{"id":76236,"date":"2025-08-12T03:42:07","date_gmt":"2025-08-12T03:42:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/76236\/"},"modified":"2025-08-12T03:42:07","modified_gmt":"2025-08-12T03:42:07","slug":"rhyne-howard-explodes-at-refs-in-fiery-return-before-shock-ejection","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/76236\/","title":{"rendered":"Rhyne Howard explodes at refs in fiery return before shock ejection"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rhyne Howard\u2019s long-awaited return to the Atlanta Dream <\/a>lineup went from celebration to chaos in the blink of an eye. In her first game in nearly a month after a knee injury, the All-Star guard was tossed from Sunday\u2019s 74-66 win over the Phoenix Mercury<\/a> after a heated confrontation with officials.<\/p>\n

Star\u2019s comeback boils over in Phoenix<\/p>\n

The drama erupted in the fourth quarter when Howard was whistled for a foul while battling through a screen. She spun toward the referees, jawing in frustration. Within seconds, she racked up two quick technical fouls and was ejected, leaving the Phoenix crowd buzzing and her teammates scrambling.<\/p>\n

Howard\u2019s numbers told the story of a rough shooting night, just four points, two assists, and a 0-for-7 mark from the field. But her energy and intensity were undeniable, and the ejection marked a quick end to what was supposed to be her exciting return.<\/p>\n

MORE:\u00a0Rickea Jackson\u2019s pre-game style shakes up the WNBA scene<\/a><\/p>\n

Even with Howard out, the Dream stayed locked in. Allisha Gray poured in 17 points, and Naz Hillmon and Brionna Jones each posted double-doubles to push Atlanta\u2019s win streak to five and their record to 20-11.<\/p>\n

Howard\u2019s outburst will no doubt be a talking point in the days ahead. The Dream relies on her as both a scoring weapon and emotional spark, but with the playoffs approaching, Atlanta needs her on the floor, not in the locker room.<\/p>\n

The ejection may fire her up the 25-year-old former Kentucky Wildcat, but one thing it does is fire up the fans in Atlanta, seeing their star player showing some energy for a team with title hopes.<\/p>\n

Atlanta’s next game is Wednesday in Seattle. This will mark the first of back-to-back games against the Storm, as they host them on Friday.<\/p>\n

More WNBA News:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rhyne Howard\u2019s long-awaited return to the Atlanta Dream lineup went from celebration to chaos in the blink of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":76237,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[99,434],"class_list":["post-76236","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\/76236","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=76236"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76236\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/76237"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=76236"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=76236"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=76236"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}