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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 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
00:20game
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
00:33the Liberty who were down three had a chance to get at least hopefully a quality three-point shot
00:38up to tie the game and force it and set it into double overtime because they lost this game in
00:42overtime and for some reason the Liberty did not use their reset timeout now don't know if that was
00:49on Chris DeMarco don't know who else this could have been on in coaching staff if they were aware
00:54or not and after the game still haven't seen comments as I'm recording this from Chris DeMarco
01:00but Alexa Philippou of ESPN asked Breonna Stewart about it and Breonna Stewart said that she asked
01:06the refs if they had a reset timeout they being the Liberty after Angel Reese's free throws and the
01:13refs told her no so somewhere there was some incompetence don't know if it's on the team if it
01:19was on the officials if the officials told Breonna Stewart and the coaching staff no that's weird even
01:24if Breonna Stewart asked the coaching staff still has to ask and they have to know whether they had
01:28the reset timeout or not but there will be a lot of talk about that but I'm going to be
01:33very clear
01:33about one thing here that is not why the Liberty lost this game that is not why they lost this
01:39game
01:39at all whatsoever the Liberty lost this game because they gave away too many possessions it is simply
01:47that they once again had way too many turnovers short less turnovers than they had in game one
01:54only 16 I guess but 16 is too much to try to win a high level playoff game here in
02:00the WNBA semis
02:01that is not going to get it done at all whatsoever so that's one then they also missed seven free
02:09throws
02:09missing that is not going to get it done now all of those missed free throws came in the first
02:13half
02:13that also was not a recipe for success when it comes to trying to win a playoff game then you
02:19can also talk about second chance points they allowed I didn't even get into points off of
02:23turnovers the 16 turnovers that they had but when you get into second chance points that they allowed
02:28here sure the Liberty actually won the rebounding battle in this game 36 to 35 but they lost it on
02:34the offensive glass they were out rebounded by the dream 11 to 5 so anytime you're giving a 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 and a team that
03:01wants to force turnovers and score off of them in the way that the Atlanta dream did the Liberty
03:07it's disappointing for the Liberty and their fans because they wasted an all-time great performance
03:13from Breanna Stewart Breanna Stewart with 35 11 and 6 in this game first player in WNBA history to put
03:21up a 35 point plus game 10 plus rebound game and five plus assist game first player to ever do
03:28that
03:28in the playoffs in WNBA history and it was for not she set the tone in this game with a
03:34fantastic first
03:35half 25 piece by the half and she really kept the Liberty in this game along with John Cole Jones
03:40who
03:41played well offensively inside she had some problems too with turnovers as she did have six of those
03:46herself in this game and didn't contribute well in terms of taking care of the ball so that is part
03:51of
03:51the problem but Breanna 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 Markov 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 Markov credit the fact that he played her
04:42when he needed a steady hand in game one and she stepped up and stayed ready and was ready to
04:46come
04:47into the game and produce and then he rewarded her with more minutes in game two and she was good
04:53once
04:54again despite fouling out she played tough she tried to run the offense pretty well hit some big-time
05:00shots and the Liberty in this game and this is what hurt them with everything I'm talking about
05:04when you're in these games where you are trying to come back they got the chance to tie multiple times
05:13in regulation but then in overtime they got the lead but when they got the lead they couldn't sustain
05:17it they never got it more than one the largest lead they had think they had a three-point lead
05:22at one
05:22time actually but they never were able to build on it to be more than one possession and that was
05:27the
05:27problem there they couldn't get the records at stops when they needed they it always seemed like
05:32something happened when they were up one they were trying to build on their lead marine for toots
05:35who I just praised had a big-time turnover that hurt the Liberty down the stretch of this game
05:41Sabrina Inescu had a big turnover trying to find John Paul Jones in the corner in overtime
05:46turnovers 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
05:58doing all that but in the end you got to give credit where credit is due to the Atlanta dream
06:04they made the plays when they needed to they got stops when they needed to and then they scored the
06:11ball when they needed to they made their free throws when they needed to they did all the little
06:15things that it takes to win so you can go to the last play of the game you could talk
06:19about the
06:19officiating this game which was inconsistent you saw 26,000 the first half and there was much less
06:25in the second half and they let him play more in game one than he did in this game but
06:30that's
06:30officiating in the W that's officiating in any sport and you have to adjust to the officiating as it
06:37goes Liberty did not do a good enough of a job with that forget the officiating if you take care
06:43and
06:43control the controllables 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
07:04this this is not going to be acceptable you cannot turn the ball this much as they've done in the
07:11first
07:11two 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
07:26even be
07:26excited about some of the things you saw from John Quill Jones on the inside and even defensively
07:30because you had four blocks in this game you can be excited about what you saw from Marine for Toots
07:34but it 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 have 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 oh two it's never
09:02happened
09:02oh and 19 so the math ain't math in for the Liberty however that's history they have to try to
09:08make
09:09history now and it's going to be a lot of coach speaking and hear from the players it's going to
09:12be
09:12about one game at a time from the time now until Friday at the Barclays Center you got to take
09:17it one
09:17possession at a time one game at a time and they got to get one then you see if they
09:21get two and you see
09:22if they can force a game five down in Atlanta but I can tell you this if they play as
09:26sloppily as they
09:27did in these first two games of the basketball they don't take care of the business on the glass
09:31they're not going to win it's just not going to happen they are not going to be able to get
09:36this
09:36done and they need everyone to be better I'm sure the leadership on this team will say this do I
09:42think
09:42the Liberty will come out with a spirited performance on Friday night at Barclays Center yes I do
09:46the crowd's going to be pumped up in Brooklyn it's going to be great we'll be there for some coverage
09:51on
09:51this but we're going to see if they play better it's really not deep deeper than that if you love
09:57basketball as much as I do this was a fantastic basketball game you got to see a high level W
10:03game
10:03with a ton of intensity good spirit good heart from the Liberty but at the end of the day in
10:07these
10:07playoff games as we know it comes down to execution and we're going to see if the Liberty are able
10:14to
10:14execute because they played otherwise well enough to get this done this is a team that shot over 55
10:1955 from the field they shot just below 50 from downtown so the shooting was there the offense
10:25was there they just didn't value possessions and that's what basketball is about particularly in the
10:31playoffs it's about winning possessions and they lost way too many possessions in game two
10:38they definitely lost it in game one when it came down to winning time they did not make the winning
10:43place so we'll see what the Liberty can do in game three it'll be interesting I will be there
10:49Madeline Kenny will be there going solo with this tonight for this recap but we will have coverage
10:53for you and the question now will be after game three will we talk about the Liberty season being
10:58over in the offseason or them extending it to pushing to a game four on Sunday afternoon we will
11:04see it'll be interesting let me know what you think in the comments what did you make of the timeout
11:09debacle at the end with the Liberty not using their reset timeout what did you make of how the Liberty
11:14played what do you think went wrong with the Liberty do you believe they have a chance to push it
11:19to a
11:19game four and win game three let me know in the comments we will have more coming your way on
11:24Liberty
11:24Lately later this week so that's going to do it for this edition of Liberty Lately for the great team
11:30here at the New York Post I'm Dexter Henry we'll catch you next time on another edition of Liberty Lately
11:35Liberty Lately
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