The New York Liberty and Minnesota Lynx played a thrilling finals series for the 2024 WNBA Championship. Four of the five games were decided by five or fewer points. The final game, in particular, was highly contested.
Minnesota was up by two points with little time left in the fourth quarter when Alanna Smith was called for a foul on a shot attempt by Breanna Stewart. Cheryl Reeve challenged the call, believing that the contact was marginal, but the call wasn’t overturned, and Stewart made two free throws to send the game into overtime. The Lynx fell apart in overtime, scoring only two points compared to the Liberty’s seven, and lost the game.
After, Cheryl Reeve had plenty to say about the officiating, arguing that a third-party review would have overturned the foul call that sent the game to overtime and that the championship was stolen from the Lynx. The issue is obviously still on people’s minds.
When Sandy Brondello was asked about the refereeing in the team’s most recent game against Minnesota after practice on Monday, she said, “The refereeing—Minnesota can’t be complaining too much now, but it never usually comes down to the last play anyway. It comes down to what happens always before as well. They got the calls last game. We’re on home court now so maybe we’ll get the calls.”
The part about Minnesota not being able to complain much seemingly refers to Reeve’s complaints about the officiating in Game 5 last year. Brondello already commented on the controversial officiating after the game, saying that the Liberty were put in the same position in Game 4, which she believes they should have won, and that the refereeing in Game 5 was “pretty fair.”
The Lynx got to the line a lot the last time the two teams played
The Lynx and Liberty are currently in the middle of a miniseries with three of their four regular-season matchups scheduled incredibly close together. Breanna Stewart has missed all three games the two teams have played so far this season, and Napheesa Collier missed the last two. Neither is expected to return for the final matchup on August 19.
Despite their absences, the games were fun, close matchups. The Lynx took the first two games and seemed poised to handily secure a third win as well. Then, the Liberty rallied back from a 15-point deficit and made it a close game. In a game that ended with a six-point margin and came down to a few plays in the clutch, free throws were a big topic.
The Lynx got to the line 33 times. While some players struggled from the free-throw line, the Lynx still widely exceeded the points the Liberty got at the charity stripe. Minnesota made 25 free throws. New York only attempted eight. That is a huge discrepancy and didn’t go unmentioned in the postgame press conference.
“Were we not driving hard enough?” Sandy Brondello asked rhetorically when the free-throw discrepancy came up.
Sabrina Ionescu added, “It’s tough to win a game with shooting eight free throws in this league.”
Refereeing has been a hot topic all season long, with several players and coaches voicing their frustration and concerns.