NEW YORK -- The Liberty are moving forward after the controversial end to Game 2 of their semifinal series against the Atlanta Dream in which there was confusion over whether New York had a reset timeout remaining.
"We move on and focus is on tonight. It has to be," Liberty coach Chris DeMarco said Friday at shootaround. "So, we don't want it to be a distraction. We're back in our building, and [the Dream] did what they're supposed to do, and we've got to do what we're supposed to do."
After dropping the first two games of the series in Atlanta, the eighth-seeded Liberty return home to New York looking to become the first team in WNBA history to overcome a 2-0 deficit and win a best-of-five series.
Still, Game 2's ending was a prominent topic at shootaround Friday morning.
During overtime, each team receives two team timeouts and one reset timeout, which allows the team to advance the ball without huddling on the sideline. But without taking their reset timeout, the Liberty inbounded the ball, trailing by three points, from beneath their own basket with 4.3 seconds remaining. Breanna Stewart ultimately air-balled a deep 3-point attempt as the buzzer sounded.
"We know the rules," DeMarco said Friday. "We should have pushed harder, and it's just an unfortunate situation. And I think we all saw what happened."
The WNBA issued a statement Friday saying that, based on the league's review of multiple video angles and available audio and conversations with all the involved parties, "It is clear on video and audio that Breanna Stewart asked Referee Kevin Fahy about the reset timeout."
"At that moment, there were multiple overlapping conversations and non-verbal exchanges between the referees, game participants, and also Stewart with Liberty bench personnel, which led to a misunderstanding amongst the various parties," the statement continued. "Our referees can certainly handle these interactions better and have been given that feedback. No further follow up is expected on the situation at this time."
Stewart said postgame that after asking an official, she was told that the Liberty did not have their reset timeout remaining.
In the ensuing pool report from Wednesday night, crew chief Fatou Cissoko-Stephens did not directly address what was or wasn't said to Stewart, beyond saying, "Stewart was standing behind referee Fahy when he confirmed with his partner between [Angel] Reese's penalty free throws that New York did indeed have a reset timeout remaining."
Stewart told reporters Friday that she was disappointed in how the league and officials "[put] me in a position to question my integrity."
"I really don't want to talk too much about this because my main focus is Game 3," Stewart said. "But what I will say is you want to have respect between players and refs and players and the league and all these things. In order to have respect, you need to build trust. And building trust comes with being honest. Putting me in a position to question my integrity is really disappointing. And I know who I am and what I stand for and what I heard. That's that, and I'm going to continue to do that and move on from it."
The Liberty acknowledge, though, the ordeal wasn't just on the officials. DeMarco confirmed that someone on the coaching staff has the job of tracking timeouts.
Stewart said there hasn't been much conversation between her and the coaching staff about everything that happened.
"Obviously, [the staff] thought we didn't have one either," Stewart said. "So going forward, a learning experience for everybody."
The Liberty will need their best from everybody in Game 3. Despite Stewart's 35-point performance in Game 2, New York's season could end at home Friday night against a Dream team that has not lost in the postseason.