Game 5 of the WNBA Finals needed more than 40 minutes to determine a champion. The New York Liberty played host to the Minnesota Lynx on Sunday night at the Barclays Center, and after a Napheesa Collier layup with just over a minute remaining, Minnesota found itself in the driver’s seat to take a championship on their flight back home.
Breanna Stewart missed a pair of free throws on the ensuing Liberty possession, and after the two teams traded misses, New York had the ball with six seconds left. The team went to Stewart, who drew a controversial foul on Alanna Smith while she was in the act of shooting to head back to the line.
Clean block here!pic.twitter.com/9W2ZLYQYiT
— Oh No He Didn’t (@ohnohedidnt24) October 21, 2024
Cheryl Reeve challenged the call, which seemed awfully harsh against Smith, but the referees upheld their decision and sent Stewart to the line. A player of her caliber wasn’t going to let a chance at redemption go, so she knocked them both down to tie things up. LeBron James saw all of this and couldn’t help but hop onto Twitter and express his disapproval with the officials’ decision.
“I’m sorry but that wasn’t a foul!” James tweeted. “Let the damn players dictate the outcome of a close battled tested game.”
The Lynx were able to get a pretty good look after this, as Kayla McBride got a look from the top of the key. Unfortunately for Minnesota, her shot did not go in, and the game went to overtime.