Just like last year, the Minnesota Lynx came heartbreakingly close to a championship, only to fall short again. This time, their loss was shaped by injury, officiating drama, and a costly suspension. The turning point came in Game 3, when Napheesa Collier went down with an ankle injury, prompting head coach Cheryl Reeve to lash out at what she called “f’—— malpractice” by the officials. But while Reeve suggested the Mercury may have benefited from the calls, Mercury head coach Nate Tibbetts clearly sees things differently.

After the chaos of Game 3, Mercury head coach Nate Tibbetts made it clear where his team stood. “Yeah, I think they’re five and three without her… first off, everybody in our organization, our team feel bad for Phee. You hate seeing a player, any player, especially a player of her caliber, to go down in a series like this. You know, it stinks. It stinks for them. It stinks for the competition, all of it. The second thing is if anyone has a glimmer to think that AT made that play on purpose, that that was a dirty play, is just straight up out of line, in my opinion. So, yeah, I mean, obviously there was a lot of stuff that went on at the end of that game, but we’re here focused today.” he said in the post-game press conference.

And focused, yes, his team was. They dominated until the Lynx ended up with a gut-wrenching 86-81 loss in Game 4 of the best-of-five series on Sunday night. Well, that’s Tibbetts’ way of answering Reeve’s concerns around physicality.

this is a developing story…