Natasha Cloud Drops a Career-High 35 as Sky Survive Liberty Rally, 93-86

CHICAGO — Natasha Cloud picked the right night to have the best scoring game of her career. With the Liberty chasing a 13-point deficit and finally getting their nose in front, Cloud answered with a free-throw-line jumper, a free-throw clinic and a career-high 35 points. The Chicago Sky beat New York 93-86 at Wintrust Arena, and a team that had dropped both earlier meetings by a single point got to feel what the other side looks like.

The Sky (14-22) had lost both earlier meetings with the Liberty this season by exactly one point. Tuesday night, they made sure there was no room for a third heartbreaker. New York (22-15) fought back from a double-digit hole and briefly grabbed the lead in the fourth quarter, only to watch Chicago close the game on a 10-2 run built on Cloud and Kamilla Cardoso.

An Even First, Then a Chicago Burst

The opening quarter was a pure feeling-out round. Sydney Taylor and Azura Stevens traded buckets with Breanna Stewart and Jonquel Jones, and the first 10 minutes ended 24-24, with Stevens converting a layup and a free throw in the final seven seconds to square it.

Early in that quarter, the Liberty got bad news. Jones appeared to hurt her ankle with 3:30 left in the first, and she was out for the majority of the game. She finished with five points in six minutes. That is not a small thing for any team, and the Liberty would spend the rest of the night trying to make up for it.

The second quarter belonged to Chicago. The Sky outscored New York 30-19 in the period and went to the locker room up 54-43, and Cloud was the one who lit the match. She hit three 3-pointers in the quarter, and one of them, with 38.8 seconds left, pushed Chicago's lead to nine. Courtney Vandersloot added a 3-pointer of her own during the stretch, DiJonai Carrington added a layup before the break, and Cardoso turned a couple of possessions into points around the basket.

Liberty Make Their Move

New York did not fold. The Liberty came out of the break and chipped at it, and Rebecca Allen was the engine. Allen scored all 14 of her points in the second half, including three 3-pointers in the third quarter that sliced a 13-point Sky lead down to five. Sabrina Ionescu kept finding teammates and finished with 18 points, seven rebounds and 12 assists, and Stewart led the Liberty with 22.

Chicago still led 74-66 after three. In the fourth, the Liberty pushed again. Han Xu's hook shot to open the quarter got the deficit down to six, and two Allen layups made it 74-72. Ionescu's 3-pointer at the 5:45 mark cut it to 76-75, and Stewart's 3-pointer with 4:32 left pulled New York within 79-78.

And then Marine Johannes did it. With 2:09 left, Johannes sank a 3-pointer to give New York an 84-83 lead, its first since it was 24-23 in the opening quarter. It was the Liberty's moment, and the Sky had every reason to wonder if this was going to be the third one-point heartbreak.

The Turning Point

It was not. Chicago's response was to hand the ball to Cloud and trust her. She got to the line, split a pair to tie it at 84-84, then hit a jumper from the free-throw line with 1:17 left to put the Sky ahead 86-84. That shot matched her previous career high of 31 points.

The Liberty missed a 3-pointer on the next trip. Cardoso then made a basket in the lane with 39.9 seconds left to make it 88-84. New York did not score again until Stewart's basket with 7.1 seconds remaining, by which point it was too late. In the last 20 seconds, Cloud went a perfect 4-for-4 at the free-throw line to seal it.

"Perfect" is a fair word for the final stretch. The Liberty went just over two minutes without a point while the Sky pulled away, and that was the game.

Key Performances

Cloud finished with 35 points, nine rebounds and six assists. She shot 13-for-21 from the field, 4-for-8 from three and 5-for-6 at the line. It was her career high, and it came against a Liberty team that had beaten Chicago in both earlier meetings.

Cardoso had 17 points and 12 rebounds, six of them on the offensive glass. Stevens added 12 points and seven rebounds, and Taylor chipped in nine. Vandersloot had eight points and six assists, and Gabriela Jaquez's four points came on a layup and a jumper early in the second-quarter run.

For New York, Stewart's 22 came on 8-of-13 shooting. Ionescu's 12 assists were a game high, and Han scored 12 off the bench. But the Liberty shot 25 percent from three, going 9-for-36, and committed 15 turnovers.

Stats That Matter

The Sky won the rebounding battle 44-35 and had a 14-7 edge on the offensive glass. That is a big reason they were able to stay ahead despite shooting just 44.3 percent from the field and 25 percent from three, which happened to be the exact same three-point percentage as the Liberty.

Chicago turned the ball over 13 times to New York's 15, and the Sky got to the line more, making 16 of 22 free throws compared with 11 of 13 for the Liberty. The game had 11 lead changes and seven ties, and the crowd of 7,099 got its money's worth.

What It Means

For the Sky, a 14-22 record is not the whole story of a team that lost its first two games against New York by a single point each. This was a signature win, one that came against the Liberty and answered those near-misses. Cloud's career night gave them something to hold onto, and Cardoso's 12 rebounds showed what the frontcourt can do when it's rolling.

For the Liberty, the loss is a reminder of how thin a margin there is. They were without Jones for most of the game, and a few possessions in the final two minutes went the wrong way. Chicago hosts Golden State on Friday, and New York hosts Indiana on Saturday.

The Close

Every team in this league has a game where one player decides to take over. Cloud's was Tuesday night, and she did it at the exact moment the Liberty thought they had it. Thirty-five points, the last 20 seconds at the line, no fear. That is how you remember a night in August.

Photo Credit: Ariana Golemis/Undrafted