The Atlanta Dream beat the New York Liberty 101-98 in overtime on Wednesday night and took a 2-0 lead in their best-of-five WNBA semifinal. With 4.3 seconds left, Atlanta's Angel Reese made two free throws to put the Dream up three. New York still had a reset timeout, which would have let it move the ball up the court. The Liberty didn't use it. They inbounded from under their own basket, and Stewart's long shot missed. ESPN announcer Ryan Ruocco asked on the air why they didn't use it. The Liberty have filed an inquiry with the league. The league hasn't commented on it yet. Game 3 is Friday night in New York, and no WNBA team has ever come back from 2-0 down in a best-of-five series.

The Refs Told Them No, And It Cost Them

Liberty players and coaches say they asked the officials more than once, and the officials said the timeout was gone.

They asked, and the answer was no. Stewart, a two-time MVP who scored 35 points, said she asked referee Kevin Fahy whether New York had a reset timeout. She said he checked with crew chief Fatou Cissoko-Stephens. Cissoko-Stephens said no, so he told Stewart no. "This is not blaming the refs," Stewart said. She still called it "pretty frustrating" to leave the game with the timeout unused.

Others on the Liberty heard the same thing. Guard Sabrina Ionescu said she asked too, and so did members of coach Chris DeMarco's staff. DeMarco said the refs told multiple staff members they didn't have it. Ionescu called that "unacceptable" because "we asked multiple times and they were telling us no."

Even Atlanta's coach thought the Liberty had one left. Dream coach Karl Smesko said he thought the Liberty had a timeout left and expected them to use it.

One columnist says the refs never answered the real question. Jeff Smith of USA Today's For The Win wrote that the officials' postgame statement makes it sound like they talked about the timeout near Stewart. But he wrote that nobody addressed what she was actually told, which "leaves the entire controversy unanswered."

But The Officials Say They Confirmed It

The crew chief says the ref confirmed the timeout with Stewart standing nearby, and tracking timeouts is the team's job.

The ref confirmed it with his partner, the crew chief says. In the postgame pool report, Cissoko-Stephens said Fahy confirmed with his partner between Reese's free throws that New York "did indeed have a reset timeout remaining." She said Stewart was standing nearby when he did.

Teams are supposed to track their own timeouts. Cissoko-Stephens said there was "no direct communication" between the officials and New York's staff about it. She said the scorer's table and stat crew keep the count, and "teams are responsible for managing and tracking their timeout usage throughout the game."

Either Way, The Liberty Bench Should Have Known

Critics say a playoff coaching staff shouldn't need a ref to tell it how many timeouts it has.

The overtime rule is simple. Each team gets two regular timeouts and one reset timeout. Jason Ounpraseuth of High Post Hoops wrote that everyone should understand that rule, and "this is not hard to look up." He called it "a huge oversight by the officials, but the blame should still be on DeMarco."

The announcer knew it, so the bench should have too. Grant Young of SI's Women's Fastbreak wrote that he believes Stewart. But he wrote that someone on the Liberty bench should be in charge of knowing the count, without relying on the refs. "If Ryan Ruocco knows how many reset timeouts there are, somebody on the Liberty's coaching staff certainly should know as well," he wrote.

One critic says the coach's job could be on the line. DeMarco is in his first year as a WNBA head coach. Ounpraseuth noted the Liberty fired Sandy Brondello, who coached them to the 2024 title. He wrote that if Atlanta sweeps, ownership should think hard about whether DeMarco is the right person for the job.

Still, The Timeout Isn't Why New York Lost

Some Liberty players and a Swish Appeal writer say New York lost the game before the last 4.3 seconds.

Some players point at their own mistakes. Forward Leonie Fiebich said, "It sounds like a big drama, but I don't think that's the reason why we lost." She said the Liberty could have won before it came to that.

The worst turnover came seconds before the end. Down one with under 10 seconds left in overtime, Ionescu threw the ball out of bounds. "This loss is on me," she said. New York turned it over 17 times, and Atlanta scored 28 points off those turnovers. Ionescu said "it's not just like one reset or whatever the story is going to be."

One writer says the Dream earned the win. Edwin Garcia of SB Nation's Swish Appeal wrote that if Stewart is right, "Atlanta got lucky there, and that's also part of the game." He wrote that the Dream played without injured guard Allisha Gray, dealt with their own frustration at the officials, and still won.

Where This Lands

Stewart, Ionescu and DeMarco say the refs told them they had no timeout. Cissoko-Stephens says the ref confirmed it with his partner while Stewart stood nearby, and teams keep their own count anyway. Ounpraseuth and Young say a playoff bench should never need to ask. Fiebich and Ionescu say the Liberty lost the game before the final play, and Ionescu points to turnovers. The league now has New York's inquiry, and Game 3 tips off Friday night in New York.

Sources