While Indiana’s fever advanced to the title of the commissioner’s Cup title on Tuesday with a victory over Connecticut Sun, the game conversation theme had little to do with her imminent confrontation with the Minnesota Lynx.
Multiple fights between fever and the sun, with the first to involve Caitlin Clark, culminated in a flagrant foul and three ejections at the end of the game … and Faver coach, Stephanie White, going out to the trade after the game.
“I think we have our league meetings in autumn and spring, we say the same and again and again has changed,” White said. “So, I’m not all outside or keep sending clips, continuing talking about it. Look, [the officials’] Work is difficult. His work is difficult. [The players’] The work is difficult, right? His work is difficult. The game has changed a lot. The players are faster, they are better, they are larger, they are stronger. They are as good as ever, they are as athletic as they have done.
“The game is fast now. Things are happening quickly. Everyone is improving officials. So we have to find a way to remedy it. I mean, you have heard all the coaches talk, so I don’t know what the answer is.”
To recapitulate everything that happened at night, we first have to return to the first half. Clark and Sun Jacy Sheldon’s guard have a long rivalry that dates back to his days at the university in Iowa and Ohio State, respectively.
Predictible, things were a bit chippy between the two from the beginning.
But things really intensified in the second half when Sheldon committed a foul to Clark with an incidental blow to the eye. The posterior fight saw Marina Mabrey hit Clark to the ground.
Surprisingly, Mabrey was not expelled from the game, since she, Clark and Tina Charles were evaluated by technicians and Sheldon was evaluated a flagrant 1.
The fever opened the game the rest of the road, opening a 20 -point advantage in the last quarter. Clark Anely knocked down a last triple triple quarter of the night, Sheldon before turning to the Banco del Sol to have some words too. Once again, Sheldon and Clark had something to say to each other in the later waiting time.
Caitlin Clark to Jacy Sheldon after knocking down his fourth triple:
“Oh, you can’t protect me. You can’t protect me.”pic.twitter.com/vmtlHTVVDB
– Karl Heiser (@kheisercbb) June 18, 2025
With the officials largely ignoring that incident, the full tensions were injured in the last minute of the game. In a fast break, Sheldon received a hard foul by Sophie Cunningham, which led to another fight and multiple ejections.
Cunningham and Sheldon also have some history. During his meeting at the beginning of this season, Cunningham shook his tooth on an coming with Sheldon.
The pomp continues at the end of the fever-one
Sophie Cunningham with a bad lack of Jjy Sheldon, who made an exception.pic.twitter.com/eddnyx8llW
– Embragspints (@Clutchpoints) June 18, 2025
This time, the officials expelled Cunningham and Sheldon while they expelled the striker from the Sun Lindsay Allen.
White said she was talking to the officials. He also hurried to notice that this is not the first time that officials have lost control of the game.
“When they allow these things to happen, and it is a bone that happens throughout the season, the lung of the whole season. It is not just this game, it is a bone that happens throughout the season, this is what happens, right?” White said. “You have competitive women who are the best in the world in what they do, right? And when you allow them to play physical and allow these theses to occur, they will compete and have their team in fact. It is exactly.”
This is not the first time that White has called for arbitration. After the loss of the team against freedom in May, White launched arbitration due to a perceived fault of missing calls, which is called “disrespectful.”
Perhaps farther from his point of not having control of the games, the fever was involved in a fight with the sky in the opening game of the season with Clark and Angel Reese in the center of it.
White also pointed out that this was not a specific fever problem, but also one throughout the WNBA.
“Well, so far I have seen enough dust in the league,” White said. “So I think it is a problem throughout the League. I mean, the bad trade is a bad trade.”
Given the nature of his statements, White will almost surely attract the attention of the league with a fine probably on his way. But it is clear that the rate feels that things have crossed the line, and his coach is willing to put his money where his mouth is.