Liberty’s Natasha Cloud rails against refs after tech that moves her one from ban

The Liberty heard significantly more whistles in their favor Tuesday in their first win against the Lynx in four tries this season.

Minnesota made 14 trips to the free throw line against the Liberty’s 18, proving to be more of a fair fight than the previous game.

But that doesn’t mean the officials are all in the Libs’ good graces, especially Natasha Cloud. 

The backcourt veteran received what she thought was her fifth technical foul during the third quarter as the Liberty led 52-39.

Nevertheless, it’s recorded as her sixth, putting Cloud only just away from receiving a one-game suspension.

It came after Jonquel Jones was called for an offensive foul and Cloud believes she didn’t say anything to warrant it.

“I didn’t say anything. I literally said ‘Move her knee, it’s displacing her,’ and I got a technical,” Cloud said following the 85-75 win at Barclays Center. “So I think that we just need to have a real accountability with our refs as well like what it means to be soft in the middle of the game. I didn’t say a cuss. I didn’t come at him. I didn’t aggressively approach him. I just said ‘Her knee has to move’ while I’m demonstrating. I don’t think that’s disrespect to the game. It’s disrespect to JJ. The amount of times she gets beaten up under the f–king post. It’s not a secret to anyone. I know tonight we got some foul calls. But 33-8 in our last game is asinine.”

“I always want her to be aggressive. There is a time and place,” coach Sandy Brondello said. “I just had to remind her, ‘You got one tech, don’t get another one.’ She apologized and sometimes it’s the heat of the moment. … I know when she is overemotional it’s time to take her out. That wasn’t too bad. I knew she was fine.”

Cloud has the second-most technical fouls in the league this season behind Angel Reese (7). 

Last year, she tallied seven along with Diana Taurasi and Teaira McCowan in the regular season. In 2023, she was ranked 10th on the list with three. 

The Liberty’s fiery guard has always played that way. She isn’t one to mince words and is loyal to her teammates. 

It can prove costly and Cloud is aware of that.

Nevertheless, she believes there needs to be some responsibility from the league’s officials.

“I think I really am asking for some accountability on the other end, too, because I played 10 years the same way,” she added. “I’m a fiery player. So I do think I should have some grace, especially with refs that I’ve played with for 10 years now and have given them, I’ve poured into them. I’ve deposited into them. … With some of our seasoned refs, do we have it in us to still be here or are we done? Because if you’re not going to continue to try to have relationships with us then I don’t really know what we’re doing here.” 

With nine games remaining in the regular season and an exceptionally tight playoff race to battle through, Cloud is on thin ice for the remainder of the regular season. Technicals reset for the playoffs.

Cloud is an advocate of increasing the technical-foul limit based on an expanded 44-game regular season. She suggested the limit should be somewhere in the 11-12 range. 

“Seven isn’t the number anymore,” she said. “If we are adding more games in, then the technicals actually need to increase because we are at 35 games to the seven technicals.”