Breanna Stewart says refs wrongly told Liberty they had no timeouts left in final seconds of loss to Dream

Controversy has embroiled the Atlanta Dream's thrilling 101-98 overtime victory over the New York Liberty in Game 2 of their semifinal series after Breanna Stewart accused the officials of incorrectly telling the Liberty that they had no timeouts remaining on the final play of overtime.

With 4.3 seconds remaining in the extra frame, Angel Reese hit two clutch free throws to push the Dream's lead to three points. The Liberty had the ball and a reset timeout, however, and had sent the game to overtime with a brilliant after-timeout play that freed up Marine Fauthoux for a 3-pointer.

So they still had hope -- at least it seemed.

The Liberty did not call a timeout and instead tried to throw a long pass to Marine Johannès near midcourt. The ball was tipped, and even though it somehow wound up in Stewart's hands, her heave at the buzzer was nowhere close. In the initial aftermath, it appeared that first-year head coach Chris DeMarco had made a major blunder.

But during the postgame press conference, Stewart explained why the Liberty did not call a timeout.

"This is not blaming the refs, but when I ask both refs if we have a reset timeout and they tell us 'no,' and then we leave the game with a reset timeout, it's pretty frustrating," Stewart said. "Like, yeah, OK, I kinda got a good look at the end, but would just love to have some clarity on that situation as well."

"[DeMarco] said let me check, [DeMarco] asked [official] Fatou [Cissoko-Stephens] and then she said 'no,' so then [DeMarco] said no [to the team]," Stewart added.

Here is what the WNBA rulebook says about timeouts in overtime:

"In overtime periods, each team shall be allowed two (2) team timeouts. There is no restriction as to when a team must call its timeouts during any overtime period."

"Each team is entitled to one Reset in the final two minutes of the fourth period and one Reset in the last two minutes of any overtime period."

The Liberty used their first timeout in overtime with 4:05 remaining to challenge a foul called on Fauthoux, which was upheld. They used their second timeout with 21 seconds remaining to draw up a play for a potential go-ahead basket that was not successful. As such, they did indeed have their reset timeout, and should have been able to use it with 4.3 seconds left.

Dream star Allisha Gray did not play due to a hand injury, Rhyne Howard shot 5 of 20, the Liberty were up by three with less than two minutes to play in overtime and on their second-to-last possession, Sabrina Ionescu threw a ball into the fifth row. The Liberty had their chances, and even if they had used their reset timeout successfully, would have only been able to force a second overtime.

So, as Stewart noted, it was not the officials' fault that they lost. At the same time, if Stewart's version of events is accurate -- and there's no reason to think she's lying given her reputation -- that is a massive blunder by the officials that absolutely cannot happen at that stage of a playoff game.