I’m a little surprised that the Lynx’s coach is bitching her guts out about the imaginary foul that allowed New York’s Breanna Stewart to tie the game on free throws at the end of regulation. I mean, right before Stewart wasn’t fouled, she took three steps, maybe four, without bouncing the ball. Hard to imagine a more obvious travelling violation. Should’ve been Lynx ball, up two, 6 seconds left.
When she reviews the film of the last 90 seconds or so of regulation, she’s really gonna be pissed, cuz there was more. Almost comically poor officiating. Too bad.
Lynx’ coach? Lynx’s coach? Another option I haven’t thought of? I have no idea.
ADDENDUM
According to this site, “Lynx’s coach” is correct.
Sampling Internet opinion on the basketball game, I found the below commentary, which seems sane. There’s a lot that isn’t. I don’t believe “the fix was in” for the Liberty or that the refs had bet money on the home team. Simple explanations are generally best, and the simple explanation is … human error, incompetence. And it ruined what otherwise was a wonderful basketball game. The players are so much better at playing than the officials are at officiating.
I don’t wholly buy the commentator’s half-hearted attempt at justifying the no travel call. You can’t juggle your way to the basket if you’re better at that than dribbling. But whatevs. He shows the clip of the sequence that’s gotten all the attention, so basketball people can judge for themselves. He noticed what I noticed about the post-game presser—the exhausted mute dejection of Napheesa Collier as her coach went off on the officials. She made 11 shots, missed 12, almost all of them in the paint, in traffic, and never shot a free throw. If the standard for what’s a foul was set by the call against her teammate with 5 seconds left in regulation, she’d have made at least 11 free throws, to go with her 11 field goals, and the game wouldn’t have been particularly close.
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