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Brittney Griner, Diana Taurasi among 6 ejected after Mercury and Wings scuffle | WNBA Highlights

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A jockeying match under the rim turned into a bench-clearing scrum, and it cost Phoenix the game.

The Dallas Wings and Phoenix Mercury were playing a tight, physical fourth quarter at College Park Center in Arlington, Texas on Saturday, August 10, 2019, when things boiled over. A shoving match between Brittney Griner and Dallas rookie Kristine Anigwe spilled into the backcourt, drew in players from both benches, and ended with six players tossed from the game. By the time order was restored, Phoenix’s two biggest stars were watching from the locker room, and Dallas had the opening it needed.

• With 6:25 left in the fourth quarter, Brittney Griner chased Kristine Anigwe into the backcourt and swung at her after contact under the rim, sparking a bench-clearing altercation near the Dallas bench.
• Six players were ejected after review: Griner, Diana Taurasi and Briann January from Phoenix, and Anigwe, Kayla Thornton and Kaela Davis from Dallas.
• Phoenix led 71-68 when the fight broke out, but playing the final 6:25 without Griner and Taurasi, the Mercury lost their lead as the Wings rallied for an 80-77 win.

The Flashpoint Under the Rim

The trouble started with ordinary positioning. Griner and Anigwe were jockeying for space inside the lane during a Mercury possession, the kind of grabbing and leaning that happens on nearly every trip down the floor in the post. But after contact under the basket, Griner turned and went after Anigwe, chasing her the length of the floor into the backcourt and throwing punches as she caught up to her. Coaches, officials and players from both benches poured onto the court to pull the two apart, and the situation escalated quickly into a full-scale scrum near the Dallas bench.

Six Ejections, One Wild Sequence

Officials needed an extensive video review to sort out who did what, and the result was six ejections — an unusually large number for a single incident. Griner, Diana Taurasi and Briann January were sent to the locker room for Phoenix. Anigwe, Kayla Thornton and Kaela Davis were ejected for Dallas. Losing your two most accomplished players, Griner and Taurasi, in the same sequence is the kind of penalty that can flip a game on its own, and that’s exactly what happened.

Six players ejected, and Phoenix lost both Brittney Griner and Diana Taurasi with 6:25 still on the clock and a three-point lead to protect.

Phoenix’s Collapse Without Griner and Taurasi

The scoreboard at the moment of the fight told the story of what Phoenix was risking: 71-68, Mercury. Losing Griner’s rim protection and Taurasi’s shot-making for the final stretch of a three-point game against a Dallas team playing at home was always going to be a tall order, and the Wings made Phoenix pay for it. Dallas chipped away over the final six-plus minutes and closed the game on top, 80-77, turning what had been a Mercury lead into a road loss by the final horn.

A Rivalry With Some History

On-court flare-ups like this one tend to get replayed for years, in the same way long-simmering beefs in other corners of entertainment get relitigated every time the parties cross paths again. The footage of Griner chasing Anigwe into the backcourt, captured and replayed across sports broadcasts much the way clips of other unscripted moments caught live on television circulate long after the fact, was the kind of sequence that gets dissected frame by frame — who threw the first punch, who escalated it, and whether the response from officials matched what actually happened on the floor.

Dallas walked away with the 80-77 win and the last word on the scoreboard. Phoenix walked away short-handed for the stretch that mattered most, and with a lot of film to review before the Mercury and Wings meet again.