00:02what's up everybody welcome back to another edition of Liberty lately it's your boy Dexter
00:07Henry here with you going solo tonight after the Liberty fall in game two of the WNBA semifinal
00:14series with the Atlanta dream they fall 101 to 98 there's going to be a lot of talk about this
00:19game
00:20and what happened what went wrong and then I actually start from the end of this game because
00:25there's going to be so much talk about the use or non-use I should say of the reset timeout
00:32by the
00:33Liberty who were down three had a chance to get at least hopefully a quality three-point shot up to
00:39tie the game and force it and set it into double overtime because they lost this game in overtime
00:43and for some reason the Liberty did not use their reset timeout now don't know if that was on Chris
00:49DeMarco don't know who else this could have been on in coaching staff if they were aware or not
00:54and after the game still haven't seen comments as I'm recording this from Chris DeMarco but Alexa
01:01Philippou of ESPN asked Breonna Stewart about it and Breonna Stewart said that she asked the refs
01:07if they had a reset timeout they being the Liberty after Angel Reese's free throws and the refs told her
01:14no so somewhere there was some incompetence don't know if it's on the team if it was on the officials
01:20if the officials told Breonna Stewart and the coaching staff no that's weird even if Breonna
01:24Stewart asked the coaching staff still has to ask and they have to know whether they had the reset
01:28timeout or not but there will be a lot of talk about that but I'm going to be very clear
01:33about
01:33one thing here that is not why the Liberty lost this game that is not why they lost this game
01:39at all whatsoever the Liberty lost this game because they gave away too many possessions it is
01:47simply that they once again had way too many turnovers sure less turnovers than they had in
01:53game one only 16 I guess but 16 is too much to try to win a high level playoff game
02:00here in the WNBA
02:00semis that is not going to get it done at all whatsoever so that's one then they also missed
02:08seven free throws missing that is not going to get it done now all of those missed free throws came
02:12in
02:12the first half that also was not a recipe for success when it comes to trying to win a playoff
02:18game then you can also talk about second chance points they allowed I didn't even get into points
02:22off of turnovers the 16 turnovers that they had but when you get into second chance points that they
02:27allowed here sure the Liberty actually won the rebounding battle in this game 36 to 35 but they
02:33lost it on the offensive glass they were out rebounded by the dream 11 to 5 so anytime you're giving
02:39a team
02:39more possessions with just turning the ball over and being careless with it and then you are getting
02:45out rebound and giving them second and sometimes third chances to score it's going to be tough to
02:50win combined that with the fact that you also miss seven free throws it's going to be hard to win
02:56a
02:56playoff game especially against a team as good defensively and a sound defensively in a team that
03:01wants to force turnovers and score off of them in the way that the Atlanta dream did the Liberty it's
03:07disappointing for the Liberty and their fans because they wasted an all-time great performance
03:13from Brianna Stewart Brianna Stewart with 35 11 and 6 in this game first player in WNBA history to put
03:21up
03:21a 35 point plus game 10 plus rebound game and 5 plus assist game first player to ever do that
03:28in the
03:28playoffs in WNBA history and it was for not she set the tone in this game with a fantastic first
03:35half
03:3525 piece by the half and she really kept the Liberty in this game along with John Cole Jones who
03:40played
03:41well offensively inside she had some problems too with turnovers as she did have six of those herself
03:47in this game and didn't contribute well in terms of taking care of the ball so that is part of
03:51the
03:51problem but Brianna Stewart was tremendous in this game set the tone was the offense for the Liberty
03:56continued to score time and time again when her team needed it and look none of us are shocked by
04:02her
04:02doing this no nobody's shocked by the two-time MVP having performed like this in a big-time playoff game
04:08where a team was trying to knock this game at one then it's also a shame because you had a
04:14fantastic
04:14performance not just from your former two-time MVP but from a rookie and that's Marine Fatutes who
04:21obviously hit the biggest shot of the game for the Liberty that three-pointer to send it into overtime
04:27just a big-time shot you got to credit Krista Marco for running that play for her to have the
04:31stones to take that shot and knock it down tremendous job there she finishes with 20 points
04:37she fouls out in overtime but you also have to give Krista Marco credit the fact that he played
04:42her when he needed a steady hand in game one and she stepped up and stayed ready and was ready
04:46to come
04:47into the game and produce and then he rewarded her with more minutes in game two and she was good
04:53once again despite fouling out she played tough she tried to run the offense pretty well hit some
04:59big-time shots and the Liberty in this game and this is what hurt them with everything I'm talking
05:04about when you're in these games where you are trying to come back they got the chance to tie multiple
05:12times in regulation but then in overtime they got the lead but when they got the lead they couldn't
05:17sustain it they never got it more than one the largest lead they had I think they had a three
05:21-point
05:21lead at one time actually but they never were able to build on it to be more than one possession
05:26and that was the problem there they couldn't get the records at stops when they needed
05:30they it always seemed like something happened when they were up one they were trying to build on their
05:34lead Marine Fatuts who I just praised had a big-time turnover that hurt the Liberty down the stretch of
05:40this game Sabrina Nescu had a big turnover trying to find John Paul Jones in the corner in overtime
05:45turnovers killed this team they killed any momentum they had this team showed resiliency
05:52they showed fight in this contest time and time again and they could have won the game despite doing
05:58all that but in the end you got to give credit where credit is due to the Atlanta dream they
06:04made the
06:05plays when they needed to they got stops when they needed to and then they scored the ball when they
06:11needed
06:11to they made their free throws when they needed to they did all the little things that it takes to
06:16win so you can go to the last play of the game you could talk about the officiating this game
06:20which
06:20was inconsistent you saw 26 fouls in the first half and there was much less in the second half
06:26and they let him play more in game one than he did in this game but that's officiating in the
06:31w
06:31that's officiating in any sport and you have to adjust to the officiating as it goes Liberty did not
06:38do a good enough of a job with that forget the officiating if you take care and control the
06:43controllables control the things that you can control then you have a chance to win this game
06:48so instead of the Liberty having this series even at one they are now down 2-0 heading back to
06:55the
06:55Barclays Center facing elimination and now on Friday night they're going to have to try to save their
06:59season and it's pretty clear from looking at this they're going to have to play a lot better than this
07:05this is not going to be acceptable you cannot turn the ball this much as they've done in the
07:11first two games against this Atlanta team and expect to win you cannot miss free throws you cannot lose
07:16the rebounding battle on the offensive glass and give them more chances to score it that's not going
07:21to get it done so if you're a Liberty fan you can be excited about how Stewie played you can
07:25even be
07:26excited about some of the things you saw from Jonquale Jones on the inside and even defensively because
07:30you had four blocks in this game you can be excited about what you saw from Marine for Toots but
07:34it was not enough it was not enough and it's a disappointing loss because there were some
07:39positives in this game there was some reason to believe but the Liberty have not matched the
07:45intensity that we've seen from the dream and they're playing right into their hands in this series
07:51right into the hands we talked about it in the roundtable preview that this team would look to
07:57force turnovers play the passing lanes and Liberty still been careless with the ball now they talked
08:01about how it was what they had to control and what they had to do we talked about this our
08:05Madeline
08:05Kenny wrote about this and then they didn't control what they needed control so the Liberty have nobody
08:11else to blame but themselves at this point right now you can't blame the refs this is not just going
08:17to put it on coaching lazily players have the right and they have the opportunity to do what they want
08:28to do on the court they have the agency they have to execute coaches can put you in good positions
08:32to succeed but at the end of the day you have to execute and that's just it I know it
08:37sounds simple
08:38but the players did not execute in game two now does this team have the championship medal
08:46to get this done in game three and save their season and extend it sure now history is not on
08:55their side
08:56no team in a WNBA best of five series has ever come back from being down 0-2 it's never
09:02happened
09:020-19 so the math ain't math and for the Liberty however that's history they have to try to make
09:09history
09:09now and it's going to be a lot of coach speaking and hear from the players it's going to be
09:12about one game
09:13at a time from the time now until Friday at the Barclays Center you got to take it one possession
09:18at a time one game at a time and they got to get one then you see if they get
09:21two you see if they
09:22can force a game five down in Atlanta but I can tell you this if they play as sloppily as
09:27they did
09:27in these first two games of the basketball they don't take care of the business on the glass they're
09:31not going to win it's just not going to happen they are not going to be able to get this
09:36done
09:37and they need everyone to be better I'm sure the leadership on this team will say this do I think
09:42the Liberty will come out with a spirited performance on Friday night at Barclays Center
09:45yes I do the crowd's going to be pumped up in Brooklyn it's going to be great we'll be there
09:50for some coverage on this but we're going to see if they play better it's really not deep deeper than
09:55that if you love basketball as much as I do this was a fantastic basketball game you got to see
10:01a
10:01high level W game with a ton of intensity good spirit good heart from the Liberty but at the end
10:10of
10:12we're going to see if the Liberty are able to execute because they played otherwise well enough
10:16to get this done this is a team that shot over 55 55 percent from the field they shot just
10:22below 50
10:22percent from downtown so the shooting was there the offense was there they just didn't value possessions
10:28and that's what basketball is about particularly in the playoffs it's about winning possessions and
10:35they lost way too many possessions in game two they definitely lost it in game one when it came down
10:41to
10:41winning time they did not make the winning place so we'll see what the Liberty can do in game three
10:47it'll be interesting I will be there Allen Kenny will be there going solo with this tonight for this
10:52recap but we will have coverage for you and the question now will be after game three we'll be talking
10:57about the Liberty season being over in the offseason or them extending it to pushing to a game four
11:02on Sunday afternoon we will see it'll be interesting let me know what you think in the comments
11:06what did you make of the timeout debacle at the end with the Liberty not using their reset timeout
11:13what did you make of how the Liberty played what do you think went wrong with the Liberty do you
11:17believe they have a chance to push it to a game four and win game three let me know in
11:21the comments
11:22we will have more coming your way on Liberty Lately later this week so that's going to do it for
11:26this
11:26edition of Liberty Lately for the great team here at the New York Post I'm Dexter Henry we'll catch you
11:32next time on another edition of Liberty Lately
