Natasha Cloud, Sabrina Ionescu lead Liberty to comeback win over Sparks

The Liberty talked this week about how good the vibes were with the team despite losing five of their past seven games.

But there was a moment Thursday night when a sliver of panic likely started to rear its ugly head.

The Liberty were down by double digits with under seven minutes left in the third quarter, and they looked all out of sorts up.

Shots weren’t falling.

Defensive miscues were happening.

The lowly Sparks looked comfortable.

Then, the Liberty flipped the switch and took off like a Formula 1 car.

The defending champion used a third-quarter surge to beat the Sparks, 89-79.

The Liberty ripped off a 27-6 run to turn an 11-point deficit into a 10-point lead by the fourth quarter.

The Liberty never allowed the Sparks back in.

Natasha Cloud and Sabrina Ionescu scored 11 and 10 points, respectively, in the third period. The Liberty collectively tied their season high points for a quarter with 32 while shooting 63 percent from the field and 71.4 percent from deep.

Cloud finished with a season-high 23 points and three 3-pointers.

She also had seven assists and four rebounds.

Breanna Stewart recorded her third double-double this season with 17 points and 14 rebounds. And Ionescu added 20 points, six assists and six rebounds as the Liberty improved to 12-5.

The result was a good one for the Liberty, but it doesn’t erase the way they played for most of the night, which is how a team with aspirations to win back-to-back titles should look nearing the midway point of the season.

Thursday’s game was a chance for the Liberty to be the bullies. Leonie Fiebich was back. Ionescu said the kink in her neck was gone.

More than 17,000 fans packed into Barclays Center to root for them. And the game was against the flailing Sparks, who are 11th in the league standings.

Finding that extra gear to close out the game in such a dominant fashion helped alleviate some worry.

Nevertheless, the Liberty can’t keep allowing opponents to build up leads and get comfortable, because the shots aren’t always going to fall the way they did on both sides of the floor toward the end Thursday.

The Liberty are at home for most of this month. This is the time to get their season back on track.

The way they closed out the Sparks was a good start. But they need to play better for the full 40 minutes.

The Liberty return to action Sunday against the Storm.