\u201cThere was a moment where Nate Tibbetts, I think it was a foul that sent Satou (Sabally) to the line on Chelsea Gray. Nate Tibbetts appeared to lean over to Becky Hammon at midcourt. Like calling her over at midcourt. And he put his hand over his mouth and seemingly making a comment about the inconsistencies.\u201d Pickman said. However, he kept some reservations saying, \u201cWe will have to get a hundred percent confirmation there, but using some context clues, that is what it seemed like.\u201d<\/p>\n
ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n
Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n
Very possible as the two coaches have a working relationship. The Aces coach even revealed that he had helped Tibbetts out when he first took the Phoenix Mercury job. \u201cI consider him, you know, a good friend in the business, and you know, when he first took the job off, we would talk frequently, you know.\u00a0 And I just wanted to help him out. I wanted to have him have such a great experience going over to the W, and I think he\u2019s really enjoyed it.\u201d She said. <\/p>\n
It seems Becky Hammon is Tibbetts\u2019 guide, too, in his first coaching job in the WNBA, and isn\u2019t unfamiliar with anti-referee outbursts. Following her footsteps, Tibbetts was pretty unhappy with the officiating throughout the game and ended up with a technical. He carried that after the game, referencing the lack of a whistle on Thomas despite heavy paint play. \u201cI\u2019ve felt like AT has gotten downhill and gotten to the paint quite a few times and not got rewarded, but um unfortunately, that\u2019s this is what it is, right? And so you just got to keep battling. You know, you\u2019d love to have consistency, but you know, it\u2019s not always the case.\u201d He said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n
Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n
In the first quarter, Alyssa Thomas was in a tussle with two Aces players who seemed to foul her, but the referees called a jump ball. Alyssa Thomas even went up to the referees to complain. To start the second quarter, the Aces had a clear 24-second violation after Young airballed the final second shot, and Wilson grabbed the offensive rebound after the clock was down to 0.\u00a0<\/p>\n
However, the shot clock was restarted, and the free possession ended up being a three-pointer. It\u2019s not like Becky Hammon did not suffer from the officiating in this game. Some debatable calls went against the Aces, too. However, the ones against Tibbetts stuck out more in this game. While the officiating drew plenty of shared frustration, Tibbetts now faces a far bigger challenge. He has to keep Mercury\u2019s season alive against an Aces team on the brink of another title<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n <\/a>Nate Tibbetts Bids for a WNBA Miracle<\/p>\n Nate Tibbetts knows the series is almost out of reach. A 0-3 scoreline with Satou Sabally likely missing Game 4 through her concussion looks ominous.\u00a0 \u201cI don\u2019t know how many teams have come down from 0-3. Not many, right? So, I\u2019m not going to sugarcoat that. It\u2019s we got a tough road ahead, but we\u2019ve got to take it one game at a time.\u201d He said after the game. Michael Voepel of ESPN answered Tibbetts\u2019 question on social media, but it would have only discouraged Mercury fans.<\/p>\n \u201cCoach Nate Tibbetts of @PhoenixMercury said he doesn\u2019t know how many teams have come back from down 3-0 in Finals. Answer: This is the first year for best-of-seven Finals in @WNBA. In the NBA Finals, 15 teams went up 3-0, all won the championship, 9 in sweeps.\u201d Voepel wrote.\u00a0<\/p>\n via Imago<\/p>\n Jul 3, 2025; Arlington, Texas, USA; Phoenix Mercury head coach Nate Tibbetts reacts against the Dallas Wings during the first half at College Park Center. Mandatory Credit: Kevin Jairaj-Imagn Images<\/p>\n Two out of 3 games so far have been decided with 3 or fewer points. So, Mercury has almost always been in the game. Even in Game 3, they rallied in the fourth quarter to make matters close despite Sabally missing half of it. Kahleah Copper led the charge with 11 fourth-quarter points. Wilson had to hit a difficult last-second winner to get past them. So, this team has given Tibbetts enough reason to believe.\u00a0<\/p>\n ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n \u201cThis group has been a group that has continued to compete at a high level. You know, we\u2019re going to expect that we\u2019re in front of our fans., You know, we\u2019ve got a certain level of pride that we\u2019re going to continue to keep fighting.\u201d He further said. Alyssa Thomas and Co. need to erase the past from their heads<\/a>. The team is more than capable of going toe to toe against the Aces.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nate Tibbetts was the only playoff coach who hadn\u2019t lodged a single gripe about the referees.\u201cWe haven\u2019t talked…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":213456,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[99,434],"class_list":["post-213455","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wnba","tag-sports","tag-wnba"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/213455","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=213455"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/213455\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/213456"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=213455"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=213455"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=213455"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"article-image\"\/](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Nate-Tibbetts-2.jpg\")
<\/p>\n