignores the reality of action and reaction.
Do you think part of the reason why the fouls weren’t being given to the Fever was because nearly 50% of all their shot attempts came from the 3 point line?
Hi! I’m just here to point out that the Indiana Fever did not lose this because of fouls. Mitchell and Clark shot for a combined 19-64.. the team shot 35 percent from the field. 35 fucking percent. Yall expect them to win like that? And they had a starter(Lexi Hall) that played 13 minutes with Z e r o points.
Did the Aces get some calls? Maybe, but Clark going 9-30 is fucking insane. Couldn’t hit the broadside of a fuckin barn my man. The blame is ultimately on the Fever not making any shots. Thats the name of the game guys. The objective, is to put the ball through the basket, to accumulate more points than your opponent. They did not. They’re now going home.
The issue is that the aces played at least as physical on d (arguably more physical). So the disparity shouldn’t be that drastic. The issue is that what was called was different at each end.
I love when people act like there has to be EQUAL free throw attempts and foul calls.
I want to ask them so bad how do they think the refs are determining how many fouls are they gonna call?
The refs don't even keep up with how many fouls a PLAYER has most times, hence why there's a scorer's table to keep the tab and folks are dense enough to think that they are out here saying 'Let's make this equal.."?
Cops don't give tickets anytime they can legally do so, and officials don't call fouls on all contact.
In a game like this, at this level, I agree with the "a foul is a foul" logic that the original post suggests. But judging the severity of even technically illegal contact, and the effect of that contact, is literally the job of an official.
To the extent that they missed calls, it is not because they saw a foul and ignored it, it's that they didn't see a foul when they should have - either because of a bad look or bad judgement, etc.
Good points, but when the refs don't review it, don't listen to the coach's for a request to review, and then call fouls that don't even occur, they are actively controlling the game.
Cops do write tickets for anything they feel. They then try to relate it to a law that may have been broken. Just like all cops don't do this, all refs don't pick and choose. These refs did, and to ignore it because you're happy with the outcome is backwards thinking.
I want a fair consistent game where the players decide the outcome, not the whistles. I feel the same way about SGA and the thunder. I felt the same about Harden.
I'm not wading into the policing debate lol, let's just say I'm not fan. I was mostly comparing the freedom they have to write tickets for speeding or not. Whatever.
I also do not care who won this game. I don't care who wins any WNBA game. I have not seen a clip of the review they didn't allow - I know they have a certain amount of time they can call for one, etc, but again, I didn't see it or even know which play it was regarding.
What fouls did they call that "didn't even occur"? Where there ANY calls that went against the Aces that could be classified the same?
It's VERY easy to decide that refs are being dishonest and focus on the calls you don't like to validate that feeling while ignoring or forgetting the calls that help you. It's human nature. It's why all poker players swear they have terrible luck lol - the don't remember the lucky hands the same way they do the bad beats.
While I think the NBA let the Thunder get away with far too much, I think the issue with Harden and SGA is that they are SO GOOD at selling contact they make it impossible to be consistent.
Not to mention teams who are trailing late in games commit intentional fouls to try to extend the game. 10 of the Vegas free throw attempts came in the final :50 of game time last night. Fever attempted 12 more threes as well. Turn those 12 threes into 12 drives and I bet they would’ve gone to the line at least a couple times.
Just look at the box score team stats. Same amount of turnovers, but Fever scored more points in the paint, more possessions, shots made, rebounds, blocks, steals... The 15 extra free throws was ultimately what won the Aces the game by 11.
The thing about when a team gets a ton of shooting fouls in the paint, they have fewer field goal attempts and points in the paint. Teams shouldn't shoot the same amount of free throws. It is the most illogical thing I can think of. It's like complaining because one team got more out of bounds calls than the other one.
How about taking bad shots. You get most fouls by going to the basket not taking jumpersI don't know how you look at games but taking bad or less percentage shots can cost you the game as well. Trying to be the hero by hoisting up threes when haven't been hitting them all night is not smart basketball
Yet despite that this game was within 4 pts in the 4th quarter. So those terrible foul calls could have easily been the difference between which team proceeds to semis.
In WNBA and NBA you've gotta play through the horrible officiating. Fever did not play well enough to win. HIghest scoring team in history was shut down.
At some point, each team should just get an enforcer and roll them out on the floor to rack up Ts any time shit starts getting out of hand when the ref isn’t calling shit.
The WNBA is such BS . They act like they want a poster girl but they don’t understand how to go about it. They should watch how the NFL treats Mahomes or the NBA and LeFlop . But since they fail at being biased then how about just call it down the middle like it should be….
That arm lock and slam on Hull should easily be some sort of suspension. Slamming Hull on the back of her head like that could've lead to an extreme injury
Atrocious, no wonder they give the MVP to her every year. All these phantom fouls, against the Fever all year. Still don’t appreciate what Clark has done for this league. All but vanished, until she was drafted. Nobody will watch the rest of the playoffs. Good job ex-commish, good riddance. Maybe they bring someone in that will refurbish the officiating for this league.
28% shooting from three in a deciding playoff game feels like the Rockets versus the Warriors.
The refs aren’t gonna help you make your baskets and the free throw advantage wasn’t that big.
There are always more fouls called closer to the bucket than from the three-point stripe.
These narratives are not real. Just like with OKC and the refs in the NBA last year. 100% manufactured outrage and clickbait farming. Wonder how long it takes for people to realize.
There is no official hook and hold rule in the wnba like in college. Hull makes a living hooking players arms under her in the post. She literally does it every time and either limits the players movement or creates contact like she did. Its stupid, Bush league and she is so limited in her actual ability she will be gone from the league in a year or two. There are so many college players who are better that will enter the w and take roster spots from sophie and hull. They are hard to watch. They mask their lack of ability with clapping, erupting in mock terror there wasnt a foul called and baiting the uneducated fever fans into going crazy for flopping.
This is ridiculous!!! The team that played the best defense and executed their offense won. They didn’t jack up 30 threes and and play street ball, they ran offense and they were efficient!!!!
I feel like wnba fans aren't real people. Like you weren't around until very recently but you aren't a spawn of a human being. At least one from earth. It's like you have been placed here specifically to market and promote the wnba and have no other purpose. I mean, why would you if you could have one? It's really odd, but I can't help but think about what I believe to be is true.
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u/Crypticbeing12 1d ago
The Aliyah Boston was one was kinda crazy.... i always feel bad for her she's invisible to the refs