Layup Lines: California Fever

Thursday brings a doubleheader on Prime Video with two top offenses.

Author

Everett Cook
June 19, 2025

Happy Thursday and welcome back to Layup Lines, your quick recap of what’s going on in the WNBA.

  • I was impressed by Connecticut keeping it much closer than expected against Phoenix last night even though it resulted in us going 0-1 with our bets (and a push on the under, the first in Layup Lines history!)

This 402 word newsletter should take less than 2 minutes to read.

Today’s games

  • We’re 36-30 this season with a $229 profit off an initial $1,000 budget.

  • There are two fun games today, both on Prime Video — Phoenix @ New York (7pm ET) and Indiana @ Golden State (10pm ET).

    • Phoenix is without Kahleah Copper (injury management), on the second night of a back-to-back and is 1-4 against teams with winning records.

      • Bet: Liberty -11.5, $50 to win $46.

    • This matchup would’ve been a lot saucier before the Valkyries lost most of their starters to EuroBasket obligations, but tickets for Caitlin Clark’s first game at the Chase Center are still $100+ upper deck and $250+ in the lower bowl. Add in Fever coach Stephanie White being out tonight for personal reasons to an electric crowd and the game should be low scoring.

      • Bet: Under 164.5 total points scored, $100 to win $91.

Take of the day

  • In Jan. 2023, friend of the program and reader Neal R. texted me from a DePaul women’s basketball game about a sophomore who was averaging 25 points per game. He wrote, “Aneesah Morrow, keep an eye on her.”

  • Morrow later transferred to LSU and was then picked No. 7 overall by the Sun in this year’s WNBA Draft. Last night, she led the team with a career-high 16 points and 9 rebounds.

  • Job well done to ball-knowers Aneesah and Neal and another sign that this draft class is better than expected.

Good reads from around the league

Sponsored
High N Tight⚾ The Week in Baseball: The Good, the Bad, the Ugly—and the moments you can’t miss.

Picture of the day

To be a youth and playing on Angel Reese’s new public basketball courts in Chicago…

Courtesy of @Reese10Angel

Thanks for reading Layup Lines. You don’t need to bet for odds to be interesting, but if you do, please do so responsibly. We’ll see you back here tomorrow.

— Everett Cook, Founder & Editor