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New York Liberty head coach Sandy Brondello wasn’t pleased with the officiating during Friday’s 82-80 loss to the Minnesota Lynx in Game 4 of the WNBA Finals.
Speaking to reporters after the game, Brondello said it “pisses me off” after the Lynx had a 20-9 advantage in free throws.
“If [we] are getting hit, it’s a bloody foul. … I know Cheryl [Reeve] talked about it last time, but we got no calls today. So do I need to talk up in a press conference? Because they were getting ticky-tacks. And we went down there and got hit and get nothing. It was 14-9 [Liberty fouls to Lynx fouls]. No. All we want is fair, OK. So if we are getting hit, that’s a foul. You know, I’m one of the nicest bloody coaches in this league, but this pisses me off. Just be fair.”
Minnesota got the win thanks to Bridget Carleton’s go-ahead free throws with two seconds remaining in the fourth quarter.
The actual foul disparity, which Brondello mentioned, wasn’t alarming. The Liberty were whistled for 14 fouls, compared to nine for Minnesota. The Lynx have actually been called for more fouls through the first four games of the series (58 to 56).
This could be a bit of gamesmanship by Brondello after Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve used a similar approach during her postgame press conference following New York’s dramatic Game 3 win.
Reeve didn’t explicitly call out the officials, but she strongly implied that Breanna Stewart’s 22-point outburst in the second half of Game 3 was helped in part because she got calls that Napheesa Collier didn’t.
If Reeve was trying to send a message to the refs, the strategy paid off because Stewart had just one free-throw attempt on Friday. Collier went 4-of-6 from the charity stripe.
Now that Brondello has sent her own message to the officials, it will be interesting to see if there is any change in how things are called in the winner-take-all Game 5. Three of the four games in the series have been decided by three points or less.
Minnesota is seeking its fifth championship, which would break a tie with the Houston Comets and Seattle Storm for most in WNBA history. New York will try to win its first title in its sixth appearance in the WNBA Finals.
The Lynx and Liberty will play the decisive Game 5 at Barclays Center on Sunday at 8 p.m. ET.
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