Mercury's Natasha Cloud reveals poise after Game 1 loss to Lynx

09/23/2024 08:24 AM

The Phoenix Mercury’s Game 1 loss to the Minnesota Lynx, presented some silver linings for the three-time WNBA champions. Mercury point guard Natasha Cloud had quite the game. She posted 33 points, 10 assists, and six rebounds while shooting 14-for-23 and nailing four three-pointers.

A tightly contested stepback three by Lynx forward Bridget Carlton sealed the game for Minnesota. Regardless, the Mercury had a very solid final three quarters. Cloud explained after the game her resiliency to not let the big deficit distract her, and her teammates.

“That’s just my role as a point guard, and she (Celeste Taylor) is growing into that too,” Cloud said. “That’s just who we have to be every single night, whether we have it offensively or not, or whether we have it defensively or not. We have to be the poise on the floor at all times. When we started a little rough in the first quarter, I knew I could get to the basket and get downhill with the coverage that they were giving.”

What did Natasha Cloud provide for the Mercury in Game 1?

Cloud had 18 points at the end of the first half. As the Mercury trailed by as many as 23 points, Cloud helped get her team back in the game. She diced Minnesota’s game plan with a mix of slashing, shooting, playmaking, and relentless defense. Phoenix even led in the final few minutes of the fourth quarter. 

The Phoenix point guard also achieved quite the feat in Game 1. After Cloud made history with the Mercury in August, she continued that historic stretch. She became the first player in WNBA history to have consecutive playoff games with 30+ points and five or more assists. 

In 2023, Cloud went off in a two-game series against the New York Liberty. She averaged 18.5 points, 8.5 assists, seven rebounds, and two steals. She also shot 50% from beyond the arc. Since winning the 2019 WNBA Championship with the Washington Mystics, Cloud has embraced playoff basketball.

“I love playoff time,” Cloud said. “You play a 40-game season, you work your ass off to get into the playoffs, and this is what it’s all about. All the off-season hours that we put in, all the training camps, the ebbs and flows of the season, the injuries we play through, this is all what it’s for.

“When these game lights come on in the playoffs, I’m just extremely focused. I love going, I’m an underdog, so I love coming into these games that we’re just expected to lose, and just go out there and hoop.”

How can Mercury, and Natasha Cloud win in Game 2 vs Lynx?

The Mercury came in as the No. 7 seed and was tasked with facing the best offense in the WNBA. Regardless of their standing, they outscored the Lynx in the final two quarters. Still, it wasn’t enough. Phoenix experimented with a variety of defensive schemes. They mostly played a zone, and it didn’t work against the top three-point shooting team in the WNBA. Mercury head coach Nate Tibbetts described his defensive point of attack moving forward.

“We haven’t been as good defensively all year as we’ve wanted,” Tibbetts said. “So, we didn’t do that coming into the series but we were going to have to change some things up. We’re going have to be in coverage with our bigs. We’re going to have to try to play some zone and go into a switching package where we’re switching almost everything.

“Part of a series is changing it up, trying different things, and hopefully we found something in the second half with our switching.”

Can Natasha Cloud, and the Mercury increase their pace?

A huge chunk of the Mercury’s game plan is to play up-tempo. Not only that, but they love to play up-tempo on both sides of the ball. Once the second half opened, the defensive approach changed. Cloud led the way by switching on a variety of players. She went from guarding Courtney Williams, to Bridget Carlton, and playing post-defense against Napheesa Collier. 

Her relentless switching lingered on the entire Phoenix squad. After nearly every pick-and-roll, there was a switch. If there was a defensive mismatch (Diana Taurasi on Napheesa Collier), Mercury players would immediately switch back. As a result, it sped up the game. Although the Lynx plays with pace, they prefer to do it in the half-court. Cloud broke down what happens when the Mercury finds their pace.

“I think we struggled through the year to find our pace and to play fast,” Cloud said. “When we have to go against one of the best defenses in the W, you have to get them out of the half-court, pack the paint, and be able to rotate and do what they do. For us, pace is really important because it puts them in motion.

“It gets them to shift in their defense and it makes them have to play us one-on-one without help. Pace is a huge emphasis for us and even just like allowing players like Kah, DT, and C to get going early with just easy buckets where they don’t have secondary and third defenders coming in to help.”

The Mercury will take on the Lynx on Wednesday in Game 2 of the WNBA playoffs. With Cloud’s poise, and defensive pressure, Phoenix has a shot of taking down the No. 2 seed and sending the series back to the Valley for a game 3.

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