Indiana Fever guard Sophie Cunningham credited her teammate for playing with hustle and defending her teammates, but criticized her for making plays that targeted opponents’ knees and ankles after the whistle.
Cunningham appeared on the latest episode of No Hesitation, a podcast she co-hosts with basketball trainer Drew Hanlen, where they discussed the film from Atlanta’s semifinal sweep of the New York Liberty.
“Okay, I’m going to give her some credit here. If you’re clipping this, you have to clip all of it,” Cunningham said. “Angel is going to play hard. She’s a player who goes after the ball. I appreciate that in players, that she wants to get on the floor and give that extra effort.”
She added that her readiness to do the grungy work distinguishes Reese.
“I think sometimes people, the way they carry themselves or who they really are, don’t want to get that dirty the way she does. So I’ll give her credit for that,” she added. “But you can’t tackle someone in the air and then go for their knees and ankles. That’s a dangerous play.”
Reese, the league’s Defensive Player of the Year, recently joined Atlanta in a midseason trade from the Chicago Sky and helped the Dream win their first-ever trip to the Finals since 2013. Atlanta will face the Golden State Valkyries for the championship title.
After the whistle
Hanlen showed the clips during a segment about physical play and where it crosses the line. In one clip, Reese went after an opponent right after the whistle blew and sent them to the ground.
“So right there, offensive foul, but the play is over,” Hanlen said. “You can’t do that. Nothing was called.” Another clip showed “another dive at the legs, and none of this was called,” he added.
Hanlen reminded the listeners that Cunningham mentioned off-camera that officials protected a star player during the series her team lost, and asked her thoughts about that. Cunningham wondered how many fouls Reese got at that moment. Hanlen said he wasn’t sure, but he knew Reese got a technical, and both clips featured plays that happened after the whistle blew. “That’s the key,” he emphasized.
Cunningham noted that neither play blew the whistle, which was strange for her.
Technically, both plays were potentially dangerous, and it’s hard for Cunningham to understand how they weren’t labeled that way. “Am I missing something?” Cunningham asked.
Hanlen agreed, adding that he was “all for letting stars stay on the court as much as possible,” but he thought the line was crossed this time. He remembered one of his high school coaches’ mottos: “The toughest team wins.” Before each game, the coach used to say this to his team: “Let’s make the officials change how they call the game, because they can’t foul us all out.” He said that mindset helped him win the state championship.
“If those had been regular-season fouls, probably all four would have been technicals,” Hanlen said. Moreover, Hanlen pointed out that the play the officials penalized was, in his opinion, the least deserving of the four plays.
Cunningham noted that those dives bothered her personally.
“I’m just trying to understand how, even after the whistle, somebody can come and hit someone. And I know she was going for the ball and trying to make a quick play,” she said. “You know what? Atlanta is rolling right now. Every 50/50 ball is Atlanta’s ball. So I give them that work ethic, that determination and that grit, but I don’t know.”
She mentioned her own injury.
“I also hurt my knee because somebody hit my knee,” Cunningham said. “So when I see people diving at knees and ankles, it makes me a little sick. I don’t like it. One of those has to be called.”
Hanlen emphasized that forcing steals, turnovers, and fast transition play is key to winning for Atlanta in the Finals. “But there’s a fine line between playing physical and being dominant in toughness, and being reckless,” he warned. “After the whistle, being a little reckless, which is what I saw in a couple of those clips.”
Cunningham noted that Atlanta successfully managed their physical game and moved further anyway.
“Well, I guess it doesn’t matter anymore, because they won,” Cunningham stated.
Trash talking and technicals
Cunningham also criticized officials for failing to stop two trash-talking moments involving Reese in the second quarter of the third game.
After Liberty guard Sabrina Ionescu was called for an offensive foul while setting a screen on the Atlanta player Isobel Borlase, Ionescu and Reese started trash-talking, and officials finally had to stop them. Neither got a technical. Shortly after, Jonquel Jones of New York blocked Reese’s shot, and the two started trash-talking. Finally, officials gave both players technical fouls.
Hanlen asked a direct question. “Do you like it when somebody picks on someone they know they can stand over and look down on, and then when there’s someone who can look them in the eye, it’s like, ‘Yeah, maybe I won’t get into this’?” Hanlen demanded.
Cunningham didn’t hold back.
“Buddy, you know what I think about this. So here we go. Buckle up,” Cunningham said, noting that she was still improving the way she delivered her message. “Still the same message, just how I say it.”
Cunningham thought that the Dream had previously gotten away with a push in that moment and that Ionescu’s screen in retaliation was “100% a moving screen”.
She understood why Ionescu acted in that way.
“I think Sabrina was kind of upset, like anyone would be,” Cunningham said. “She made sure, like you said, to give it back. And of course, things like that are going to happen. I think that’s fun for our game.”
She said that her reaction to Reese’s response was quite different.
“I appreciate that Angel had her teammates’ backs. I think that shows she cares and that she loves her teammates,” she continued. “Here’s my thing. If you’re going to chase somebody down the court and get in their ear, that should be a technical. Any time, that should be a technical.”
She noted that it would have been a typical call in other situations.
“That’s going to be a technical in the regular season. In any other playoff game, that’s a technical. You can’t do that,” she said. “Now, if she stayed on her side and yelled and said something, I’m totally fine with that. You know what I mean? But the fact that they didn’t give her a technical for that, I think, is crazy.”
Moreover, Cunningham thought it was unfair to give technical fouls to both Reese and Jones.
“I get what you’re saying about the height difference. Like, pick on somebody your own size. I get it,” she said. “But with JJ, I wish they didn’t give a technical to either one of them. I think that’s good playoff basketball. Let them talk a little bit, and then their teams separate them. I think that’s fine.”
Nevertheless, she emphasized that inconsistent officiating was the problem.
“It’s so weird and inconsistent,” she continued. “If you’re not going to call it on someone who chases another down the court and talks trash, then if somebody blocks a shot and Angel stands her ground too, don’t call a technical. Let them play hard, good basketball.”
Cunningham mentioned the reasons why players sometimes lose control in such games.
“Tensions are high. Emotions are high. People are going to talk trash. It’s part of the game,” she said. She speculated that officials may have held back on another call because it would have been Reese’s second technical. “It seems like the league is protecting players from getting ejected,” Cunningham said.
Hanlen shared her feelings about the situation.
“I like good, hard basketball, and I like chirping and talking trash when the intensity goes up, especially in the playoffs,” he added.
The league office
Hanlen stated that officiating was the area where the league should develop.
“As I’ve watched more and more WNBA, especially this year breaking it down for this podcast, I’ve come to appreciate NBA refs a lot more,” Hanlen said. “Do they make mistakes? Of course. Do they miss calls? Of course. They’re human. But they do a really good job. And that’s something I don’t necessarily see yet in the W. There’s a lot of randomness.”
Specifying that, he added that there was a moment of confusion late in the second quarter of the semifinals, when Liberty hadn’t used a timeout reset to advance the ball, and Breanna Stewart said afterward that officials told them that they had no timeouts left. “As this league grows and all this talent gets better, how have we not had that same growth and development from the refs?” Hanlen asked. “That’s something the next commissioner has to do a better job of.”
Cunningham said she would always be behind officials, but their salary wasn’t enough for the work.
“They don’t get paid enough. If we pay them more, their level of investment will be much higher. Hopefully that means their skill level will be higher,” she added. “Maybe they’ll be more rested. Maybe they won’t have to work so many games in the offseason. Maybe they’ll be ready to just be refs.”
She added that the WNBA had to compete with the NBA for top officials.
“Everyone wants the NBA, but our league should be a platform that refs want to get to and stay in,” she said. “We have to put our money where our mouth is.” They’re a part of the product. They’re part of the game. So we have to ensure they’re cared for.
Cunningham, noting that the league was looking for a new commissioner, argued that the league office should have reacted quickly and publicly to the timeout confusion.
Our commissioner should be at a podium saying, “Hey, we saw this. We hear you. These are the proper steps we’ll take, and you’ll have an answer tomorrow.” If you don’t sleep for two days, well, that’s your damn job.
Cunningham mentioned why the lack of reaction sends a wrong signal.
You need someone at the head of the snake to set the tone, to establish the standard, to demand respect for our league. What are we doing? This is disrespectful.
The hosts also criticized the league office for not announcing clearly where the Finals of Atlanta would be played. Usually, Dream played at Gateway Center Arena, which has 3,500 seats, but on Tuesday the league announced the games would move to State Farm Arena, the home of the Atlanta Hawks, which can hold more than 17,000 spectators. The Valkyries’ owner, Joe Lacob, told the media that he pressed the league to do it.
Hanlen added what he called an asterisk. “Atlanta fans can’t complain,” he said, stating that fans who hadn’t shown up consistently during the regular season shouldn’t complain now. Cunningham disagreed. “Atlanta has been rolling. The city is behind them like no other,” she said. “And I’m not just saying in the playoffs. In the regular season, they’ve been selling out State Farm.”
Scheduling should have been done several weeks ago, in her opinion.
“This shouldn’t be a five-day thing, like, ‘Oh, what do we do?'” Cunningham said. “Can you respect us a little? Respect Atlanta. They’ve been kicking butt all year. Respect the Valkyries. They’ve been kicking butt.”
Cunningham emphasized that the league office had to keep pace with its players.
“Respect us,” she said. “Everyone’s game is getting better. You have to do the same.”
Hanlen disagreed with fans who called for the Hawks to give up their game dates. “In what world is that going to happen? It’s their arena,” he stated. “There’s going to be some kid going to that Hawks game, and it’s the only game they got for their birthday. They don’t deserve to have that experience taken away just because the WNBA commissioner didn’t do her job and didn’t schedule around it.”
Cunningham supported him. “We don’t need to put down other people, other men, other leagues for us, the women of the WNBA, to get where we belong,” she said. “I’m tired of everyone tearing everyone down so they can be on top. There’s room for everyone, and we deserve to be in State Farm.”
Reese’s shooting
Both of the hosts praised Reese for her improvement in shooting. Hanlen mentioned that the player scored 5 points on 13 three-pointers in the playoffs, compared with 11 for 57 in the regular season, and that she shot 87.1% from the free-throw line in the playoffs versus 72%.
Hanlen recalled a story told during a broadcast: at the beginning of the season, with Reese shooting 19% from long distance, Dream coach Karl Smesko made her score two straight long-range shots from several positions in front of her teammates, and Reese said it took an embarrassingly long time. Hanlen added that Smesko made her realize low-percentage shots at high volume would hurt the team, but Reese would have to improve her shooting if Dream was going to reach its goal.
“And although she’s still not a high-volume shooter from three, on a very small sample size, she’s definitely improved from the free-throw line, which is a big advantage because she gets to the line a lot,” Hanlen added.
However, Hanlen noted that she received far more criticism than credit for this.
“She’s taken a lot of heat throughout her career for missing layups, missing shots, not being skilled, and people haven’t highlighted that she was Defensive Player of the Year and how much she’s impacted winning,” he stated. “So I wanted to give a little love to her offense, because she’s clearly working on it.”
However, he emphasized that she’s far from a finished product.
“Is she a finished product? Is she polished? Is she a high-level shooter? Not yet,” he acknowledged. “But the fact that she’s improved is something I don’t think anyone gives her credit for.”
However, Cunningham was initially surprised by this timing.
“In the playoffs, it’s a weird time to start working on something new,” Cunningham said. “I’ll be honest. When you play against Atlanta, you don’t mind her missing the shot. You don’t mind her taking 3s. And I think her coach knows that.”
She suggested that Smesko tried to use this unusual situation.
“I think that’s why it’s a unique moment for him to rally the team and have her hit two in a row. I think that instills confidence,” she said. “It instills confidence in the team in her ability, even if she only scores one or two more points than she did in the regular season. In these short playoff series, those points matter.”
Cunningham praised her coach.
“I’ve always been a big fan of how, since he’s been in the league, he runs the team, his system, how he speaks so well about his players, how he has their backs,” she noted.
Nevertheless, the main benefit might be her psychological condition.
“Her confidence is going to change the game. And if she can knock down, like I said, even just one, two, three, whatever, that’s going to give her more confidence. That’s going to give her team more confidence,” Cunningham added.
Cunningham mentioned how Reese developed in the league.
“Offensively, her game is going to grow,” she said. “You look at A’ja Wilson, you look at the greats of our league. When they first came in, their first two or three years, they didn’t shoot 3s. They did what they knew how to do.”
She blamed the defense for giving Reese an easy opportunity. “At the end of the day, we’re all the best players in the world when it comes to women’s basketball. So you can’t let just anybody take an open shot, especially in a playoff series,” Cunningham said. “Someone has to show some effort and try to get a hand up and alter the shot a little bit.”
Preview of the Finals
The Dream start the seven-game series in Golden State on Saturday. The Atlanta Dream are riding a 10-game winning streak and have not lost in the playoffs. However, the No. 2 seed Valkyries have swept their three meetings with Atlanta, meaning they own the home floor.
Hanlen believes that Golden State reached the Finals after sweeping the defending champion Las Vegas. He highlighted Gabby Williams, who went 4-for-14 for 8 points in regulation, followed by 8 points in overtime.
When your best player, no matter how she is playing, makes sure her teammates are comfortable and has good energy in the huddles, timeouts, and halftime locker room, it is really important, Cunningham said. Nobody plays perfect. Nobody ever will.
Hanlen explained that Golden State outscored Atlanta from beyond the arc 33-18, and limited Atlanta’s top three players – Reese, Rhyne Howard, and Allisha Gray – to 33 percent shooting, way below their average of 44 percent. Howard made 6 of 24 shots from three-point range. Gray sat out the final two semifinal matches with a hand injury. According to Smesko, there is no news about her participation in Game 1.
According to Hanlen, Golden State’s Kiah Stokes crowded Reese with aggressive hands early. Cunningham agreed that the main thing is to counter Reese’s physical play.
“She loves to bang down there. She’s a physical player, and I love that about her game, because I think a lot of people in her position avoid contact. She goes and looks for it,” Cunningham said. “But that said, if you’re playing defense, you want to hit her first. You want to bump her first, because if she bumps you first, that’s when she has all the control and the defense is on its heels.”
Cunningham praised the Valkyries for their consistent effort. “What I love about the Valks is they never take a possession off. None of their players take a possession off,” she said. “They always try to do the little things right and do them hard, because they realize that matters.”
Moreover, she explained that Atlanta does not even look like the team that lost to Golden State three times in the regular season. “I feel like they’re a completely different squad because of DeWanna and the experience and confidence she’s brought in,” Cunningham said, referring to the veteran DeWanna Bonner. “Jordin Canada is playing really well, which is absolutely amazing to see.”
Hanlen said that Golden State should keep on winning the battle beyond the arc. Meanwhile, Atlanta needs to heat up its leading scorers and increase the tempo.
“If Atlanta turns this into a full-court game, I like their chances more, while if it’s a half-court game, I like Golden State’s chances more,” he said.
Cunningham is sure that no matter what, the teams will have a fight.
“Buddy, this is gonna be a dogfight. And you said it. Valkyries are like flies on crap.” “No matter where the ball ends up, they’re always there,” she said.
