Jose Fernandez has heard the criticism before, and after yet another heartbreaking Dallas Wings loss, the head coach already pre-empted the conversation he knew was coming. They lost 81-82 to the Atlanta Dream, following a disastrous final sequence where Fernandez refused to call a timeout.
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After the game, he revealed his thought process to reporters.
“No, I mean, it depends on time, score, and opponent, right?” Fernandez said. “We just felt that on sideline out of bounds plays tonight, Atlanta’s number one defensively in the league on sideline out of bounds. I didn’t want to call a timeout and have them set their defense up.
“There’s always gonna be an armchair quarterback going, ‘Hey, we should have done this, we should have done that,'” he stated.
Dallas tried to push the ball in transition to try and create a better opportunity before the Dream could organize defensively, but that plan backfired. The Atlanta defense quickly caught up to their plans and forced a bad final shot, securing the win.
Fernandez, in his defense, made it clear that he didn’t think that the game was decided by the final possession, pointing to a series of mistakes from the fourth quarter that, in his mind, cost his team the game.
“We defend better in that fourth quarter, and we don’t give up offensive rebounds. We make our free throws, and we finish the game off, and it doesn’t come down to the last possession where everybody remembers, right?”
Fernandez also pointed to an officiating sequence involving a closeout from Arike Ogunbowale, sharing that the coaching staff received one explanation before officials clarified the actual sequence.
“Initially, they said that the foul was on the shot and then we were in the landing space. Why challenge the foul? But apparently the foul, instead of the arm, was the landing space.”
Instead of dwelling on the officiating, however, he returned to the bigger picture, highlighting that their earlier mistakes made him uncomfortable using certain strategies. He also revealed the fact that he did not opt to foul up four because they had already given up two boxout rebounds on free throws.
In the end, the defeat snapped a hot streak for the Wings, who had won seven of their last eight before this game. Whether fans agree with the coach’s philosophy or not, Fernandez has made it clear that he believes the issues were prevalent throughout the 4th, not just the final sequence.