PHOENIX (AP) \u2014 A furious Minnesota coach Cheryl Reeve lost her cool and maybe her best player in the span of a few seconds during the Lynx\u2019s 84-76 loss to the Phoenix Mercury on Friday night in Game 3 of the WNBA playoff semifinals.<\/p>\n
The top-seeded Lynx are in a 2-1 hole in the best-of-five series with Game 4 looming Sunday in Phoenix.<\/p>\n
Reeve was ejected after getting her second technical foul in the final minute. The play that set her off is when Alyssa Thomas stole the ball from Napheesa Collier<\/a> near the 3-point line and sprinted toward the other end of the court for the game-sealing layup.<\/p>\n Coller injured her leg on the play and had to be helped to the locker room. Reeve said that Collier \u201cprobably has a fracture\u201d though she didn\u2019t elaborate on the injury.<\/p>\n Collier is a five-time All-Star who averaged 22.9 points during the regular season. She scored 17 points on Friday before the injury.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen you let the physicality happen, people get hurt, there\u2019s fights, and this is the look that our league wants for some reason,\u201d Reeve said. \u201cWe were trying to play through it, trying not to make excuses.\u201d<\/p>\n The Mercury were whistled for 15 fouls on Friday night, while the Lynx were called for 14. The Mercury did shoot more free throws with a 22-11 advantage.<\/p>\n Reeve took no questions after thes loss, instead going on a two-minute rant on the officiating. She called for the WNBA to make changes at the league level when it comes to officiating and then focused her ire on the three officials on the floor Friday \u2014 Isaac Barnett, Randy Richardson and Jenna Reneau.<\/p>\n \u201cThe officiating crew that we had tonight \u2014 for the leadership to deem those three people semifinals playoff worthy \u2014 is (expletive) malpractice,\u201d Reeve said.<\/p>\n ___<\/p>\n AP WNBA: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/wnba-basketball<\/a><\/p>\n