When players walk off the court shaking their heads and chuckling after calls made by the referee in their favor, you know something has probably gone terribly, terribly awry.
So to summarize the feeling among Indiana Fever players and coach Lin Dunn after the Seattle Storm’s 85-71 win in front of 9,083 fans at Key Arena, let’s say this: fans can openly comment on the refs, coaches and players have to allude to it and talk about something else.
“I was real disappointed in the third quarter,” said Dunn outside the visitor’s locker room after the game. “It’s hard for me to believe a team as physical, as aggressive defensively as Seattle is can play a whole third quarter with one foul. That’s gotta be a world record so I’m very disappointed in that particular stat. I did think our players let the officiating bother them some and that’s unfortunate because we need to keep our poise. But with only one foul called on them in the third quarter, I can see why it was starting to frustrate them a little bit.”
The official record shows that the Storm actually had 2 fouls in the third quarter, but that’s not the point. The point is the refs had an impact.
For more on the game, see Jayda Evans’ summary at the Seattle Times or check in with Swish Appeal for a summary.