WNBA games are being officiated differently this season and it’s been a struggle for the Sparks to adapt.
After complaints about the league being too physical last season, the WNBA created a task force of coaches and general managers to develop more consistent officiating.
Foul calls have been up so far this season, with officials focused on freedom of movement or letting offensive players move without being knocked away from the ball.
“It’s hard, especially when you’ve been playing for a certain way for a long time and then having to switch it up more often, in my opinion, as a defender, but it just is what it is,” Sparks guard Ariel Atkins said. “So, yeah, you just have to adjust.”
Across the league, teams are averaging 20.9 fouls per game. Last season, it was 17.5 per game. The Sparks are fouling 22.0 times per contest, the fifth most in the WNBA.
The Connecticut Sun led the WNBA last season with 19.6 fouls per contest. In 2026, 10 of the 15 teams are averaging more than 20 fouls against them per contest.
“I’m cool with it, as long as it’s called the same for 40 minutes like both ways,” Sparks coach Lynne Roberts said. “I think the officials have been given a tough task that’s hard, but I think they’ve done a decent job of being pretty consistent with it. Players, coaches, you just have to adjust, and I think the one thing that I’d like to see us get better at is just [being] not so reactive, just have a little more toughness, in terms of not responding. That’s how they’re going to call it — we got to move on to the next play.”
The increase in calls seem to have given teams more room to score, as intended, despite more starts and stops to game flow.
Entering Sunday, four teams had offensive ratings more than 110 after Minnesota’s 109.5 was the best in the league in 2025. Indiana leads the league in pace at 99.50 after the Sparks led the league last season at 96.84. Five teams are working at a pace of 97 or higher, which would have placed last year’s Sparks at sixth.
One of the Sparks’ offseason priorities was improving their league-worst defense, but that’s been more difficult than ever with how the game is being called.
Sparks forward Cameron Brink blocks a shot from Toronto’s Laura Juskaite during a game on May 15.
(Jeff Lewis / Associated Press)
“Getting used to it as a player, kind of understanding the flow of the game, that’s probably the toughest part for me,” Atkins said. “There’s no real flow or like rhythm to it, right? I’m hoping that the corner turns or we both adjust on both sides.”
The Sparks’ pace is on track to be similar to last season at 97.67 — fifth in the WNBA — through nine games. Their offensive rating of 107.9 is eighth in the WNBA, but they’ve played half of their games without league-leading scorer Kelsey Plum.
Defensively, though, they haven’t made much of an adjustment. They have a league-worst 114.1 defensive rating.
Cameron Brink’s 4.0 fouls per game are the fifth most in the WNBA, and Atkins’ 3.6 also ranks among the bottom 10 players in the league. Plum is at 3.1 just below Atkins, Dearica Hamby isn’t far behind at 3.1 and Erica Wheeler is at 2.9, giving the Sparks the most players in the league in the bottom 30 on a single team.
“It’s hard, I think, on a defensive end, especially when you’re somebody that enjoys the physicality and you like to lean into it,” Hamby said.
The Sparks already had an uphill climb to improve on the league’s worst defense, but as they continue to adjust to the way games are being officiated, it’s all the more difficult.
Add it to the list of things the 4-6 squad needs to work on to climb back near the top of the WNBA.
“I try to not center officiating as a part of my experience,” Nneka Ogwumike said. “I know it’s part of the game, and something we can’t control, but I do think we can do better in our response to it.”
