After struggling to keep up with the Las Vegas Aces during much of this WNBA Finals, the Phoenix Mercury losing Game 4 97-86 and getting swept on Friday night wasn’t totally unexpected. The way it happened was.
First, the Mercury were forced to play in Game 4 without All-Star Satou Sabally after she sustained a concussion in Game 3. Then, toward the end of the first half, Alyssa Thomas went down with a shoulder injury after she collided with the Aces’ Jewell Loyd, fell to the ground and grabbed at her shoulder.
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Thomas has been playing with torn labrums in her shoulders for years, but this seemed like a new pain. Somehow, she came back for the third quarter and battled, even as she grimaced through her shooting motions. She still finished the game with a triple-double: 17 points, 12 rebounds and 10 assists.
Then, with 2:41 left in the third quarter, Phoenix coach Nate Tibbetts argued a foul call on Monique Akoa Makani; he was called for two quick technical fouls and tossed from the game. He got into the face of a referee, said something and then walked away. After the second technical, he was confused and took a minute to leave the court because, he said, he didn’t even know about the second technical.
Per ESPN, this was the first time a head coach has ever been ejected in a WNBA Finals game.
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“I think it’s one of the weakest double technicals ever. I didn’t even know that I got the second one, to be completely honest,” Tibbetts said after the game. “I don’t understand. I just feel bad for our fans, our team, my family. It wasn’t needed in my opinion. I’d love to hear their call. It was weak.”
According to the postgame pool report, Tibbetts was assessed the first technical for calling the foul “f***ing terrible,” and the second for stepping in “aggressively” toward the referee and yelling again, “That’s f***ing terrible.”
While Tibbetts has been reticent to question officiating in the playoffs — unlike many of his counterparts in the WNBA — he spoke about it on Friday night.
“We’re playing for our playoff lives. Most coaches when they get tossed, they’re doing it on purpose,” he said. “That was not my intention at all, but there’s been issues with the officiating all year. I’ll have to look at it. I didn’t think I deserved it. I thought it was bulls***.”
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With Tibbetts in the locker room, assistant coach Kristi Tolliver took over for the rest of the game. Former Finals MVP Kahleah Copper made a valiant effort in trying to get her team back into the game, scoring eight of her 30 points in the fourth quarter. But her fouls mounted up, and she fouled out with 1:30 left in the game. She got a technical as she was walking off the court.
“When [Tibbetts] was gone, it was just like, it’s another form of adversity on the year. Let’s just add on to it. Let’s just play harder,” Copper said. “And I think that’s just, that’s what we about. When you talk about Mercury basketball, when you talk about the Phoenix Mercury period, we never gonna quit. We gonna get after it, and we can handle whatever you throw at us.”
At the start of the Mercury’s season, one giant question loomed over the team: Would the newly established core of Copper, Thomas and Sabally coalesce quickly, especially considering how they each have dealt with injuries?
The answer was yes, even though each one of the big three missed games. But they found other ways to foster team chemistry en route to a fourth seed and a 27-17 regular-season record.
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In the first round of the playoffs, they knocked off the defending champion New York Liberty in three games. In the semifinals, they mounted a historic comeback in Game 2 against the Minnesota Lynx, then won the next two games to earn a spot in the Finals. And while they didn’t reach their ultimate goal, Copper said she wanted her team to learn from this moment so they could build on it.
“I’m proud of the group. I’m super proud of the group. I think we’ve just battled everything all year, from the start until now,” Copper said. “Like I said after the game, I wanted us to feel it. I wanted us to hear the celebrations. I wanted us to really, like, feel that moment, feel the hurt, and hear what was, you know, the celebrations, and just to let it just fuel us for the future. But like I said, I’m just proud of this group, how we just continuously responded to adversity all year, and I wouldn’t want to do it with any other group. I’m proud of what we was able to accomplish in just a short period of time.”
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But the Mercury, like every other WNBA team, face an offseason of uncertainty. The collective bargaining agreement expires on Oct. 31, and most of the league will become free agents. Phoenix has only one player, Kalani Brown, under contract for 2026.
For now, they have to savor what went right in the 2025 season, and perhaps try to forget about how it ended.
