Eighteen seconds.
Eighteen crazy seconds.
Eighteen seconds that very wel🐻l may determine the fate of the Liberty’s WNBA title aspirations.
The Liberty’s stu🐈nning collapse against the Lynx ⛄in Game 1 of the Finals on Thursday night at Barclays Center swung on a freneticඣ, puzzling and devastating sequence at 𒊎the end of regulation.
The drama in the eventua🍒l 95-93 loss wasn’t complete until the final beats of overtime,🔯 but the wildest highs and lows, the glut of the “What did we just see?” moments came in one bizarre stretch to finish the fourth quarter.
The Liberty, who 🍒had led by as many as 18 points and were up 15 with five minutes remaining, were nursing a three-point advantage after they were forced into a shot-clock violation with 18 seconds remaining.
After a Lynx timeout, the Liberty defense forced a miss on Courtney Williams’ potential game-tying 3-pointer, ꧃only to allow Alanna Smith to snare the offe🃏nsive rebound in traffic.
“We had a 🌳lot of opportunities to clos🌞e the game out,” Liberty center Jonquel Jones said.
Smith kicked it back out to Williams, who managed to get her feet organized behind the arc and knocked down the re-do while getting fouled by Sabrina Ionescu, overly aggressive 𒅌in running to contest.
Williams calmly hit the f🉐ree throw to finish the four-poi💞nt play with 5 seconds remaining.
Shades of a reverse Larry Johnson.
Backwards L.
“T🔥hose things can break y♍our back,” Liberty head coach Sandy Brondello said. “And they did.”
Trailing 84-83, the Liberty commenced a madcap🌄 series of attempted inbounds passes to set up a would-be game–winner.
On the first, they were fouled — b🌱ecause the Lynx had one foul to give.
On the second inbounds, Lynx star Napheesa Collier deflected the pass intended for Liberty counterpart Breanna ♉Stewart and it went out of bounds.
Unable to determine who had touched it last, the referees threw꧟ up their hands an✤d called a jump ball.
But the Lynx▨ committed a violation on the jump ball, giving the Liberty another crack.
On this one, C🍎ollier registered a clean block on Stewart’s shot attempt, knocking the ball out of bounds under the basket with 1 second remain𒐪ing.
One more time, with feeling: Ionescu threaded a final inbounds to a cutting Stewart, who was fouled by♌ Collier with 0.8ไ seconds on the clock.
Stewart, who has talked repeatedly down the stretch about making up for her subpar perfor🦂mance in last year’s Final♉s, stepped to the line with the game in her hands.
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Make.
Joy in Brooklyn.
Then miss.
Heartbreak.
“You’re just focused on making the shot, making theꦏ first one … and then the second one the same,” Stewart said. “It’s when you want to be thinking about nothing else.
“It definitely sucks to miss.”
Stewart also missed a potential game-tying running layup at th🌊e end of overtime.
“I want to🌞 be taking thꦗese shots,” Stewart said. “It’s very frustrating, but bounce back for Game 2.”
