Sophie Cunningham, a guard for the Fever, shared her thoughts on Angel Reese’s aggressive play during Game 3 of the WNBA playoff semifinals between the Dream and Liberty.
In a recent episode of the “No Hesitation” podcast, Cunningham suggested that Reese should have faced a technical foul after confronting Liberty guard Sabrina Ionescu following a hard foul on Dream guard Isobel Borlase.
She described the referees’ calls as “weird and inconsistent.”
“Angel, I appreciate her having her teammates’ backs. It shows she cares about them,” Cunningham noted. “But if you’re going to chase someone down the court and get into their face, that has to be a tech—any time. It would be called in the regular season. In any playoff game, that’s a technical foul. You simply can’t do that.”
Continuing, Cunningham said that if Reese had stayed on her side while expressing herself, she’d support that; however, she found it outrageous that Reese didn’t receive a technical foul for her behavior.
She also referenced a moment when Reese tried to drive to the basket but was blocked by Liberty center Jonquel Jones. This led to both players exchanging words, resulting in what Cunningham termed “soft-ass double techs.”
Cunningham criticized the referees for their lack of consistency and highlighted an instance where she was penalized with a technical foul for merely pointing during a game earlier this season.
“That’s just part of playoff basketball. Let them talk a little trash,” she said. “It’s really strange and inconsistent how the refs handle these situations.”
If referees ignore the aggressive confrontations like chasing someone down the court, then, in her view, it doesn’t make sense to call a foul on players standing their ground after a block.
In the end, the Dream emerged victorious against the Liberty, winning 85-83 and securing their place in the WNBA Finals.
Meanwhile, the No. 6 Fever were eliminated after losing 94-83 to the No. 3 Aces in their first-round playoff series.
The Dream will face the Valkyries in Game 1 of the WNBA Finals on Saturday at the Chase Center in San Francisco.
