Game 2 of the semifinals of the 2026 WNBA playoffs is in the books and both home teams held serve.
The No. 4 seed Atlanta Dream are up 2-0 in their best-of-five series with the No. 8 seed New York Liberty. Atlanta won 101-98in an overtime thriller on Wednesday, Oct. 7, at State Farm Arena.
After trailing by 17 points in the third quarter, the defending champion Aces got their first lead with 90 seconds left. Gabby Williams and Veronica Burton helped the the No. 2 seeded Valkyries hold on for a 83-81 victory and 2-0 series lead at Chase Center in San Francisco.
Here are the winners and losers from Game 2 of each semfinal series.
Winners
Dream forward Angel Reese's clutch free throws
Angel Reese likely nailed the biggest free throws of her WNBA career ― twice. When the Dream needed Reese to step to the line
and make clutch shots, she did. Reese sank two free throws with 15 seconds left in regulation to put the Dream up by three, and then again in overtime with four seconds remaining to put the Dream up 101-98. Reese's free throws sealed a 2-0 series lead in the semifinal series. The Dream All-Star showed zero fear with the game on the line, and touched on keeping emotions in check down the stretch.
“We were just talking about managing our emotions and valuing possessions, something that we lived by all year, and I think we did that. Obviously, we got a really good look going into overtime, so we wanted to make sure we stayed poised," Reese said postgame. "(DeWanna Bonner) told us (that) usually the first team that scores is the team that wins that overtime, and she kept telling us that. So she gave us that confidence, and we felt it.”
Liberty forward Breanna Stewart
Playoff Stewie is fully activated. New York Liberty forward Breanna Stewart imposed her will early in Game 2, becoming the first player in WNBA playoff history to record 35 points, 10-plus rebounds and five-plus assists. Stewart finished with 11 boards and six assists.
The Liberty were looking for Stewart early and often on Wednesday. She had 15 points in the first quarter, shooting 5-of-6 from the field and 2-of-2 from the 3-point line. She added another 10 points in the second quarter to improve to 8-of-9 from the field, 2-of-2 from the 3-point line and 7-of-9 from the free-throw line.
Stewart's 25-point first half is tied for the third-highest scoring half in playoff history. Angel McCoughtry holds the record with 27 points scored in a half in 2012, while Stewart recorded 26 points in a half in 2022.
Valkyries guard Tiffany Hayes
It may be hard to believe, but Tiffany Hayes was done with the WNBA a couple of years ago. Now the Valkyries are a win away from the WNBA Finals with help from the Valkyries guard, who led the charge in the Game 2 win with 21 points off the bench.
Hayes came out of retirement to sign with the Aces ahead of the 2024 season and won Sixth Player of the Year. Las Vegas' quest for three straight WNBA titles was thwarted by the New York Liberty in the semifinals that season.
Hayes opted to sign with the Valkyries in free agency after she said she planned to run it back with the Aces, but it was clearly the right choice.
“I'm here with a group of people who believe in me. I'm here with a group of people who let me be me when I'm on the court. I'm learning a lot from this group from top to bottom,” Hayes said during a postgame interview on NBC’s broadcast when asked about her confidence. “So definitely no pressure when I'm going in the game. I just know to go out there and give 110% and it always works out in my favor.”
Hayes also praised the Valkyries coaching staff, which is led by former Aces assistant Natalie Nakase.
"We got the type of coaches that we can definitely feed off of their energy. And when they give it to us, we give it right back to them. So I think it's easy for us to buy in, especially when we know the direction that we want to go in,” Hayes said. “They give it to us straightforward. There's no gray area when they're trying to explain to us what we need to do. So that helps us out a lot."
Losers
WNBA officials in Liberty-Dream game
The Liberty and Dream game was a wild ride. There were six players between both teams playing with at least three fouls and three players who had at least five fouls. By the time the final buzzer sounded, there were a staggering 43 fouls, 29 from the first half. Players from New York and Atlanta were frustrated and as time wound down, the officiating crew was thrust into the spotlight again.
With four seconds remaining in overtime, Dream forward Angel Reese stepped to the line to hit free throws. Breanna Stewart said she asked a nearby official if the Liberty had a reset timeout. She asserts that she was told no. However, postgame, Stewart maintained that New York did have one more timeout.
"I asked Kevin (Fahy), I said, 'Do we have a reset timeout?' And he said, 'I'm going to check at the table.' So then he looked to Fatou (Cissoko-Stephens), and she said, 'No.' So, then he told me no. Of course, who knows what would happen in the game, but we would have hopefully a better shot on goal," Stewart said of the final play, her 32-foot 3-point shot after Reese's free throws.
"This is not blaming the refs, but when I ask both refs if we have a reset timeout at the end and they tell us no, and then we leave the game with a reset timeout, it's pretty frustrating. Yeah, OK, I kind of got a good look at the end, but would just love to have some clarity on that situation."
The official todl the pool report, "(Breanna) Stewart was standing behind referee Fahy when he confirmed with his partner between Reese's penalty free throws that New York did indeed have a reset timeout remaining."
Teams are responsible for managing keeping track of their timeouts. Officials may confirm the status of timeouts with the scorers' table when necessary, but according to the pool report referee, officials do not track timeouts.
New York Liberty turnovers
The New York Liberty dug themselves into a 2-0 hole in the WNBA playoff semifinal series against the Dream and now face insurmountable odds — no team down two game has come back to win a best-of-five playoff series.
Self-inflicted wounds were the Liberty’s demise. New York conceded 28 points on 17 turnovers, making their second straight game of double-digit turnovers in the WNBA playoff semifinal series.
No turnover loomed larger than Sabrina Ionescu’s errant pass with 6.5 seconds remaining in overtime as the Liberty trailed 99-98. Instead of capitalizing on an opportunity to take the lead late, the Liberty gave possession to the Dream, who knocked down clutch free throws to seal the win.
“(Sabrina Ionescu) saw multiple defenders and (Jonquel Jones) was open and passed her just a little bit high, but it's so many plays that led to this,” Liberty forward Breanna Stewart said after the loss.
Despite the daunting road ahead of them, the Liberty are not giving up. Liberty head coach Chris DeMarco said, "What's important right now is that we focus on Game 3 and that's got to be it. There's nothing we can do about this game, about this season, anything like that. Obviously what happened happened.”
Aces’ playoff outlook
After Wednesday’s loss, the Aces are facing odds no WNBA team has ever beaten.
The league adapted a best-of-five playoff series for the Finals in 2005 and expanded to the league semifinals in 2016. In that span, every team that has ever fallen into a 2-0 deficit has lost the series.
The closest any team has come was the Phoenix Mercury in 2018, which lost the first two games of their semifinal series to the Storm in Seattle before stacking two wins in Phoenix to force a Game 5. The Storm won Game 5 back on their home court 94-84.
Even when the Aces’ faced the Liberty in the 2024 semifinals and fell down 2-0 in New York, they recorded one victory before the Liberty ended the series at Michelob Ultra in Las Vegas with a 76-62 win in Game 4.
“I can't convince them that this is not a must win, because if we lose, we go home, or we stay home. The goal is to get one quarter at a time, and you got to string it together,” Hammon said of what she’s telling her team ahead of Game 3 against the Valkyries in Las Vegas on Friday.
“We know we're capable of of stringing three in a row. We believe we're capable of that, so that will be the mindset. No reverse psychology, no nothing. Just go out and get it done.”
This is the Aces’ eight straight semifinals appearance, but Hammon isn’t counting on history to inform the future – including the late run the Aces made before Veronica Burton’s dagger 3-pointer all but sealed it for the Valkyries.
“I mean it should help, but all the experience, all the records, all the championships, they don't get to carry over. You have to go do this work every time you step out on the court,” she said.
“Our little comeback there at the end doesn't carry over. Their threes that they hit early on don't care. Everybody has to come to work and do the work over again and my group understands that.”
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: WNBA playoff winners and losers include Angel Reese's clutch gene, Aces
