Mercury-Lynx ends bizarrely after clock stops on Diana Taurasi winner: 'This wouldn't happen in the NBA'

In the grand scheme of things, it wasn't unusual to see Diana Taurasi help kick off the WNBA's 25th season with a winner against the Minnesota Lynx.

It was unusual, though, to see her hit the shot with time standing still.

That's how the Mercury-Lynx game came to end on Friday, with the Mercury taking possession down one point with 6.8 seconds left on the clock, then Taurasi hitting a go-ahead 3-pointer ... with 6.8 seconds still left on the clock:

After a lengthy review, officials ruled there were 1.1 seconds remaining after Taurasi's shot, with the game eventually ending in a 77-75 Mercury win.

Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve was understandably unhappy after the game, telling reporters that an official had accidentally stopped the clock by breathing into a whistle and painting the "review" as a group of officials messing around with a stopwatch.

Reeve pointedly noted that such a mishap would never happen in the NBA (typically, NBA officials stop play as soon as they realize the clock isn't working).

The clock error provided an awkward footnote for what should have been the WNBA's highlight of the night (or co-highlight of the night, alongside Sabrina Ionescu), with one of the greatest players in league history beating a contender to open its season.

On the bright side, the league at least found a way to subtly omit the error on its Twitter account:

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