Minnesota Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve has been suspended for Sunday\u2019s Game 4 against the Phoenix Mercury for both her conduct and comments in the final 30 seconds, and immediate aftermath, of Minnesota\u2019s 84-76 Game 3 loss to Phoenix on Friday night.<\/p>\n
\u201cHer conduct and comments included aggressively pursuing and verbally abusing a game official on the court, failure to leave the court in a timely manner upon her ejection with 21.8 seconds to play in the fourth quarter, inappropriate comments made to fans when exiting the court, and remarks made in a post-game press conference,\u201d the league said in a statement on Saturday.<\/p>\n
In addition to the suspension, Reeve will also be fined by the WNBA. Her lead assistant, Eric Thibault, was also fined for an altercation with an official while attempting to restrain Reeve. Fellow Lynx assistant Rebekkah Brunson was fined for criticizing the officiating on social media.<\/p>\n
Reeve\u2019s postgame comments came after she was ejected with less than 30 seconds remaining in top-seeded Minnesota\u2019s eventual Game 3 loss. She was incensed about a no-call on Mercury forward Alyssa Thomas, who stole the ball from Lynx star Napheesa Collier near midcourt with just under 30 seconds remaining and scored on the ensuing transition layup.<\/p>\n
Video replay appears to show Thomas made a clean steal on the play. Once it was over, Reeve, who had\u00a0been assessed her first technical in the second quarter, ran onto the court and had to be held back from officials. Upon exiting the floor, Reeve was seen on video appearing to use profanity in the direction of fans in attendance.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf this is what our league wants, then OK, but I want to call for a change of leadership at the league level when it comes to officiating,\u201d Reeve said after the game. \u201cIt\u2019s bad for the game. The officiating crew that we had tonight, for the leadership team to deem those three people semifinals playoff-worthy is f\u2014ing malpractice. I can take an \u2018L\u2019 with the best of them. I don\u2019t think we should have to play through more than what they did.\u201d<\/p>\n
Collier seemed to suffer an ankle injury on the play and was helped off the court. Reeve said after the game that Collier \u201cprobably has a fracture.\u201d<\/p>\n
As of Saturday afternoon, Minnesota has not yet released an official injury report regarding Collier\u2019s status for Game 4 on Sunday, when Minnesota tries to avoid elimination in Phoenix.<\/p>\n
Unlike the NBA, the WNBA does not publish official last-two-minute reports, which review close calls. However, on Saturday, the NBA\u2019s official NBA referees X account commented on the play, assessing that it was correctly judged in real-time and that Thomas should not have been assessed a foul.<\/p>\n
This is NOT a foul. Thomas legally gets to the ball and knocks the ball loose prior to any contact. The leg to leg contact is incidental once the ball is clearly loose. This was correctly judged in real time as a no call as were the subsequent technical fouls. pic.twitter.com\/kdImDRwsNe<\/a><\/p>\n