Finger-pointing has become somewhat of a recurring theme this WNBA season. On Tuesday night, the Dream pointed theirs at the W in the wake of the league’s scheduling fiasco surrounding Game 6 of their Finals series against the Golden State Valkyries.

A do-or-die Game 6 is set to take place on Thursday afternoon at 12:30 p.m. ET or, for the Valkyries’ home fans, 9:30 a.m. PT. As one can imagine, many people with standard 9-to-5 jobs will be working during those hours—for the West Coast crowd, likely enjoying their morning coffee. For a game that could deliver Golden State its first-ever championship in just the franchise’s second season of existence, for a game of this caliber on the national stage to take place on a workday afternoon, is, without a doubt, an unmitigated disaster for the league. There’s no sugar-coating that fact.

MORE: ‘Isn’t Really Pretty’: Valkyries Grind Their Way to Doorstep of WNBA Title

A few days before Game 6’s tip-off, the Dream penned a candid open letter to their fans after the WNBA made its bizarre scheduling decision. In the letter, the Dream explained that they tried to initiate conversations with the league earlier in the playoffs regarding their future Finals arena scheduling clashes, and also made clear that playing a midday game was not their ideal choice.

“This incredible run by our players has also made something else abundantly clear: the Atlanta Dream has earned the right to be taken seriously,” the letter read, after thanking the Dream fanbase. “Two months ago, when the WNBA finalized playoff dates and times, we raised concerns that the W Finals schedule conflicted with NBA games at State Farm Arena. As we moved through the playoffs, we reiterated those concerns. Our concerns did not receive the attention, nor the urgency that they deserved.

“Perhaps it was assumed that the Dream would not make it this far. Perhaps, our place in the Finals was not accounted for. Whatever the reason, the reality is that we are here. We earned our place in the Finals, and our city deserves the opportunity to show up for its team.

“Playing a midday game on a Thursday is not what we would have chosen and not what we fought for. And as much as we have great affection and nostalgia for Gateway Center Arena, we believed that our fans and the city wanted the opportunity to be a part of this historic series, and to see it played on a world-class stage.

“... We have built something special here, powered by our players, our fans, our partners, and a city that believes in what we are doing. We intend to keep building. We intend to keep winning. And we expect the opportunities, planning, and consideration afforded to us to reflect the level at which we compete.”

As the Dream’s letter suggests, this WNBA Finals scheduling debacle was completely avoidable. How did we get here, anyway?

Full timeline of WNBA Finals Game 6 scheduling fiasco in Atlanta

Two weeks ago, the situation was publicly brought up when the Dream had to iron out similar scheduling kinks for Games 3 and 4 of the series. Rather than secure Game 6’s logistical arrangements at the same time, the decision-makers in charge decided to kick the can down the road.

Looking back, this was an epically short-sighted move. The Valkyries evened up the series last Saturday to force a Game 6, which now put the Dream, the WNBA and all parties involved on the clock to book State Farm Arena for Thursday night (Oct. 29), the originally scheduled Finals date.

The arena was slated to host a Hawks game against the Cavaliers that night, and regardless of the occasion, kicking an NBA team out of its home arena less than a week prior to gameday just wasn’t feasible. There were too many moving parts (broadcast partners, ticket sales, team travel, etc.); things had already been set in motion. The optics of playing at their originally planned location, the 3,500-seat Gateway Center Arena in College Park, were also not good. In a last-minute scramble, the WNBA decided to split the baby, so to speak, and play a potential title-clinching Game 6 as a Thursday afternoon matinee. No one wins. The TV ratings will probably suffer, at least a bit. And no one comes away happy.

ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne revealed on The Ringer WNBA Show with Seerat Sohi that there was a real possibility of moving the Hawks-Cavs game at State Farm Arena from Thursday to Friday—had it been brought up earlier. Other options discussed behind closed doors included a Friday-Tuesday scheduling change: The Dream would host Game 6 on Friday night—four days after the Valks’ Game 5 win—and then, if needed, the series would return to Balhalla four nights later on Tuesday. But that didn’t end up panning out, and besides, the Valkyries’ faithful had long hyped up a potential Game 7 on Halloween, aptly christening their home arena as “Boohalla.”

How much blame does Cathy Engelbert, WNBA deserve?

A combination of procrastination and poor problem-solving made a farce of the league, turning what was once an inconvenient but solvable scheduling situation into runny egg on the W’s face. Which all begs the question: Who’s to blame? The Dream, in their open letter, pointed the finger at the WNBA and, perhaps by association, commissioner Cathy Engelbert. Here’s what Shelburne had to say:

“There’s like a blame pie, right?” Shelburne said. “It’s kind of everyone’s fault, some of this is also just the growing pains of being a new league, where you have owners of the Dream that are not the same owners of the Hawks who operate the arena, so they have to all get on the same page. The Hawks owners have been trying to do right by the Dream this whole time.”

“I think it falls on Cathy Engelbert, to me, to have gotten in front of this,” continued Shelburne. “A couple weeks ago, when we’re in the semifinals, or in that eight-day break [before the Finals]—it still would have been bad optics. It just wouldn’t have been this scrambled that takes away from Monday night’s game.”

To Shelburne’s point, it is truly a shame that this has become one of the most talked-about narratives heading into the climactic end of a thrilling and historic Finals series. Sadly, it also may not be that surprising, given Engelbert’s track record of being more reactive than proactive during her drama-filled tenure as commissioner (she intends to step down at the end of the calendar year). For as much as she has helped grow the league financially, negotiating a collective bargaining agreement last offseason to usher in a new and more lucrative era for the W’s players, she has historically struggled to get in front of things. The early rising heat from the Caitlin Clark-Angel Reese rivalry. The Sophie Cunningham mess. The WNBA’s chronic officiating pains.

Engelbert and the W’s lack of foresight to solve a complicated but fixable scheduling problem has hurt its product at the worst possible time, and unfortunately, the players and fans will suffer the most. It may not all fall on Engelbert’s shoulders, as Shelburne laid out, but as the head of the most valuable women’s sports league in the world, there’s an underlying expectation that she should know better, and should know how to stage a smooth-sailing Finals series.