Liberty's playoff misery deepens with late-game timeout confusion
· Yahoo Sports
ATLANTA ― The New York Liberty are down 2-0 to the Atlanta Dream after narrowly losing 101-98 in overtime of Game 2 in the semifinals of the WNBA playoffs.
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The defeat wasn't the only thing upsetting the Liberty postgame.
New York forward Breanna Stewart expressed frustration over a reset timeout in overtime she was under the impression the team could have taken in the waning seconds. Angel Reese made two free throws with four seconds remaining in overtime. Stewart told the media that she was hoping to advance the ball, but was told there was no reset timeout left by the officiating crew.
"I asked Kevin (Fahy), I said, 'Do we have a reset timeout?' And he said, 'I'm going to check at the table.' So then he looked to Fatou (Cissoko-Stephens), and she said, 'No.' So, then he told me no. Of course, who knows what would happen in the game, but we would have hopefully a better shot on goal," Stewart said of the final play, her 32-foot 3-point shot.
"This is not blaming the refs, but when I ask both refs if we have a reset timeout at the end and they tell us no, and then we leave the game with a reset timeout, it's pretty frustrating. Yeah, OK, I kind of got a good look at the end, but would just love to have some clarity on that situation."
Liberty head coach Chris DeMarco said he was told there was no reset timeout.
"Yes, same thing. They said we didn’t have it. They just said we didn't have it," DeMarco said when asked about the timeout. "Yeah, multiple staff members. So it is what it is. We got to demand more, but it is what it is."
Dream head coach Karl Smesko told the media postgame he expected the Liberty to get the ball to halfcourt so that the could get a final shot.
"I thought they had a timeout left, but they played it out the way they did. So I was expecting it to be advanced, but it wasn't," Smesko said. "Fortunately, we were able to get the stop.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Liberty's playoff misery deepens with late-game timeout confusion