☹️ Layup Lines: Another injured star

Happy Tuesday and welcome back to Layup Lines, your quick recap of what’s going on in the WNBA. I had the best weekend ever at my brother’s wedding and hope you are also feeling full.

This 491 word newsletter should take about 2 minutes to read.

👀 Five things that stood out from last weekend

1. The Connecticut Sun selling for $325M with a commitment to a practice facility is incredible news and the league shouldn’t get in the way of the new owner moving them to Boston. The Sun have never averaged over 10,000 fans per game in a season and who could forget the infamous birthday party incident? Relocation here is a good thing.

2. Las Vegas losing 111-58 to Minnesota on Saturday only to come back the next night and beat Golden State by 24 is a good summation of their up-and-down season.

3. A little surprised nobody could top what Minnesota sent to Dallas for DiJonai Carrington. She’s not a good shooter, but the Lynx just need her to bring A+ defense for 16 minutes a night for this to be worth it.

4. Even though Emma Meesseman looked good in her Liberty debut, this team is still really rough defensively without Breanna Stewart.

5. If not for Napheesa Collier’s ankle injury, the Lynx could’ve probably wrapped up the No. 1 overall seed by September. Now, we see how they weather the next few weeks.

Thanks to HubSpot for sponsoring this newsletter.

Want to get the most out of ChatGPT?

ChatGPT is a superpower if you know how to use it correctly.

Discover how HubSpot's guide to AI can elevate both your productivity and creativity to get more things done.

Learn to automate tasks, enhance decision-making, and foster innovation with the power of AI.

Download the free guide.

Today’s games

• We’re 69-73 this season and have $436 of our initial $1,000 budget remaining to wager.

• There are five games today and I’m definitely not mad four of them start after 8pm — we’ve got Dallas @ New York (7:00pm ET, NBA TV), Washington @ Chicago (8:00pm), Indiana @ Los Angeles (10:00pm, CBSSN), Connecticut @ Phoenix (10:00pm) and Minnesota @ Seattle (10:00pm). I like three of them:

  • Hard to pass on the over when the Wings and Liberty play, even if this is a lot of points.

    • Bet: New York / Dallas over 176.5 total points scored, $50 to win $46.

  • If Angel Reese doesn’t play, we auto bet the Sky’s opponent (this line was originally 8.5 but we moved it).

    • Bet: Washington -10.5, $50 to win $62.

  • I get that the Lynx don’t have their MVPhee, but this team loves to be the underdog and Seattle hasn’t beaten a good team in about a month.

    • Bet: Minnesota moneyline, $50 to win $57.

Take of the day

As we approach Thursday’s trade deadline, here are my 3 least favorite contracts:

• Myisha Hines-Allen, F, Dallas: $203k through 2025.

• Alysha Clark, F, Seattle: $185k through 2025.

• Kalani Brown, C, Phoenix: $128k through 2026.

Photo to go

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