Entering the home game that could push them to the Commissioner’s Cup game, the Indiana Fever were all-set to give their all. But as the whistle blew, the Connecticut Sun brought out the heat too. Not even 3 minutes into the game, Clark, primarily guarded by Jacy Sheldon through the double-teams, got locked with Sheldon and then shoved by Olivia Nelson-Ododa, forcing a quick second foul on the latter. That second onwards, the theme for the matchup was set– All aggressive, all 40-minutes long. Even the play-by-play analyst for the matchup, Debbie Antonelli, clearly spelled out her thoughts about the aggressiveness being “The gameplan when Caitlin Clark is on the floor.”

In the high-tempo, high-stakes game, one call that quickly turned everyone’s heads came in the third quarter. With 4:55 on the game clock, Caitlin Clark tried to hustle into the paint over Sheldon. Just as the broadcasters wondered if Sheldon’s plan was “displacement,” with her giving zero to no space to the point guard, there came a whistle. To put pressure on the ball, Sun’s No. 4 reached from behind while Clark turned, resulting in an eye poke. But instead of letting it go, Sheldon seemed to taunt Clark. Reacting to it, the Fever sophomore shoved Jacy away, who still continued to seemingly talk to Clark. Right then, on a dead ball, Sun’s Marina Mabrey got in Clark’s space and shoved her down on the floor with Tina Charles trying to talk to the point guard as well. What ended up being was a full-blown “fight.”

The penalties to the players after long minutes of review were– Technical fouls for unsportsmanlike behavior to Clark, Charles, and Mabrey; and Flagrant-1 to Jacy Sheldon. What astonished everyone though, was Mabrey’s and Sheldon not being ejected. That’s when Fever guard Sophie Cunningham might’ve thought to take matters into her own hands. With just 46.1 seconds remaining and the game clearly in Fever’s hands, Sheldon was on a breakaway. But Cunningham wrapped both her arms around Sheldon’s neck, pushing her face-first to the floor. Sheldon quickly got up to attack Cunningham who pulled her hair as the two angrily yelled at each other. Three players were ejected from the game: Jacy Sheldon, Lindsay Allen, and the Fever guard. Still, as per analyst Rachel DeMita, the veteran who is also a black belt in taekwondo, did not plan on injuring Sheldon.

“Sophie did not grab her and throw her to the ground. She didn’t body-slam her, she didn’t do anything, in my personal opinion. Maybe I’m biased here but I wanna give you guys my straight up honest opinion on this. She bear hugged her, took her to the ground… Yes, it was intentional. It was absolutely intentional. It was, for me, a payback for what was happening the entire game. But she (Sophie) did it in a way that she wasn’t going to injure Jacy. She was just making it known, like, ‘If the refs aren’t going to handle it, I will handle it. We’ll take care of it. But this is not what you’re going to do when you come into our house.’

“It was an intentional foul, it was a hard-foul. She brought her down… But I do not blame Sophie at all. I have her back in this moment. And I’m sorry I’m not for intentional fouls. I’m not one to advocate for dirty plays. This, for me, was not a dirty play. This was making a statement because the referees didn’t do their d— job. This would not have happened at the end of the game if the referees did their job during the first play. Every single play.” DeMita added.

Interestingly enough, Antonelli, too put the blame on the referees as she announced during the fight, “If they had taken care of it earlier, we wouldn’t be in this situation right now.” Further categorizing the entire game “unsportsmanlike” and also opining that “there shouldn’t be a handshake after the game” as the players usually do.

To add to it, let us tell you, Cunningham isn’t just physical for the sake of it. The 6-foot-1 guard earned her black belt in taekwondo at the age of 6. If she wanted to hurt Sheldon, she could have. But that wasn’t the point. She was sending a message: “If you mess with our star, you’re messing with all of us.” Online, fans mostly rallied behind her. Many praised Cunningham for standing up for her teammate, calling it the kind of fire and loyalty every team needs. The same she did multiple times alongside Diana Taurasi in Phoenix.

Postgame, she didn’t apologize. She didn’t issue a statement. Instead, she posted a picture on Instagram of herself mid-shrug – like she already knew the reaction coming her way. The photo spoke louder than words, and her follower count exploded – over 4,000 new fans in under two hours. But while Fever fans loved the move, Sun head coach found it “disrespectful.”

Coaches weigh in on the fiery clash(es)

The Indiana Fever might’ve punched their ticket to their first-ever Commissioner’s Cup showdown set for July 1, but the road there was pure chaos. Tuesday night’s fiery showdown with the Connecticut Sun ended in controversy, maybe a new divisional rivalry, frustration, and plenty of questions about officiating.

After the hard-fought 88–71 win, the Fever celebrated on the court, but the Connecticut sideline was all furious. Sun head coach Rachid Meziane made his stance loud and clear, and he wasn’t holding anything back when it came to Sophie Cunningham’s hard foul on Jacy Sheldon in the final minute.

“I did not understand [Cunningham’s foul]. When you are winning a game by 17 points and you doing this, to me, stupid foul, this is just disrespectful and I don’t know how Jacy and Lindsay [got] ejected from the game when they did nothing,” Meziane said.

The Sun coach didn’t just see the foul as excessive, he saw it as unnecessary and disrespectful, especially coming from a player on the winning side. But again, it wasn’t about the foul, it was the message being sent and delivered; and even read! Meanwhile, Fever head coach Stephanie White had her own frustrations to air out directed at the treatment of Caitlin Clark. She questioned the technical foul handed to Clark during the third-quarter chaos and was crystal clear about what she thought.

“There wasn’t an explanation for the technical [Clark] got. I think it was pretty obvious stuff was brewing,” White said. To her, it was about the whole pattern. She brought up how it has been the same all season long. And on Tuesday night, she felt like her star was left unprotected again. “Everybody’s getting better, except the officials. We need to remedy that. I mean, we’ve heard every coach talk about it. I don’t know what the answer is,” she said.

In her pool report, crew chief Ashley Gloss was asked, “Why did Cailtin Clark get a technical foul?” And Gloss, sticking by the book, responded, “After the foul by Sheldon, Clark reacted in an unsportsmanlike manner towards Sheldon.”

Both coaches believed their teams were wronged. But they were talking about very different moments. But in the end, the Fever walked away with the win and a ticket to the Commissioner’s Cup final. But what should’ve been a celebration was clouded by controversy, with both sides fuming and the league now under pressure to address officiating issues.