Angel Reese Lays Into WNBA Refs Over Officiating Woes After Game 5 Finals Loss

The Dream’s hopes of clinching its first-ever WNBA championship took a tough blow after their 64–55 Game 5 loss to the Valkyries on Monday night. Once holding a 2–1 lead in the Finals series, Atlanta now finds itself in a 2–3 hole, one game away from a cruel postseason elimination.

Golden State’s defense proved yet again to be the game-changer, as the Valks contained Angel Reese to single-digit points (seven) for the second time in the series. The Dream as a whole were limited to just 55 points, becoming the first team to score fewer than 60 points in a WNBA Finals game since the Mercury put up 50 in 2021.

The fact that Valkyries-Dream matchups this series have mostly been low-scoring affairs should come as no surprise. Each team clearly cemented its own defensive identity en route to the Finals, and the more times Natalie Nakase’s side goes up against Karl Smesko’s, the more each coach learns about each other’s offensive shortcomings.

Earlier in the series, Reese appeared set on a path of possession-maxxing domination after her historic Finals performances in the Dream’s pair of wins. Then, she got bottled up in Atlanta’s last two games, both of which ended in defeat.

Following Game 5’s loss on the road, Reese seemed to direct some of the blame toward the WNBA referees.

“For me, like I’m still trying to figure out how to play through the physicality,” Reese said in a postgame press conference. “I mean, a lot of us are getting fouled, and they're not calling you, or we're talking to the ref after, and they're saying, ‘Oh, we'll get you next time.’

“... But honestly, for my teammates, when they're getting slapped to the ground or goggles knocked off, like it is frustrating and trying to keep them in and keep them confident. But yeah, we'll figure it out. We're gonna have to just continue to push through the physicality, and hopefully it goes our way next game.”

Reese said she believed the officiating became an issue ever since the Dream went up 2–1 in the series.

“I would definitely say last game, for sure,” Reese said when asked when she started noticing the change in calls. “There was also a possession where Gabby pulled me on purpose and she was screaming, 'Foul foul, foul' and they didn’t call it. So that definitely was frustrating for sure. And her team is saying it and they’re all screaming foul, but the refs—I don’t know what’s going on, why they can’t hear it.

“And I know I have the mismatch, especially we were talking about matchups. So when I do switch on the post, and I’m a lot stronger than the opponent, I should be able to turn and they’re calling offensive foul but I’m getting pushed before that. So that is frustrating for sure. It definitely shifted when we went up 2–1 and things shifted and I don't know what happened, but it definitely took a big turn.”

Dream coach Karl Smesko backs Angel Reese on WNBA Finals officiating criticism

Atlanta coach Karl Smesko came to his star player’s defense and claimed the referees weren’t calling things on Reese, in particular.

“I do want to have Angel’s back here,” Smesko said. “The contact they allow on Angel compared to everybody else is just ridiculous. Just ridiculous. We should have gone to the foul line six to eight more times just on that. And then the missed double dribbles and travels that always led to points, you can’t be at this level and make this many mistakes.

“There’s things that are on us, like we’re missing shots we should make. But at the same time, that needs to be a whole lot better than it was. ... I’m kind of tired of some of the excuses that I’m hearing.”

There were at least a few glaring missed calls from the referees in Game 5. One came in the third quarter when Valkyries guard Veronica Burton contested Allisha Gray’s layup and hit Gray’s head with her right arm in the process. Another, also on Burton, came later in the second half when she got away with a blatant travel while driving to the basket and helped push Golden State ahead to a 46–40 lead.

As for specific calls on Reese, the reigning Defensive Player of the Year did get whistled for an offensive foul here and there, and some of them were more marginal than others.

The Valkyries did appear to get more physical with Reese coming out of their Game 3 loss and immediately set the tone in Game 4’s 67-62 win, ensuring that the Dream star wasn’t going to get any easy looks and had to fight through a sea of arms every time she received the ball under the net. While one could argue that the officiating in the post perhaps differed from that on the perimeter, the Valkyries by no means received a special whistle that game. Golden State finished with 13 free throw attempts to the Dream’s 31, and Nakase’s challenge in the fourth quarter also arguably should have been successful and overturned a questionable offensive foul called on Valks forward Cecilia Zandalasini.

In Game 5, the free throws were handed out more or less equally (14 to the Dream and 13 to the Valkyries), and there was a fair bit of uncalled contact in the paint when Atlanta had the ball. But—just like every other game this series—the contest was ultimately decided by the turnover and possession battle, which Golden State won.

Even in the league’s 30th season, it’s no secret that the WNBA referees still have a ways to go before gaining the trust of the players, and the officiating remains a hot-topic issue that should continue to improve in the future. With their season on the line, Reese and the Dream face a do-or-die Game 6 at home on Thursday afternoon; so far, this riveting back-and-forth series has managed to stay focused on basketball, and we can all hope and pray the referees don’t make a national storyline of themselves, now.