{"id":690599,"date":"2026-06-07T23:20:10","date_gmt":"2026-06-07T23:20:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/690599\/"},"modified":"2026-06-07T23:20:10","modified_gmt":"2026-06-07T23:20:10","slug":"sparks-struggling-to-adjust-to-wnba-crackdown-on-physical-play","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/690599\/","title":{"rendered":"Sparks struggling to adjust to WNBA crackdown on physical play"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

WNBA games are being officiated differently this season and it\u2019s been a struggle for the Sparks<\/a> to adapt.<\/p>\n

After complaints about the league being too physical last season, the WNBA created a task force of coaches and general managers to develop more consistent officiating.<\/p>\n

Foul calls have been up so far this season, with officials focused on freedom of movement or letting offensive players move without being knocked away from the ball.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s hard, especially when you\u2019ve been playing for a certain way for a long time and then having to switch it up more often, in my opinion, as a defender, but it just is what it is,\u201d Sparks guard Ariel Atkins<\/a> said. \u201cSo, yeah, you just have to adjust.\u201d<\/p>\n

Across the league, teams are averaging 20.9 fouls per game. Last season, it was 17.5 per game. The Sparks are fouling 22.0 times per contest, the fifth most in the WNBA.<\/p>\n

The Connecticut Sun led the WNBA last season with 19.6 fouls per contest. In 2026, 10 of the 15 teams are averaging more than 20 fouls against them per contest.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m cool with it, as long as it\u2019s called the same for 40 minutes, like both ways,\u201d Sparks coach Lynne Roberts<\/a> said. \u201cI think the officials have been given a tough task that\u2019s hard, but I think they\u2019ve done a decent job of being pretty consistent with it. Players, coaches, you just have to adjust, and I think the one thing that I\u2019d like to see us get better at is just [being] not so reactive, just have a little more toughness, in terms of not responding. That\u2019s how they\u2019re going to call it \u2014 we got to move on to the next play.\u201d<\/p>\n

The increase in calls seems to have given teams more room to score, as intended, despite more starts and stops to game flow.<\/p>\n

Entering Sunday, four teams had offensive ratings more than 110 after Minnesota\u2019s 109.5 was the best in the league in 2025. Indiana leads the league in pace at 99.50 after the Sparks led the league last season at 96.84. Five teams are working at a pace of 97 or higher, which would have placed last year\u2019s Sparks at sixth.<\/p>\n

One of the Sparks\u2019 offseason priorities was improving their league-worst defense, but that\u2019s been more difficult than ever with how the game is being called.<\/p>\n

\"Sparks <\/p>\n

Sparks forward Cameron Brink blocks a shot from Toronto\u2019s Laura Juskaite during a game on May 15.<\/p>\n

(Jeff Lewis \/ Associated Press)<\/p>\n

\u201cGetting used to it as a player, kind of understanding the flow of the game, that\u2019s probably the toughest part for me,\u201d Atkins said. \u201cThere\u2019s no real flow or like rhythm to it, right? I\u2019m hoping that the corner turns or we both adjust on both sides.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Sparks\u2019 pace is on track to be similar to last season at 97.67 \u2014 fifth in the WNBA \u2014 through nine games. Their offensive rating of 107.9 is eighth in the WNBA, but they\u2019ve played half of their games without league-leading scorer Kelsey Plum<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Defensively, though, they haven\u2019t made much of an adjustment. They have a league-worst 114.1 defensive rating.<\/p>\n

Cameron Brink\u2019s 4.0 fouls per game are the fifth most in the WNBA, and Atkins\u2019 3.6 also ranks among the bottom 10 players in the league. Plum is at 3.1 just below Atkins, Dearica Hamby isn\u2019t far behind at 3.1 and Erica Wheeler is at 2.9, giving the Sparks the most players in the league in the bottom 30 on a single team.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s hard, I think, on a defensive end, especially when you\u2019re somebody that enjoys the physicality and you like to lean into it,\u201d Hamby said.<\/p>\n

The Sparks already had an uphill climb to improve on the league\u2019s worst defense, but as they continue to adjust to the way games are being officiated, it\u2019s all the more difficult.<\/p>\n

Add it to the list of things the 4-6 squad needs to work on to climb back near the top of the WNBA.<\/p>\n

\u201cI try to not center officiating as a part of my experience,\u201d Nneka Ogwumike said. \u201cI know it\u2019s part of the game, and something we can\u2019t control, but I do think we can do better in our response to it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WNBA games are being officiated differently this season and it\u2019s been a struggle for the Sparks to adapt.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":690600,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[259754,1128,5460,299738,6452,299734,164199,51624,299735,299737,31878,23629,99,1599,299736,434,299733],"class_list":["post-690599","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wnba","tag-atkins","tag-contest","tag-game","tag-game-flow","tag-league","tag-more-foul","tag-offensive-player","tag-pace","tag-physical-last-season","tag-physical-play","tag-spark","tag-sparks","tag-sports","tag-team","tag-tough-part","tag-wnba","tag-wnba-crackdown"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/690599","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=690599"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/690599\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/690600"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=690599"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=690599"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=690599"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}