Diana Taurasi and Natasha Cloud each picked up their seventh technical fouls of the season on Sunday during the Phoenix Mercury’s 97-79 loss to the defending champion Las Vegas Aces. Cloud’s technical was upheld, but Taurasi had hers rescinded upon league review.
As a result, Cloud has been suspended for the team’s matchup against the Atlanta Dream on Tuesday, but Taurasi will be eligible to play, the league announced. For the season, Cloud has seven technicals, while Taurasi remains at six.
Under the current rules, once a player reaches seven technical fouls in a season, they will be suspended for one game. A player would then face another one-game suspension for every two technical fouls after that.
Cloud was the first one to get in trouble on Sunday. In the middle of the second quarter, she was playing physical defense on Kelsey Plum and thought that the Aces guard got away with a push-off. After Plum passed the ball, Cloud voiced her displeasure with the officials and was quickly given a technical. There was no debating that one.
Late in the third quarter, Taurasi joined the club. As the Mercury were walking the ball up the floor, an officially suddenly blew her whistle and hit Taurasi with a technical, apparently for yelling something. An incensed Taurasi claimed she was talking to her teammates, not the ref, and the league agreed with her argument.
She was not too bothered by the situation either way.
“No, I don’t really care about any of that,” Taurasi said on Sunday after the loss. “I’m gonna go into every game the same way. That’s just life… If it’s a game off, it’s a game off. Whatever.”
Taurasi will still need to be careful, though, as her next technical foul will result in a one-game suspension. She has previously been suspended three times for reaching the technical foul limit. In 2016 and 2018, she was suspended one game for reaching seven technicals, while in 2013 she got to nine technicals, which resulted in two separate one-game bans.
The Mercury’s defeat to the Aces was their third in a row, as their post-Olympic break slump continues. They are now 2-5 since the restart and 16-17 for the season, which has dropped them a full game behind the surging Indiana Fever in the race for the No. 6 seed.
