Lynx lament officiating after heartbreaking Game 5 overtime loss in WNBA Finals

The Minnesota Lynx’s defense gave them a chance to win the 2024 WNBA Finals in Sunday night’s decisive Game 5 at Barclays Center in Brooklyn. But much like in Game 3 of this same series, Minnesota’s defense wasn’t enough to climb to the mountaintop and it was the Liberty, not the Lynx, celebrating after the season’s final buzzer. 

The Lynx were mere seconds away from celebrating a WNBA record fifth championship. Minnesota held a two-point lead by a score of 60-58 with 6.2 seconds on the clock. New York had the ball and inbounded to Breanna Stewart, who took a dribble and a step through the lane and put up a shot. Her game-tying attempt missed to the left, but Minnesota’s Alanna Smith was whistled for the foul, sending Stewart to the line. The Lynx challenged the call, but the play stood due to Smith not being in a “legal guarding position,” according to officials.

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In the postgame press conference, Lynx head coach and president of basketball operations Cheryl Reeve blasted the officiating and said that one specific call changed the game. She doubled down on it in a fiery closing statement at the end, too.

“All the headlines will be, ‘Reeve cries foul,’ bring it on,” Reeve said. “Bring it on. Because this shit was stolen from us. Bring it on.”

The Lynx would have still had to secure the rebound and make their free throws, had no foul been called on Smith. The replay also showed an apparent travel on Stewart, but after a lengthy review the play stood. Stewart hit both free throws and the Lynx couldn’t convert at the other end with 5.2 seconds left and the game went to overtime.

“We talked about it. We could have done some things (better), but you shouldn’t have to overcome to that extent,” Reeve added. “This shit ain’t that hard. Officiating, it’s not that hard. When someone is being held, be consistent. If you don’t want to call it a hold at one end, don’t call it at the other. Be consistent. Every team asks for that. Sandy asked for that last game. Three of the games in this series, we’re talking about the same damn thing.

“So I tell these guys, for whatever reason, it didn’t work out. It just doesn’t feel right that you lose a series with that level of discrepancy. We don’t have a team that whines and complains, and all that stuff. Sometimes it probably hurts us. Maybe being a little more, I don’t know, something. But you have a star player like Phee, that just, I don’t get it. I don’t get how she can be held and go to the basket and get hit, and then a marginal (call), at best, at best, sends their best player to the free throw line. I mean, that’s tough. It’s tough to swallow.”

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Smith, who fought through excruciating pain in her lower back to remain in the game, didn’t get an explanation from officials of where the foul might have been after the review.

“I don’t know, maybe verticality, I didn’t talk to the officials, so not sure,” Smith told reporters after the game. “… I mean, the sun’s going to rise up again tomorrow. You work so hard for something and then you don’t achieve it, it hurts. But, the journey was worth it, and just being able to be around this team and to do what we did as a team with the people that we have, I think it’s important to focus on that stuff. Although it feels like it, it’s not the end of the world.” 

Following Game 4 in Minneapolis, Liberty head coach Sandy Brondello brought up the officiating in New York’s 82-80 loss at Target Center. The Lynx attempted 20 free throws in that game compared to nine by the Liberty.

“But look, I will say this, and I look at the thing here and I know Cheryl talked about it last time, but we got no calls today,” Brondello said after Game 4. “So do I need to talk up in a press conference? Because they were getting ticky-tacks. And we went down there and got hit and get nothing. It was like 12-6 at halftime and they tried to even it up near the end. It was 14-9. No. All we want is fair, okay. So if we are getting hit, that’s a foul. You know, I’m one of the nicest bloody coaches in this league, but this pisses me off. Just be fair. You know, if they are getting hit, it’s a bloody foul.”

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On Sunday night, the Lynx converted 7-of-their-8 free throw attempts while New York shot 21-of-25 from the line. Most notably absent from the free throw line in Game 5 was superstar Napheesa Collier. While Collier scored a game-high 22 points (bringing her final postseason tally to 285 points, the highest scoring postseason in WNBA history per league PR), every single one of them came from the paint, where she shot 11-of-18 on the night. Collier shot 11-of-23 overall and scored 14 of her points in the first half. 

Collier’s reached several memorable statistical heights in these playoffs. A stat she’d rather soon forget is Game 5 marking the first time in her career she’s attempted 20+ shots from the field and not taking a single free throw, per ESPN Stats & Info.

“Yeah, probably because I was getting held a little bit. It was a little hard to make shots,” Collier said in the postgame press conference. “Everyone is trying to make adjustments in the second half. I was getting a lot of shots and they tightened up their defense, brought people in their rotation, doubling, things like that. They were upping the pressure and it got harder.”

Even with the free throw disparity putting the Lynx at a disadvantage, their defense gave them chances to win. The Lynx held the Liberty to 22-of-72 from the field and 2-of-23 from beyond the arc. Stewart and Sabrina Ionescu combined for a total of 18 points.

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In the end, though, the Liberty’s defense and the rarity in trips to the foul line prevented the Lynx from grabbing a lead for good, and their elusive fifth championship ring will have to be captured in the future.

“I thought today was incredibly disappointing,” Reeve said. “The challenge — we have got to change our challenge rules. The officials during the game should have a third party, because that was not a foul. That call should have been reversed on that challenge. If we sent that clip in — well, first of all, Napheesa Collier, the number of times she was held, et cetera, there was nothing down on that end. For whatever reason, that’s kind of the way it was.

“At the other end when they challenged it, if we would have turned that clip in, they would have told us that this was marginal contact, no foul. Guaranteed. Guaranteed. So when you review there should be the same parameters that you’re reviewing with, but the three people on the game need a third party to let them know. Because that decided the game. That decided the game.”