Breanna Stewart, Liberty look to move on from timeout snafu as they face potential sweep in WNBA semifinals

NEW YORK — Breanna Stewart and the New York Liberty wanted to turn their attention to Game 3 on Wednesday night, sitting on the brink of elimination to the Atlanta Dream in the WNBA best-of-five semifinals.

But the controversy over the Liberty leaving behind a reset timeout in overtime of Game 2, which they lost 101-98 in Atlanta on Wednesday — and the contradiction of their three-time champion versus the officiating crew's pool repor t — still lingered at shootaround on Friday.

"What I will say is, you want to have respect between players and refs, and players and the league, and all of these things," Stewart said from Barclays Center in Brooklyn, where Game 3 will tip at 7:30 p.m. ET. "In order to have respect, you need to build trust. And building trust comes with being honest. You know what I mean? And 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, and that's that. And I'm gonna continue to move on."

Stewart said after the Game 2 loss that she asked official Kevin Fahy if the Liberty had a reset timeout available in between the free-throw attempts by Dream forward Angel Reese with 4.3 seconds on the clock. The Liberty trailed by three after she made both. She said Fahy told her no after checking with head official Fatou Cissoko-Stephens. In the official pool report, which was not conducted until two hours after the game ended, Cissoko-Stephens said Stewart was told they did have a timeout, putting the two accounts in conflict.

Teams are given a reset timeout in the final two minutes of the fourth quarter. In overtime, they receive two timeouts and a reset to inbound the ball at halfcourt, as confirmed in the pool report. It would have allowed the Liberty to set up a play on their side instead of wasting time inbounding it under the opponent's basket. A desperation heave by Stewart fell short.

Footage released on ESPN's "NBA Today" on Thursday showed Stewart turn to Fahy. Her request is audible, but it's unclear if Fahy heard or answered her. He does look toward the scorer's table and motion something. The live ESPN broadcast showed the reset timeout in the scorebug, and play-by-play announcer Ryan Ruocco called it out immediately. Atlanta Dream head coach Karl Smesko said he knew they had a timeout and expected them to take it.

The Liberty filed an official inquiry to the league regarding the incident, Yahoo Sports confirmed. The league received the communication, will follow the pre-determined process and look into it, a league source told Yahoo Sports on Thursday. Stewart said WNBA head of league operations Bethany Donaphin texted her after the game, but she did not elaborate.

Sabrina Ionesu said on Friday that she also inquired as to the timeout situation during the free throws. She said one ref told her yes, while the other shook her head no, and Ionsecu remained "conflicted on what the answer was."

"I take it on me," Ionescu said. "I should have kind of been more demonstrative maybe in the way that I stopped the game and it was just happening really fast at the free throw line. I was confused. Obviously, I didn't want to call the timeout in case it was a technical foul, so that was something I was cognizant of."

Coaching staffs typically track timeouts, versus relying on the officiating crew or table, as calling one without having it will result in a technical foul and free throw for the other team. No one on the Liberty staff appeared to push the issue with the officiating crew during Reese's free throws.

"We know the rules," the Liberty's first-year head coach Chris DeMarco said on Friday, confirming they do have someone on the staff who tracks reset timeouts. "We should have pushed harder, and it was just an unfortunate situation."

It was Stewart who ended up raising the issue in post-game media after turning to DeMarco and asking him directly, "Am I the one saying it? Or you?"

"It doesn't matter at this point, right?" DeMarco said in response to a follow-up after the game about officiating, which has been an issue beleaguering the WNBA to the point it instituted a task force in the offseason. "The game's over."

DeMarco said multiple times that everyone saw what happened, "it is what it is," and they don't want it to be a distraction as the team focuses on keeping their season alive. About five minutes into his shootaround availability, DeMarco was asked if there were any one-on-one conversations with Stewart about the last 36 hours since the contradictory remarks.

"I'll say this: Breanna Stewart is the model citizen for the game of basketball," DeMarco said. "When you're talking about the fact that she's not on the floor when she gets hit. When you're talking about she's not diving out of screens, we're not picking her up constantly. She plays the game the right way. She always has. She always had. … What was it, her first technical in however long? She's just exactly what you want out of a basketball player. Again, she's not trying to bait referees. She's always been honest. So, so yeah, it's definitely frustrating. I mean, she plays the game the right way, and you never want somebody to be questioned like that. It's just not right."

A Liberty spokesperson ended DeMarco's availability after the answer as the shootaround horn sounded, despite having said prior they would take a few more questions.

The Liberty's big three of Stewart, Ionescu and Jonquel Jones each said yes when asked directly if they had trust in the coaching staff moving forward. Ionescu, who said "absolutely, full trust," and Jones told reporters on Friday that everybody involved should shoulder part of the blame for not recognizing a reset was available, including the officiating crew, scorer's table, bench and Liberty staff.

"It's not just on [the officials]; it's a bit on us, too," Jones said. "We have to understand how many resets, how many timeouts, and stuff that we all have as well."

The Liberty personnel referenced again on Friday, as they did after falling into a 2-0 deficit, that they had opportunities to take the win before it came down to calling a timeout for better positioning on a final possession.

Still, the misstep and questioning around how so many people involved were unaware of the timeout situation, and why no one pushed the issue in the moment, could come to define the season. No team has come back from a 2-0 deficit to win a series in league history.

"Going forward, you know, learning experience for everybody," Stewart said.