{"id":702274,"date":"2026-06-13T20:08:14","date_gmt":"2026-06-13T20:08:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/702274\/"},"modified":"2026-06-13T20:08:14","modified_gmt":"2026-06-13T20:08:14","slug":"wnba-despite-struggles-phoenix-mercury-controlling-the-foul-game","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/702274\/","title":{"rendered":"WNBA: Despite struggles, Phoenix Mercury controlling the foul game"},"content":{"rendered":"

Much has been made about the WNBA\u2019s officiating this season, which, to be fair, does not make it unlike any other season.<\/p>\n

But a sharp increase in foul calls has drawn the public ire of coaches and players alike, leaving many to wonder if last offseason\u2019s \u201cpoints of emphasis<\/a>\u201d regarding physical play and freedom of movement had overcorrected for a problem that may not have been as big as originally perceived.<\/p>\n

In any case, it\u2019s something that WNBA coaches and players are going to have to adjust to, and thus far, no team has done a better job of playing within the new rules than the Phoenix Mercury.<\/p>\n

As one of the WNBA\u2019s biggest early-season disappointments, one might not expect the Mercury (4-10) to be stacking up favorably in any statistical categories, but they\u2019ve done a remarkably good job at controlling the foul game. Featuring uber-physical players like Alyssa Thomas and Kahleah Copper can only be a good thing for a team trying to draw fouls, and through 14 games, the Mercury rank No. 4 in the WNBA in free throw rate<\/a> (0.374).<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a><\/p>\n

The Mercury\u2019s two star players, Alyssa Thomas and Kahleah Copper, both excel at drawing shooting fouls. NBAE via Getty Images<\/p>\n

But that\u2019s only one side of the coin. Phoenix has also done an excellent job at limiting how often they send opponents to the line, posting an opponents\u2019 free throw rate of 0.256 \u2013 the lowest in the WNBA.<\/p>\n

Take the difference between these two stats \u2013 we\u2019ll call it \u201cfree throw rate differential\u201d \u2013 and the Mercury rank as the WNBA\u2019s best team at drawing shooting fouls while limiting how often they themselves foul. Their free throw rate differential is 0.118, ahead of second-place New York (0.083) and third-place Washington (0.053).<\/p>\n

How much does this mean, really?<\/p>\n

Taken alone, probably not much. No one can claim that the Mercury have actually been a better team than the Liberty, nor that the league-leading Minnesota Lynx (No. 12 in the WNBA in free throw rate differential; -0.056) are in any sort of imminent danger.<\/p>\n

While the \u201cFour Factors<\/a>\u201d are generally good predictors of team success, that\u2019s usually if a team ranks favorably in two or more of them. Using the Mercury as an example, they rank No. 12 in effective field goal percentage<\/a> (47.2 percent) and No. 14 in opponents\u2019 effective field goal percentage<\/a> (53.5 percent), all but nullifying their advantage at the free throw line.<\/p>\n

Rebounding has suddenly become a huge issue for the Chicago Sky<\/p>\n

Speaking of early-season disappointments, the Sky are now 4-9 after an overtime road loss to Indiana, and they\u2019ve dropped eight of their last nine games after a promising start.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s easy to point to injuries as the reason why; Courtney Vandersloot and DiJonai Carrington have yet to play a game, and Azur\u00e1 Stevens is still getting acclimated after missing the team\u2019s first five contests. Meanwhile, Rickea Jackson is nursing a torn ACL, an injury that sent the Sky into a tailspin they\u2019re still trying to put a stop to.<\/p>\n

Chicago ranks near the bottom of the WNBA in several statistical categories, particularly offensively: The Sky are No. 13 in offensive rating<\/a> (99.2 points scored per 100 possessions) and No. 14 in both effective field goal percentage<\/a> (46.2 percent) and true shooting percentage<\/a> (51.8 percent). Given the amount of Chicago\u2019s offensive talent that is currently in street clothes, these scoring struggles aren\u2019t much of a surprise.<\/p>\n

What might be a much bigger surprise is how poorly the Sky have fared on the boards. In past seasons, rebounding was by far Chicago\u2019s greatest strength, and it was often the only thing that kept the team in games.<\/p>\n

\"It\u2019s<\/a><\/p>\n

It\u2019s easy to point to the loss of Angel Reese as the reason for the Sky\u2019s sudden dip in rebounding rate, but Chicago should still rank better on the boards than it currently does. Getty Images<\/p>\n

Now, however, it\u2019s become a glaring weakness. The Sky rank No. 14 in the WNBA in offensive rebounding rate<\/a> (26.5 percent) and dead last in defensive rebounding rate<\/a> (63.5 percent). The fact that the Sky are having trouble scoring efficiently is bad enough; that they\u2019re having such a hard time getting extra offensive possessions (as well as ending those of their opponents) exacerbates those offensive struggles significantly.<\/p>\n

There is, of course, one major change that took place between this season and last season, when the Sky led the WNBA in offensive rebounding rate: the trade of Angel Reese to the Atlanta Dream.<\/p>\n

Since she was drafted in 2024, no player has been more impactful on her team\u2019s overall rebounding numbers than Reese, and it should shock absolutely no one that the Dream have suddenly become the league\u2019s most prolific offensive rebounding<\/a> team.<\/p>\n

That being said, there are five players on the court at a time, and despite Reese\u2019s talents as an individual rebounder, there\u2019s no good reason why her departure from Chicago should have resulted in a first-to-worst slip. It\u2019s one of many areas the Sky are going to need to clean up if they\u2019re going to climb out of the hole they\u2019ve dug for themselves.<\/p>\n

Can the Valkyries keep making enough 3s to overcome their subpar 2-point scoring?<\/p>\n

This is something we touched upon recently<\/a>, but it deserves mentioning again.<\/p>\n

The Golden State Valkyries have gotten off to a scorching start shooting the basketball, leading the WNBA in 3-point makes<\/a> (12.1) and attempts<\/a> (31.9) per game. They also rank No. 3 in offensive rating<\/a>, scoring 110.7 points per 100 possessions\u2014a major improvement from their inaugural season, when they ranked No. 10.<\/p>\n

\"No<\/a><\/p>\n

No WNBA team has attempted or made more 3-pointers than the Valkyries. NBAE via Getty Images<\/p>\n

What\u2019s interesting is that while the Valkyries have clearly been the league\u2019s best 3-point shooting team, they\u2019ve also been its worst on 2-pointers. According to Basketball Reference<\/a>, Golden State is shooting just 43.3 percent on 2-point shots\u2014dead last, and nearly three whole percentage points behind No. 14 Seattle\u2014and ranks only ahead of Chicago in shooting percentage inside the restricted area<\/a> (56 percent).<\/p>\n

Is this why the Valkyries depend so heavily on the 3-pointer in the first place?<\/p>\n

Though you\u2019d have to ask head coach Natalie Nakase yourself, it\u2019s surely a factor. Golden State has a talented roster, but not many of its players excel at putting pressure on the rim, and none of the bigs on the roster could be considered consistent post-up or putback threats.<\/p>\n

One could put it this way: The Valkyries have been good at making difficult shots and bad at making easy ones.<\/p>\n

While the \u201cmath game\u201d of maximizing possessions by launching as many 3s as possible has alleviated at least some of Golden State\u2019s 2-point scoring concerns, the Valkyries will have to find a way to get easy buckets in the paint if they\u2019re going to hang with the WNBA\u2019s top teams. The question is: Can they keep knocking down 3s at their current rate to make up for the offensive weaknesses elsewhere on the court?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Much has been made about the WNBA\u2019s officiating this season, which, to be fair, does not make it…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":702275,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[99,434],"class_list":["post-702274","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\/702274","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=702274"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/702274\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/702275"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=702274"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=702274"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=702274"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}