The Mystics defeated the Liberty, 94-85 on Friday night. Natasha Cloud scored a career-high 26 points in the game. You can watch the highlights above from the WNBA’s YouTube channel.
Cloud was most impressive in the first half, as she scored 17 points. Fifteen of them in the second quarter alone as they helped Washington overcome an early 26-20 deficit.
Without Cloud’s heroics early on, Liberty forward Rebecca Allen may have won the title of #MysticsKiller of the night. Allen scored 13 points on 5-of-7 shooting in the second quarter, including 10 consecutive New York points to keep New York ahead at times.
But ultimately, Cloud and the Mystics won the battle. The Mystics’ shooting as a team was actually worse than New York’s in the second half, 41.9 percent to 45.5 percent. But Washington made 16-of-17 free throws while the Liberty just made 3-of-4 because they committed to getting toward the free throw line.
As for Allen? She was scoreless for the rest of the game. This team just doesn’t want to entertain the possibility of a #MysticsKiller moment, so kudos to them!
Washington was also great taking care of the basketball as they dished 22 total assists while they only committed 9 total turnovers. The Liberty didn’t do as well with either.
But back to Cloud, she wasn’t just picking apart New York York with threes. She also took advantage of driving to the basket against smaller guards which gave her more buckets. Here’s her shot chart again.
Here's Natasha Cloud's shot chart vs. the Liberty! pic.twitter.com/UKU7lxp7e1
— BF_Mystics (@BF_mystics) June 8, 2019
It’s unrealistic to expect Cloud or any Mystics player to score 26 every game. That said, keep it up Tasha!