Game 1 between Phoenix and Minnesota was way closer than what people had imagined with the latter taking a 102-95 victory. But the disappointment doesn’t seem to end for the Mercury as Nate Tibbetts expressed his thoughts over how the game was officiated. In the post-game interview, Tibbetts pointed out several occasions when the officials might have made a “terrible” decision.

“There were some very questionable calls down the stretch. I haven’t had a chance to look at them … the Kah one to me was terrible. That was a huge play in the game, and I think they completely missed that,” a frustrated Nate Tibbetts said in utter disagreement.

After putting up a solid performance, Phoenix did feel the need for missed foul calls that should have turned their way. However, they were called for a defensive one, which should rather have been a charge, when Diana Taurasi got knocked over. Instead, the referees called a foul on Taurasi’s teammate Kahleah Copper and handed the possession to Minnesota.

In the first half, the Mercury caught upon their 23-point deficit while also taking over the lead twice in the fourth quarter. However, Tibbetts was not pleased with an offensive foul on Brittney Griner when her elbow unintentionally hit Courtney Williams, the Lynx guard, during the game.

Further, Tibbetts put the Lynx under scrutiny and criticized the officials for Napheesa Collier’s 14 attempted free throws, more than the Mercury had in the entire game (11). The Lynx shot 25 as a team.

“She kind of got what she wanted at times. She was also rewarded with free throws at times. I thought we did a good job as far as guarding, hands up, and they were rewarded with free throws and we weren’t,” he reasoned.

So, let’s take a simpler view of all of what happened.

Nate Tibbetts’ Mercury put up a valiant display against the No.2 seed

Tibbetts’ observation does reflect on how the officials’ decision can change the course of a game while drastically impacting the outcome. Brittney Griner finished her game with 10 points while she shot 3-of-10. The team, on the other hand, made 47 of 74 shots from the field and shot 50% overall with only 11 free throw attempts.

As for the Lynx, they had the 11th-best free throw attempt rate (51.8%) in the league in the regular season. “This is a team that puts you in a lot of different positions with their shooting and the way they move you side to side,” said Tibbetts on the Lynx shooting style.

Exemplifying just that, they attempted 24 of their 69 shots from beyond the arc and were rewarded with a whopping 25 free throw attempts, of which they made 24. Moving on, the Mercury does feel determined to knock down the Lynx on Wednesday and is hopeful to force a Game 3. Meanwhile, Napheesa Collier is rooting to put an end to it. Game 2 is set to tip off at Target Center at 6:30 pm on Wednesday and will be televised on ESPN.