The New York Liberty are off to a red-hot start in the 2025 WNBA season, blazing their way to a perfect 4-0 record and sending a clear message to the rest of the league. With headline-grabbing wins over Caitlin Clark’s buzzworthy Indiana Fever and one of the challengers, the Las Vegas Aces, the Liberty are looking like a team at a different level. After clinching their first WNBA championship last season in a hard-fought five-game series against the Minnesota Lynx, few believed they had room to improve, but somehow, they have.
Key to that next level has been the offseason acquisition of Natasha Cloud, who arrived via a trade with the Connecticut Sun in March 2025,. She has added a whole new dimension to an already well-oiled machine – like the perfect final touch, the garnish that completes a masterfully cooked meal. Her early season – averaging 18.7 points, 7.7 assists, 5.7 rebounds, 2.7 steals, and 1.3 blocks per game over the first three games – have finally earned her the first career Eastern Conference Player of the Week accolade – her first in ten years. The numbers also include the stat line of 16 points, 2 blocks, 5 steals and 6 assists in a closely fought 90-88 win over Caitlin Clark’s Indiana Fever. So what went down?
Cloud pulled off a clutch steal in the final moments when Clark could have won the game with a three but Cloud was too quick to get her off the ball. That play has been the subject of controversy, as Clark immediately complained that Cloud’s play was illegal. As soon as the game ended, Clark approached the referee and appeared to say, “You’ve got to be kidding me. … Are you serious?” Clark was briefly joined by teammate Sophie Cunningham in expressing frustration with the no-call. What added fuel to the fire was the referee’s apparent lack of acknowledgment. He didn’t even look in their direction, a gesture that some interpreted as a silent admission of doubt or discomfort.
The ball was inbounded to Clark, who attempted to drive toward the basket. Cloud made contact, and Clark appeared to try to draw a foul, but no whistle came. The ball slipped away as time expired, sealing the Liberty’s win. If that was called as a foul, Fever could have even won the game from there. And Cloud’s first player of the week would have been in doubt, as that clutch play was a very big part of the reason she received this honor, as many others have put up performances that could be deemed worthy.
In her own team, Jonquel Jones dropped a huge performance against Fever, being one of the main reasons they were able to come back from a deficit. She has 50 points and 29 rebounds in the last three games. Then there’s Alisha Gray dominating with the Dream, dropping two performances with 25+ points, 5+ assists and rebounds. But at the end of the day, its in the books: Cloud successfully stopped one of the best scorers in the league at the most important point in the game. She was a menace throughout that game, as Clark had 10 turnovers, largely because of Cloud.
Cloud later explained how she planned that steal. “I knew they [were] obviously going to go to Caitlin. I knew that it was going to be, ‘you gotta get your big dog pants on right now,’” Cloud said while flexing. “So the way that they set up, I knew that she was gonna set a cross screen. I knew that Coach White was hoping that I bumped on that cross screen to allow her to get open on the down screen.”
“I knew my help was on the backside, so I didn’t bump, I stop-locked her so she couldn’t come off so easily,” Cloud continued. “I knew she was going to go left, so as soon as she brought that ball up, I just poked it out.” As Clark enters her second season, people now know her go-to moves, so she will need to continuously change it up to keep the opponents guessing. Because of her overwhelming impact, the opponents have studied every aspect of her game and have made plans to stop her. Before Cloud, the Dream prevented her from doing her thing when she failed to score a three-pointer against them. Even after so much work from the Dream, she still dropped 11 points and 6 assists against them.
Liberty celebrate Cloud’s Player of week win
The vibes were electric in New York as the Liberty threw a mini locker-room celebration for Cloud’s first-ever Eastern Conference Player of the Week nod. Coach Sandy Brondello gathered the team and just mentioned that she has a video to show them without mentioning Cloud’s achievement.
The video turned out to be a compilation of Cloud’s best moments and in the end it was revealed that she had won the Eastern Conference Player of the week and the squad erupted in cheers. Laughter, applause, and some well-deserved flexing filled the room as Cloud soaked in her flowers. Brondello was clearly stunned this was Cloud’s first Player of the Week award.
She said,” it is unbelievable, I didn’t know this. It’s her first one ever. Is it?” And Cloud replied with a yes. Jonquel Jones remarked, “She just needed to come to NY, that’s all.”
“She just needed to come to NY, that’s all” – @jus242
WORDDD Give @T_Cloud4 her THINGS pic.twitter.com/0Rst334Ntk
— New York Liberty (@nyliberty) May 28, 2025
This was not Cloud’s only achievement, as she reached 2,500 career points with a layup in the third quarter of the game against Fever and tied Skylar Diggins for No. 10 on the WNBA’s all-time career assists leaderboard with six assists in the same game.
It seems she is peaking at the right time for New York, as the 5-10 veteran guard and the 2019 WNBA Champion has 15.3 points, 8.3 assists and 2.3 steals per game, which is a career high in every one of those metrics. If she keeps up this form, few will be able to touch the New York Liberty.
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