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Natasha Cloud · Within the WNBA’s expansive history, there stands a select number of players who, even after impressive regular-season runs, flip the switch to entirely different levels when postseason time rolls around. As supported by both the eye test and the year-to-year box scores, Natasha Cloud has long qualified as one of those talents. A subtle master in the art of working the pick-and-roll to sift out a needed scoring angle, Cloud utilizes her gifts in playmaker mode, speeding through the paint following a double drag screen. Visualizing a teammate in her peripheral with the Minnesota Lynx quickly collapsing in, Cloud uncorks a leaping, spinning, no-look dime over her shoulder, gift-wrapping a perfectly-placed, highlight dime to a cutting teammate. The pass, alongside Cloud’s other heroics on September 22, 2024, helped the Phoenix Mercury continually cut into a once-sizeable deficit. Breathtaking, even in the loss, Cloud did the work of a star, offering 33 points (on 14-of-23 shooting), six rebounds, 10 assists, one steal, one block, and four 3-pointers. For Cloud, it stamped her into the WNBA’s record books as both the first-ever player with a 30-point, five-assist tally in back-to-back postseason encounters, and its second to record a 30-point, 10-assist playoff game. · State of Mint