The series finale between the Las Vegas Aces and the Indiana Fever was always going to be close, and as emotions rose in Q2, Fever head coach Stephanie White was handed a $500 fine. White wasn’t too impressed with a controversial call against Lexie Hull, and her immediate reaction caused her to make her way onto the court.
Watch What’s Trending Now!
The sequence happened with around 8:52 left in the second quarter. As Chelsea Gray looked to move into the paint, Lexie Hull was guarding Aces forward Brianna Turner. The two were involved in an off-the-ball entanglement, with both players ending up on the floor. In a clip on X by BrickCenter, Turner can be seen wrapping her arm around Hull’s, and Hull lands on her back as Turner shifts her stance.
Hull immediately approached the refs, pointing to this arm grappling, but instead, a foul was called on Hull. This sequence left Stephanie White clearly disenchanted, and she lodged her protests against the call immediately. This led to her being assessed a technical foul due to her on-court protest, which will be accompanied by a $500 fine for the head coach, per ESPN’s Katie Barnes on X.
“The Aces are pulling WWE moves on the Fever, and the refs call a foul on INDIANA 😭 The refs then REFUSED to let the Fever challenge it. They’re not hiding it AT ALL anymore,” read the post by Brickcenter on the incident.
As WNBA rules state, the first two technical fouls in a playoff game come with $500 fines, while the third will be accompanied by a $1,000 fine and a warning letter from the league. A fourth technical foul will lead to a one-game suspension as well as a $1,500 fine.
WNBA reporter Tony East later reported that Stephanie White wanted to take a timeout and challenge the call but missed the official timeframe for making the challenge. This was perhaps the reason for her increased frustration, and this time White was awarded a technical foul for protesting. Aliyah Boston had to help her coach off the floor.
As things stand, the Fever are trailing 63-53 with 6:43 left in the third quarter. So far, the Aces have been awarded 16 FTAs as compared to the Fever’s 12. The game looks pretty closely contested. The Aces have accumulated 12 personal fouls and the Fever 11, as both teams want to dominate physically.
Both teams have led by eight points at one point, with the lead exchanging hands multiple times. The Fever gave away too many points off turnovers in Game 1, and Indiana has once again given up nine points off of seven turnovers so far.
With the Fever trailing, perhaps it will be a good time for them to revisit what guard Raven Johnson said before the game.
“It starts in practice,” Johnson said. “That’s all they talk about is defense, defense, defense, defense. There’s not a day you don’t hear about defense. I think when we go back to film, and we see it, they should be very proud of us, because I think everybody was on it. We were scrambling.”
Only time will tell if Stephanie White and the Fever can bridge this lead. So far, A’ja Wilson is leading the Aces with 28 points, and the trio of Clark, Mitchell, and Boston have contributed 13 points each.