A championship team needs a sparkling addition to provide a different feel when chasing a repeat title.
Anyone can see and hear 10-year veteran and tenacious defender Natasha Cloud — the Liberty’s answer.
Cloud has had an immediate impact on the Liberty offense, which led to her first career Eastern Conference Player of the Week honor on Wednesday after averaging 18.7 points, 7.7 assists, 5.7 rebounds, 2.7 steals, and 1.3 blocks per game over the first three games.
That is the best start of her career and it speaks to how well the Liberty offense operates with the 33-year-old in it.
A skilled facilitator, Cloud’s passing has had a big impact on the Liberty, averaging 8.3 assists per game for an assist percentage of 41.8 across four games.
The 8.3 assists per game surpasses her previous career high of seven assists per game in 2022.
Cloud is also on track to chase down her 44.8 assist percentage, also achieved in 2022, while playing with the Mystics.
“She just needed to come to New York, that’s all,” Jonquel Jones said in the Liberty’s Player of the Week announcement video.
In the Liberty’s convincing 95-67 win over the Valkyries on Tuesday, Cloud recorded 10 assists — five of which went to Breanna Stewart, who she often found down low or up by the charity stripe for a right elbow jumper.
The performance gave her the No. 10 overall ranking on the WNBA’s all-time career assists list with 1,555.
“I wouldn’t say we have gotten that much practice time together,” Stewart said of Cloud after Tuesday’s victory. “I think our chemistry can only grow, but she has a great awareness of where people are. Especially Golden State, they’re in a zone a lot. So, to break the zone, you want to get the ball to the middle. Sometimes I’m sealing off a guard most of the time and Tash was able to lead me to where I wanted the ball.”
Cloud leads the Liberty in assists to help their 25.3 assist average that is just 0.2 behind the league-leading Lynx in that category.
The Liberty are off to a 4-0 start, tying their third-best undefeated start in franchise history from 2024.
In 1997, the Liberty started the season by going 7-0. In 2007, they went on a 5-0 opening run.
A soft schedule over the next five games gives the Liberty a shot to break the franchise record.
On Thursday, they will face the Valkyries again and their upcoming matchups include the Sun, Sky and two meetings with the Mystics until their second meeting with the Fever on June 14.
Nyara Sabally (right knee) is listed as questionable for Thursday.
