The New York Liberty beat the Washington Mystics in overtime on Sunday to improve to 2-0 on the season. While the team was undeniably pleased to get the win and remain undefeated, Liberty star Breanna Stewart was not completely happy with the officiating.
While it makes sense that the game was longer than usual, as it featured 11 lead changes and eight ties while also going to overtime, Stewart felt that the officiating caused the game to stretch on too long with far too many foul calls for her liking.
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During her postgame press conference, Stewart took the opportunity to call out the officiating as she pointed out that it was “insane” for a WNBA game to last more than 2 hours and 40 minutes.
“It disrupts everyone’s flow, not just my team, both sides of the game. This game was 2 hours and 41 minutes long. That’s insane,” Stewart told the media after the game. “We said it last game too. I know it’s going to take time figuring out the standard of what’s going to be called, but there are calls being made that are unnecessary on both sides, and then there’s no flow. So, I still don’t know.”
While it might come across as a petty complaint in a win, Stewart does have a point. Last season, officials called an overage of 34.8 fouls per game. While it’s obviously a much smaller sample size, that number is up to 44.06 fouls per game this season. Sunday’s game was far beyond eight of those totals as 58 fouls were called in the contest – nearly double the average total in a game last season.
Clearly, the officials are making a concerted effort to clamp down on the physicality that has been present in the league in recent years. While players and coaches are largely on board with this change, it’s safe to say that the referees may have swung too far in the other direction, because Stewart is not the only one talking about it.
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“We talked about some unnecessary physicality. We didn’t say we want to call marginal fouls. Never brought that up. It takes a little bit of time for sure to calibrate both them and us, but I know that when we’re trying to get open on the side out-of-bounds and we’re being held by the shoulders, that’s the kind of stuff that we’re talking about that you have to call those plays,” Minnesota Lynx head coach Reeve said last week. “Obviously, we’ll continue to work with the league on getting this right because we’re not the only team sitting here wondering why everything’s a foul.”
Even Dallas Wings No. 1 overall pick Azzi Fudd had some complaints about the officiating during the preseason.
“Honestly, I’m more confused,” Fudd said earlier this month. “I thought you could be physical in the W and anytime you touch someone, it’s a foul. So I’m not really sure whether to be physical, whether to—I don’t know. I’m still figuring that out.”
Clearly, the referees are still figuring out how to call the game in a way that prioritizes flow while still getting the calls correct.
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