Alyssa Thomas served a one-game suspension Saturday night, and the Phoenix Mercury played without their six-time All-Star forward after the WNBA retroactively issued a flagrant 2 foul for her altercation with Caitlin Clark. The Mercury still beat the Toronto Tempo 89-80, but the league’s ruling kept Thomas off the floor on a night when her presence usually shapes the offense.
Nate Tibbetts Defends Alyssa Thomas
Nate Tibbetts pushed back before the game. “The people in this league know who AT is. She’s a competitor, she’s a winner, and she’s tough. The one thing she is not is cheap,” he said. He added, “To say that we had two cheap shots in that game, to me, is ridiculous.”
The WNBA said Thomas acted recklessly and committed a non-basketball act after Wednesday’s altercation, then issued the flagrant 2 foul and mandatory suspension. That left Phoenix without a player who leads the WNBA in assists per game at 8.4 a night and averages 14.7 points and 6.6 rebounds for the Mercury.
Kahleah Copper on AT
Kahleah Copper tried to narrow the story back to her teammate. “We’re with AT,” she said. “We just wish it would have been handled the right way.” She also said, “We wish somebody also called her and checked on her and made sure that she was OK.”
Copper’s comments came after a game in which she scored 28 points in the Mercury’s 111-109 win over Indiana earlier in the week, while Thomas finished with 24 points, eight assists and four rebounds and Caitlin Clark had 19 points and eight assists. Those numbers show why the ruling mattered to Phoenix’s rotation: Thomas is not just an All-Star name, she is the team’s engine in assists and a major source of scoring and rebounding.
Mercury’s Standings Pressure
The suspension landed on a Mercury team that was already 7-13, 12th out of 15 teams, and seventh of eight in the Western Conference. That is the part of the story Phoenix cannot ignore; every game without Thomas makes a thin margin thinner.
Her place in the league’s center of gravity only sharpened the reaction. Thomas has 25 triple-doubles, including the playoffs, and the dispute around Wednesday’s play drew in Stephanie White, who called the lack of a call “egregious” and described the incident as “cheap shots.” For the Mercury, the issue is no longer just one foul. It is how much of their season they can afford to play without Thomas while the standings stay tight around them.
