Mercury overwhelmingly lead WNBA in technical fouls, several players nearing suspensions

With the Indiana Fever breathing down their neck and them currently on a two-game losing streak, the Phoenix Mercury’s race toward the playoffs has another hurdle standing in their way.

Battling not just the opposition, the Mercury have been upset with the officials and the fouls they have received not just lately, but this season. So much so that they are overwhelmingly leading the WNBA in technical fouls (30). The next closest team is the Las Vegas Aces who have 15.

To make matters worse, the Mercury duo of Natasha Cloud and Diana Taurasi each have six individually. If they hit seven, that results in an automatic one-game suspension. From there onward, every other tech is another game out (i.e. No. 9, No. 11, No. 13, No. 15, No. 17, No. 19, etc.).

Star Kahleah Copper is right behind them with five, Brittney Griner has four and Sophie Cunningham is up to three on the season after picking up two against the Minnesota Lynx on Wednesday. Cunningham was ejected as a result of the second foul following a heated confrontation with Napheesa Collier.

After being tossed from the game, Cunningham let her true feelings out that she wants the referees to take as much responsibility as the players when making a mistake.

“There is so much we can’t control as players and maybe I can control my emotions a little bit more, but honestly I didn’t want to,” Cunningham said when giving her thoughts on her ejection. “Sometimes a team needs that… It’s a good question for the [WNBA] Players Association to see the ref situation and how we can be better moving forward. As a group, we get fined for a lot of stuff but I think they need to be held accountable too.”

Cunningham’s ejection came just after Phoenix felt they were hard done by the referees vs. the New York Liberty on Monday.

Taurasi was on the verge of getting another technical foul as she was constantly arguing with the officials on controversial calls going in the Liberty’s favor. New York received 16 free throws and Phoenix had just four, causing Cloud to vent her frustration.

“We only had four free throw attempts, it’s kind of hard to win games [with that],” Cloud said. “They shot 16 free throw attempts, we shot four. It’s just not adding up, and everyone wants to know why the Phoenix Mercury has the most techs [technical fouls] in the league. It’s because the games are not being called equally on both ends of the floor.”

If Taurasi and/or Cloud were to be issued one more tech, it would be a huge blow for Phoenix who are trying to hold onto the sixth seed. The resurgent Fever are 7-3 in their last 10 games and have a game in hand on the Mercury, with Phoenix sitting with a 16-16 record and Indiana at 15-16.

Even though they are within reach of a playoff spot, the Mercury will need to watch how many technical fouls they get or it could punish them before they know it.