♦️ Layup Lines: Aces win 8th straight

Happy Wednesday and welcome back to Layup Lines, your quick recap of what’s going on in the WNBA. How is it almost September?

This 478 word newsletter should take about 2 minutes to read.

Big nights for New York, Seattle

• It took four tries, but the Liberty finally knocked off the Lynx in 2025 with a convincing win last night. It’s really hard to evaluate these last four games as a potential Finals rematch when both teams have been missing their top player, but getting a 7-game series of these two teams would be incredible. Just listen to this crowd!

  • In the night’s other four games, everything broke right for the Storm. Sure, they barely beat a terrible Chicago team buoyed by the return of Angel Reese, but the 7th place Valkyries and 10th place Mystics both lost.

    • I was also impressed with Connecticut (eliminated from playoffs but still busting ass every night), Phoenix (five players in double-digits) and, of course, the Aces. After eight wins in a row, a team that looked old, slow and playing out the string before the All-Star break is now just .5 games behind the Liberty for the league’s second-best record.

      • Highlights: 2 minutes of A’ja Wilson dominating.

Today’s game

• After going, you guessed it, 1-2 last night, we have a truly pathetic $9.46 of our initial $1,000 budget remaining to wager.

  • There’s only one game on tonight — Dallas @ Los Angeles (10:00pm ET, League Pass). The Wings are now missing both Arike Ogunbowale and Li Yueru with injuries and are down to one healthy center, while the Sparks’ hot streak has cooled and they’ve lost three of their last five. Expect a ton of points between two of the worst defensive teams in the league.

    • I have to stop slowly bleeding out with bingo hall level bets in public, so we’re going to swing for the fences one more time with every sportsbook’s favorite way to take your money — the same game parlay.

      • Bet: Sparks -2.5, total points scored over 183, Cameron Brink 5+ rebounds (+395): $9.46 to win $37.36.

Pic to go

• A reminder of how deep the talent is in the W: Veronica Burton was Dallas’ No. 7 overall pick in 2022, averaged 15 or less minutes per game for three seasons, got cut once, then was selected by the Valkyries in the expansion draft and is now one of the favorites to win this year’s Most Improved Player award.

  • She’s averaging almost 12 points and five assists per game and last night, became the first player in league history to finish with 24 points, 14 assists and 0 turnovers in a game.

Layup Lines is written 100% by a human being with visual assistance from AI tools. I very much appreciate you reading and will see you back here tomorrow.

— Everett Cook, Founder & Editor