The Guru’s WNBA Roundup: New York WNBA Record Long Ball Night Leads to Rout in Chicago While Indiana Gets Quick Revenge in Atlanta Despite Clark 0-5 Launching 3s

By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru

Newcomer Natasha Cloud again powered the WNBA defending champion New York Liberty (2-0) to a second straight victory Thursday night romping on the road 99-74 over the Chicago Sky (0-2) in Wintrust Arena scoring 18 points and connecting on four of a league regular season game record 19 three-pointers.

Cloud’s performance as an alum of Saint Joseph’s in Philadelphia was one of two reasons for celebration on Hawk Hill, the other coming earlier in the day with Army announcing the hire of longtime assistant and former star Katie Kuester as the new head coach of the Black Knights in the Patriot League.

Kuester’s father John played at North Carolina and coached the NBA Detroit Pistons for two seasons. Cloud and Kuester just missed being teammates, Kuester graduating in 2011, while Cloud, a native of Broomall who played at Cardinal O’Hara, transferred from Maryland back home to her stomping grounds right after Kuester’s departure and led Saint Joseph’s to the Atlantic 10 title the next season.

In the only other WNBA game Thursday night, Indiana (2-1) and Caitlin Clark avenged Tuesday’s one-point loss at home to Atlanta (1-2) beating the Dream 81-76 as Natasha Howard scored 26 points with seven rebounds.

The notoriety of Clark continued the trend of WNBA teams moving Fever visits to larger arenas, the host Dream saw a crowd of 17,044 fill State Farm Arena, the home of the NBA team in Georgia.

The two games were the first for Indiana and Chicago since the Fever blasted the Sky in Saturday’s opener in which Clark’s controversial assessed Flagrant 1 foul on longtime rival Angel Reese has had social media on fire ever since.

Oddly, each had personal low points Thursday in their respective contests.

Though Reese grabbed 12 rebounds on New York, the double double ace was 0-7 from within 10 feet, tying the most blanks in the WNBA in the last 10 years.

Overall, the former LSU star who initially played at Maryland was 0-8 with two points, the first time since 2021 in her collegiate and young pro career she failed to connect from the field. That snapped a streak of 136 games dating to 0-6 at Maryland when the Terrapins were felled in the Sweet 16 at Texas.

Clark, the reigning rookie of the year coming off her third triple double Saturday who became the Steph Curry of women’s basketball, launching logo threes at Iowa on the way to the NCAA all-time scoring record, matched Reese in shooting futility going 0-5 in attempted 3-pointers. That long-range futility snapped a 140-game streak of nailing at least one from beyond the arc over a span of WNBA regular season and playoff games and most of her career with the Hawkeyes.

She was last stopped from long distance on Jan. 13, 2022, going 0-6 against Purdue as a sophomore.

Back in Chicago where, unlike Clark, New York had a long-ball party, eight of nine Liberty players attempting from deep connected.

The visitors beat the previous regular season record by one, shooting 19-34 for 56 percent in towering over the Sky. The Las Vegas Aces made 23 in a 2022 playoff game.

Cloud, who came to New York in a trade after a short offseason stay in Connecticut after being dealt by Phoenix, was 4-5 in her 3-point attempts and dealt eight assists.

Reserve Kennedy Burke was perfect in four deep attempts and finished with 17 points, while Sabrina Ionescu bounced back from her scoring slump in Saturday’s opener with 16 points, Breanna Stewart scored 12 points and Jonquel Jones was also in double figures with 11.

The Liberty were hot overall shooting 55 percent from the field and were 16-17 from the line.

“Every game we play, it’s going to be about us,” Cloud said. “We know we’re playing the Sky but it’s still going to be about us.

“Every game when we know it’s getting tight, we need to lock in a little bit more. In the second half we got back to who we are. Defensively, I felt I was all over the place today. I need to be locked in from the jump.”

Eight of Reese’s 12 boards were on the offensive glass but she also had five of the Sky’s 23 turnovers.

Rachel Banham scored 15 points for Chicago while Courtney Vandersloot, who returned to the Windy City in free agency this past winter, had 14 in her first appearance against her former team she helped lead to its first WNBA title in the franchise’s 29-year history.

New York is at Indiana Saturday at 1 p.m. on CBS while Chicago is at Los Angeles Sunday at 6 p.m.

Besides Natasha Howard’s big night for Indiana, Clark had 11 points and six helpers but went to the bench with Aliyah Boston earlier in the third quarter, each with four fouls.

Kelsey Mitchell scored 17 and her lone 3-pointer late in the game put Indiana ahead and the visitors then extended it on Clark’s feed to Boston.

Sophie Cunningham, previously at Phoenix, scored nine off the bench in her Fever debut, missing the first two with a sprained right ankle while reserve Lexie Hull scored 10.

Rhyne Howard had 24 points for Atlanta, Briona Jones scored 15 with 11 boards and Allisha Gray and rookie Te-Hina Paopao out of South Carolina each scored 11 points.

Besides Indiana hosting New York Saturday, Atlanta hosts Dallas and No. overall draft pick Paige Bueckers at 3 p.m. on CBSSN.

All four Friday games are on ION and League Pass.

Minnesota (3-0) hosts Connecticut (0-2) at 7;30 p.m., the next three each tip at 10 p.m. in the West on Eastern Time. Washington (2-1) is at Las Vegas (1-1), Expansion Golden State (1-1) is at Los Angeles (1-2) in its first road game, and Phoenix (2-0) is at Seattle (1-1).