Physicality takes center stage in WNBA playoff battle between Aces, Fever: ‘This would not fly in the NBA’

LAS VEGAS — Becky Hammon thought her Las Vegas Aces were too nice for a rough playoff battle.

“You can’t tiptoe into a bar fight,” Hammon said in the lead-up to Game 2.

The Aces charged in, punched first this time and stayed as feisty as their head coach called for pre-game. Hammon called the fight officially with 4:12 left in the fourth quarter, pulling her starters for the bench to play around with a 24-point lead in hand.

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The blowout 90-68 victory by the No. 2 seed Las Vegas Aces evened the semifinals, 1-1. Neither of the games has been competitive after No. 6 Indiana stole Game 1, 89-73. The series shifts to Indianapolis for Game 3 on Friday (7:30 p.m. ET, ESPN2).

After the series became a best-of-three, both coaches had something more to say about the buzzword of the postseason.

“The physicality is out of control, that’s for sure,” Hammon said. “I mean, you can bump and grab a wide receiver in the NFL for those first five yards, but you can do it in the W for a whole half court. You put two hands on somebody like that, it should be an automatic foul. They have the freedom of movement [as a point of emphasis]. Freedom of movement? There’s no freedom. And I’m not saying that we’re not fouling too. I’m not saying that. I’m saying it’s out of control.”

It’s been a common refrain from many of the league’s coaches at some point this year, including from the Fever’s Stephanie White after a chippy June game with Connecticut ended in a scuffle. A month later, she referenced both physicality and freedom of movement as a potential contributor to Caitlin Clark’s soft tissue injuries that limited her to 13 games all season.

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In a mirror image of Hammon’s comments after Game 1, White said her team didn’t throw any punches in the second game of the series to get back into a battle. From her perch, it seems, Indiana never stepped into the fight.

“It’s hard for us to find flow when there’s a foul call every 10 seconds,” White said. “I mean, it just really is — when they’re at the free throw line, we can’t get up and down the floor. And that’s the challenge. They were much more aggressive and physical defensively.”

And as for guard Kelsey Mitchell, who saw few good looks while scoring 13 points on a 28.6% clip, after dropping 34 in the first game?

“She’s like a little pinball,” White said. “I know that the museum’s right down the street, so sometimes I feel like she’s getting pinged around everywhere.”

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Ironically, the Las Vegas Pinball Hall of Fame dedicates a section where “the entire family can enjoy non-violent pinball arcade games.”

There’s an overwhelming consensus that the officiating structure in the WNBA needs to change moving forward for the better of the game. Fouls are inconsistently called. Players are constantly hacked. Coaches are forced to use challenges on basic and obvious out-of-bounds decisions.

It wasn’t even five minutes into the game when Hammon had to use hers on one in a one-point game.

“There’s three of you; I shouldn’t have to use a challenge on something that went off [a player’s] head,” said Hammon, who will surely be receiving a fine by the league office in the coming days. “And I’m sure every coach would agree, that’s maddening. If Steph had to use her challenge in the first five minutes, that’s not ideal, especially on an out-of-bounds call that I feel like is probably the easiest play to get right.”

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That can all be true. But there’s also a sportsmanship clash happening between Hammon and White, two veteran coaches who recognize they can try to sway the future with the comments in the present.

Hammon rang the bell early on Indiana when she called out the physicality in the Fever’s first-round series win over Atlanta. She doesn’t want to see four-time MVP A’ja Wilson, who had the bounce-back game everyone expected, taking elbows to the face as she did in Game 1. Her offense runs best when Chelsea Gray and Jackie Young are moving the ball, finding cutters.

That’s kind of difficult when physicality is allowed to run amok.

White is tired of seeing all-hustle Lexie Hull on the ground as much as she has been. Hull joined the availability list as questionable on Tuesday with a back injury. Hull started and played a full game with the type of tenacity one would expect from her.

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“Her initial injury happened the very first time she got run over, which was in the first quarter [of Game 1],” White said pre-game. “And she took a lot of hits. She took four or five, you know, pretty solid hits in the ball game.”

At this point, the way the game is officiated isn’t going to change all that much, despite Hammon and White trying as they might. Coaches have said much of the year it’s out of control. Players say it’s the postseason and physicality is let go even more.

“Most of my assistants come from the NBA, and they’re like, this would not fly in the NBA,” Hammon said. “This level of physicality would not fly in the NBA. There would be fights. There would be fights. We just have very well-mannered women that can get to the next play, but there would be fights.”

The fight now is more tactical than physical.