The Guru’s WNBA Weekend Roundup: Cloud Brings the Fireworks to New York’s Championship Celebratory Opening Win Against Las Vegas

By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru

NEW YORK – Yes, Virginia. There is such thing as love for Philly players up here in the home of a city whose pro teams draw equivalent ire by fans of those with squads from the City of Brotherly Love that compete in the same leagues.

In what can be claimed as a smash opening weekend in the 29th season of the WNBA, after a dazzling 15-minute pre-game ceremony Saturday afternoon presenting rings and raising the banner to the rafters celebrating the first championship of the charter New York Liberty here in Brooklyn’s Barclays Center, the sellout crowd of 17,344 spent the rest of the day quickly embracing Broomall native, as well as Cardinal O’Hara and Saint Joseph’s grad Natasha Cloud, the offseason addition via trade to replace a backcourt loss of Courtney Vandersloot, who returned to Chicago through free agency.

Behind Breanna Stewart’s 25 points, Cloud collected 22 points with nine assists and six boards, Jonquel Jones had 17 points and 10 boards, and off the bench Kennedy Burke scored 10 in the 92-78 win over Las Vegas.

A’Ja Wilson, arguably the league’s top player who is out of Dawn Staley’s South Carolina titans, scored 31 with 16 boards for the Aces, Jackie Young scored 16, Chelsea Gray scored 12, Dana Evans off the bench scored 10, but Jewel Lloyd, who came in a big offseason trade with the Seattle Storm, was held to five points.

New York eliminated Las Vegas in the semifinals last year after the Aces won their second straight title in 2023 beating the Liberty.

For those of us who have seen the WNBA from its start in the summer of 1997, Cloud’s energy, especially in rescuing the Liberty from a nearly blown double-digit lead in the fourth quarter, recalled the early era over in Madison Square Garden when Hall of Fame great Theresa Weatherspoon kept the arena rocking night after night.

By the way, less than 24 hours earlier over in Manhattan the “Nova Knicks” trio of Jalen Brunson, Mikal Bridges and Josh Hart led the NBA team to complete their stunning series dismantling of the champion Boston Celtics 4-2 and move on to their first Eastern finals in 25 years.

Though not part of the gritty five-game narrow series final victory over the Minnesota Lynx, spending the summer with the Phoenix Mercury and then landing briefly last winter on the Connecticut Sun before dealt here, Cloud’s appearance also made up for her enjoyment lost in Washington after the Mystics’ 2019 title when the parade was delayed to the spring to include all the players and then was cancelled when the COVID pandemic hit the nation.

“For me as an outsider, even watching them win last year and to see how big it was for the city,” Cloud said. “To win its first ever for an organization, for Stewie to come home (free agent several years ago from Seattle) and do it, those are all big things.

“JJ (the adopted daughter of Temple coach Diane Richardson), who has been going after it all these years, you can’t help but be happy for your teammates, right? And when you’re happy for your teammates and you celebrate them, I always feel like good karma’s going to come back around.

“I want them to embrace where their feet are, embrace these moments and then as soon as its over, we’ve got to go start our track for another one.”

Cloud, who said she always wanted to be with New York, has another weapon in her point guard role to feed in Sabrina Ionescu, who she played with in the new Unrivaled league in Miami last winter.

“This may be our first championship, but it won’t be our last,” Clara Wu Tsai, co-owner of New York and the NBA Brooklyn Nets with her husband Joseph, proclaimed during the ceremony.

On the weekend she was also quoted by Bloomberg saying, “We proved that when you invest in women, you can get a championship team, and you can sell out arenas and you can get a deeply engaged fan base and you can get a product on the floor that’s as competitive and good as anything you see in a men’s league.”

The 76ers and Comcast should take note in pursing an expansion team for Philadelphia.

The Tsais bought the Liberty after Knicks owner James L. Dolan, in an effort to dump the team, exiled the franchise for two summers to the shabby and tiny arena of the D-League squad up in White Plains.

 In Saturday’s game, New York jumped to a 14-point halftime lead.

 But Vegas began chipping away after the break and moved within a basket 66-64 early in the fourth quarter when Cloud nailed two consecutive shots from deep with a steal in the mix to get her new team in safe territory the rest of the way.

Of Stewart, Cloud said, “Yeah, I tried to recruit Stewie to Washington years ago, and she definitely told me no. I was a little bummed then.

“But in all seriousness, the elite level of play that Stewie plays at, and to do it as unselfish as she is, is one of the best feelings that you can have in your franchise player.”

New York makes its first road trip next heading to the Chicago Sky on Thursday at 8 p.m.

The Aces stay in the Northeast going to Connecticut Tuesday at 7 p.m.

Minnesota Completes Weekend Road Sweep by Winning at Los Angeles

Following Friday’s opening win at Dallas, the Lynx (2-0) continued to look like an early threat to get their fifth title just missed against the Liberty, winning 89-75 against the host Sparks (1-1) at Crypto.Com Arena, formerly the Staples Center, Sunday afternoon handing Los Angeles its first loss after Friday’s road win at the debut of the expansion Golden State Valkyries in San Francisco.

Former UConn star Napheesa Collier had another big outing, scoring 23 points, while Alanna Smith was 7-10 from the field for 18 points.

Courtney Williams scored 13 with 10 assists and Jessica Shepard also double doubled with 11 points and 10 rebounds.

The Sparks’ Azura Stevens scored 21, Dearica Hamby had 20 points and 10 boards, while Kelsey Plum, formerly with Las Vegas, scored 18 and dealt five assists.

Minnesota heads back to the Target Center Wednesday for a visit from Dallas and hometown native, Paige Bueckers, the overall No. 1 pick in last month’s draft out of NCAA champion UConn, while Los Angeles the same day is at Phoenix (1-0).

Dallas first hosts Seattle (0-1) in the WNBA’s sole game Monday at 8 p.m. on NBA-TV.

Washington Rallies for 2-0 Weekend Start by Winning at Connecticut

In Sunday’s other game, the Mystics, who lost their first 12 games last season, ruined the Sun’s season and home opener at the Mohegan Sun in Uncasville, winning 90-85.

Brittney Sykes followed up her big game in Friday’s home opener, scoring 27 while rookie Kiki Iriafen had 17 points, shooting 7-10 from the floor, and grabbed 14 boards.

Sykes was 11-13 at the line.

Rookie Sonia Citron out of Notre Dame and reserve Jade Melbourne each scored 15 points, while rookie Lucy Olsen, the 23rd overall pick in the second round out of Villanova and Iowa, was scoreless in two attempts playing 10 minutes off the bench.

The Mystics trailed 65-60 after three quarters but erupted for a 30-20 advantage in the fourth quarter.

Former UConn star Tina Charles, an overall number one pick and rookie of the year for the Sun in 2010 later dealt to her native New York and then played at Washington, among other stops and now back with Connecticut, scored 23 with 10 rebounds, Olivia Nelson-Ododa scored 18, while Marina Marbrey, Jacy Sheldon, and reserve Bria Hartley each scored 11.

Washington didn’t get its first lead until Stefanie Dolson’s long three-pointer put the Mystics up 75-74 with 5:38 left in regulation.

Nelson-Ododa then got it back for Connecticut but then Citron got a three-point play to get the Mystics ahead the rest of the way.

A crowd of 7,834 in the 10,000-capacity seating arena attended just off a week ago when reports revealed Sun ownership was exploring a sale and possible relocation.

“They’re smart for doing that,” ESPN women’s basketball analyst and former WNBA player Rebecca Lobo out of a Hall of Fame career out of UConn said last week during a network zoom event advancing the season.

The Sun jumped to a 14-2 lead at the outset of the game. They had a chance to tie near the end, but trailing 88-85, Mabrey missed a long three-point attempt and then Citron nailed two free throws to wrap it up with 2.1 seconds left in regulation.

Washington is at Golden State at 10 p.m. Wednesday while Connecticut on Tuesday as mentioned hosts Las Vegas at 7 p.m.

Clark Dazzles with a Triple Double in Indiana’s Rout of Chicago

Twelve months after bringing an accelerated surge of interest in the WNBA with her debut on a Fever team that needed more built around the NCAA’s all-time scoring leader out of Iowa, reigning rookie of the year Caitlin Clark started her sophomore round with a bang, netting a triple-double of 20 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists with a personal best four blocks as Indiana continued to dominate Chicago and second-year standout Angel Reese in a 93-58 victory before a sellout crowd of 17,274 at Gainbridge Arena in what was a second part of a national TV doubleheader after New York’s win broadcasted on ABC/ESPN+/Disney+.

The triple double was Clark’s third in her young pro career, tying retired Candace Parker’s entire career mark but a long way from Alyssa Thomas.

Former overall No. 1 pick Aliyah Boston out of South Carolina’s second NCAA title in 2022 had 19 points, 13 boards and five blocks, while Natasha Howard, part of a dynamic makeover that included the return of coach Stephanie White from Connecticut, scored 15.

DeWanna Bonner, a free-agent signee coming from Connecticut, scored seven and moved past Tina Thompson to third with 7,489 points on the WNBA all-time career scoring total.

Reese finished with 12 points and 17 rebounds while Ariel Atkins scored 11 in what was also the debut of Chicago coach Tyler Marsh coming from the staff of Las Vegas’ Becky Hammon.

After a rocky start for Indiana last summer and adjustment to the pros for Clark, Indiana got hot following the Olympic break and made the playoffs, losing to Connecticut in the first round.

In the offseason, Indiana revamped its front office and rebuilt the roster through free agency.

Now the Fever, who in the opener equaled the overall second largest win in team history, are considered as a legitimate title contender besides New York, Minnesota, and Las Vegas.

“In the offseason, they went ahead and answered all the questions,” ESPN analyst Rebecca Lobo said during last week’s teleconference.

The game, however, produced the one blot on the overall opening weekend, the latest in the Clark-Reese rivalry dating to Reese’s LSU knocking out Iowa in the 2023 championship and the Hawkeyes and Clark ousting the Tigers in the 2024 Elite Eight.

The drama began with a hard foul from Clark across Reese’s arm, jarring the ball loose and knocking Reese to the floor with 4:38 left in the third quarter.

Reese then jumped up to approach Clark, but Boston quickly stepped in as a peace maker between the two players as Clark was walking away from the incident.

A referee on the replay review upgraded Clark’s penalty to a flagrant 1 and also assessed technical fouls to Reese and Boston, the latter who didn’t learn of her assessment, according to reports, until after the game, the violation being leaving the bench.

Reese made one of two at the line and then Vandersloot scored on Chicago’s next possession before Indiana went on a 9-0 run the rest of the quarter and continued to roll the rest of the way.

White’s defensive mantra to the Fever in returning to Indiana where she coached an earlier title team and was part of Purdue’s NCAA championship, is “nothing easy.”

The crowd jumped on Reese the rest of the way and after reports of racists comments, Indiana and the WNBA with Chicago’s concurrence has quickly launched an investigation especially with the controversy soon after the league announced ahead of the openers a campaign “No Space for Hate.”

“The WNBA strongly condemns racism, hate, and discrimination in all forms — they have no place in our league or in society,” the league said in a statement Sunday. “We are aware of the allegations and are looking into the matter.”

As for the play, Clark said to ESPN sideline reporter Holly Rowe after the third quarter, “It’s just a good take foul.  Either Angel gets wide open two points, or we send them to the free throw line. Nothing malicious about it. It's just a good take foul. Every basketball player knows that.”

Clark said the same at Indiana’s postgame presser, adding “it’s up to their discretion” on the referee’s assessment.

The teams next meet June 7 in Chicago where the Sky had already moved the game from Wintrust Arena, the home of DePaul, to the larger NBA Bulls’ United Center.

Indiana next hosts Atlanta (0-1) at 7 p.m. Tuesday while Chicago hosts New York Thursday on League Pass while Tuesday’s game is also NBA TV.

Phoenix Tops Seattle

The other game on the weekend saw the revamped Mercury beat the Seattle Storm 81-59 at home in Phoenix Saturday night before a crowd of 10,623 at PHX Arena.

Ben Mendelowitz has a report in Vegas Insider https://www.vegasinsider.com/wnba/ showing the women’s pro league has outpaced the NBA attendance by 52 percent in the last decade.

The Mercury, whose longtime greats Diana Taurasi retired, and Brittany Griner went to Atlanta in free agency, got 27 points from Satou Sabally while Alyssa Thomas scored 29, both newcomers as Sabally came in a sign-and-trade deal and Thomas came likewise out of Connecticut.

The Mercury had eight newcomers, just short of nine when the franchise was a charter team newcomer with New York among the eight in 1997.

Former Notre Dame great Skyler Diggins, part of the WNBA’s “three-to-see” campaign that included the recently retired Elena Delle Donne, and Griner as the top rookies that year, shot 7-14 scoring 21 for Seattle while free-agent signee Nneka Ogwumike was 5-10 from the field for 12 points.

The rest of the storm, however, were reduced to a drizzle at 9-39 for 23 percent.

Phoenix had the game well in control at the half leading 41-30 and the differential reached 20 at 73-53 with 4:29 left in regulation in the final quarter.

During the weekend Griner with Atlanta said she wanted to stay in Phoenix until she retired but was told the team was going in a different direction.

Dominque Malonga, the 19-year-old overall No. 2 pick by Seattle in last month’s draft, scored two points in her 10-minute drbut.

Seattle is at Dallas at 8 p.m. on Monday night on NBA TV while the Mercury host Los Angeles at 10 p.m. Wednesday night.

All three of Wednesday’s games are on League Pass and Indiana’s game at Atlanta on Thursday at 7:30 is on Amazon Prime.

And that’s the report.

vegas insider