Mercury’s Alyssa Thomas suspended 1 game for incident with Caitlin Clark

INDIANAPOLIS — Phoenix Mercury forward Alyssa Thomas will be suspended one game for “recklessly making contact with her fist to the throat area” of Indiana Fever guard Caitlin Clark during the Mercury’s win over the Fever on Wednesday night, the WNBA announced Thursday.

The play, which happened with roughly seven minutes remaining in the second quarter, was originally a no-call and was not reviewed. Thomas will also receive a Flagrant 2 penalty.

According to the WNBA’s rulebook, the league office reserves the right to reclassify a flagrant foul or to classify a no-call as a flagrant and impose any fine or suspension following its review of any game.

Thomas will serve her suspension Saturday when the Mercury faces the Toronto Tempo on the road. Clark, meanwhile, exited Wednesday’s game in the third quarter due to a back injury. Fever coach Stephanie White did not have an update on Clark’s injury after the game, and her status is unclear for the Fever’s next matchup, a home game against the Los Angeles Sparks on Saturday.

White said the Mercury got away with “two cheap shots” on Clark during the second quarter of Wednesday’s action. She cited Thomas’ now-flagrant foul on Clark, which was followed by Mercury forward Valériane Ayayi fouling Clark on a 3-pointer and not giving her enough space to land safely. Thomas and Clark got tangled up after Clark dribbled down the lane and lost her footing. Thomas then dove to the floor to try to get the ball away from Clark, but as they were on the ground, Thomas appeared to close her right hand into a fist and push down on Clark’s neck.

White, who coached Thomas for two seasons with the Connecticut Sun, called Thomas’ actions “crazy” and “dangerous.”

“No. 1, you gotta call it. It’s absolutely egregious and utterly disrespectful,” White said as she blasted the officials after Wednesday’s game. “And then No. 2, you’re coming in here aware of what happened two nights ago, and that s— still happens? Absolutely unacceptable.”

Clark and Thomas were two of five players who received technical fouls Monday during a fourth-quarter skirmish. Indiana eventually won 86-77.

There have been multiple past instances in which fouls against Clark have been subsequently upgraded. Marina Mabrey — while playing for the Connecticut Sun last season — received a technical for shoving Clark to the floor. A day later, it was upgraded to a Flagrant 2.

In an interview with The Athletic earlier this season, Sue Blauch, the WNBA’s head of referee performance and development, cited this game as one that spurred the league to take action to address officiating issues in the offseason. She called the errors made in several games “egregious,” but said the one on June 17 last year stood out.

“We just didn’t handle the physicality from the first period,” Blauch told The Athletic in May. “If you go back and look at that game, it escalated. The emotions escalated, and we didn’t do our job.”

An off-ball foul committed by Chennedy Carter — while playing for the Chicago Sky — on Clark during her rookie season was upgraded to a Flagrant 1 a day later following review by the league.

A task force was established this offseason to address officiating issues. The consensus among the group was that new rules were not needed, but there was a demand for better enforcement of the existing rules, Blauch said. Earlier this season, there was an uptick in foul calls, emphasizing the priority being placed on freedom of movement. But multiple team sources have since said the officiating has reverted to old habits and lacks basic consistency.

In adjacent news, a league and team source confirmed to The Athletic on Thursday that Clark’s technical foul from Monday’s game between Indiana and Phoenix will not be rescinded. Clark claimed that she was just clapping, but White said the officials deemed that she was taunting the Mercury players during their kerfuffle. Clark remains at five technical fouls on the season. If she reaches eight technical fouls, she must serve a one-game suspension, per WNBA rules.

“We should all just go on the calendar now and pick a game that I’m gonna be suspended for if I’m gonna get technicals for clapping,” Clark said after Monday’s game.

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