The Las Vegas Aces avenged a disappointing Game 1 loss in the WNBA semifinals with a dominant 90-68 blowout of the Indiana Fever on Tuesday night. But after the game, Aces coach Becky Hammon was more interested in discussing the officiating and what she believes is unchecked physicality in the series\u2019 first two games.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe physicality is out of control, that\u2019s for sure,\u201d Hammon said. \u201cYou 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 \u2014 that should be an automatic foul.\u201d<\/p>\n
Despite a spike in foul calls \u2014 41 in Game 2 compared with 27 in the opener \u2014 Hammon maintained that referees are still allowing too much contact. In her view, the problem isn\u2019t just the number of whistles, but when and how they\u2019re applied. Hammon noted that many of her own assistants have NBA experience and warned that such physical play \u201cwould not fly in the NBA. There\u2019d be fights.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hammon, who spent seven years as an assistant coach for Gregg Popovich with the San Antonio Spurs, argued that the WNBA\u2019s current tolerance for contact \u201ckills freedom of movement.\u201d She acknowledged the Aces committed fouls, too, but insisted there\u2019s a tipping point between aggressive physicality and chaos. \u201cAnd I\u2019m not saying that we\u2019re not fouling, too, I\u2019m not saying that. I\u2019m saying it\u2019s out of control.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hammon had already raised eyebrows earlier in the playoffs when she likened Indiana\u2019s first-round series with Atlanta to a \u201cfootball match.\u201d \u201cSome of the hits that I saw in the Atlanta-Indiana game,\u201d she added, \u201cif I did that to you in the street, I would be arrested.\u201d<\/p>\n
Still, Hammon\u2019s comments are not without risk. Last week, injured Fever star Caitlin Clark was fined $200 for publicly criticizing officials, a reminder that the league keeps a close eye on how its referees are discussed. For now, Hammon has leaned into her role as both defender of her players and instigator of this debate.<\/p>\n
One subplot in this series has been the post battle between A\u2019ja Wilson and Aliyah Boston, a clash of two of the league\u2019s most physical presences. In Game 1, Boston held Wilson to 16 points on just 6-of-22 shooting, a rare off night for the 2025 MVP. Boston didn\u2019t fill up the box score herself \u2014 six points, 11 rebounds, five assists \u2014 but she admitted her goal was simple: \u201cjust trying to kind of be annoying a little bit.\u201d<\/p>\n
Wilson downplayed the defensive pressure, saying her matchup with Boston was \u201cno different than any other time\u201d they\u2019ve faced. The foul battle has been telling, though: In Game 1, Boston picked up three fouls while Wilson had four, but in Game 2 the script flipped with Wilson staying clean with just one foul to Boston\u2019s three.<\/p>\n
As the semifinals shift to Indianapolis for Game 3, Hammon\u2019s critique lingers in the background. For the Aces and Fever alike, that tension may be as defining as the stars battling in the paint.<\/p>\n
(Photo by Ian Maule \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Las Vegas Aces avenged a disappointing Game 1 loss in the WNBA semifinals with a dominant 90-68…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":179064,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[2839,4677,99,434],"class_list":["post-179063","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wnba","tag-indiana-fever","tag-las-vegas-aces","tag-sports","tag-wnba"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179063","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=179063"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179063\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/179064"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=179063"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=179063"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=179063"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}