💸 Layup Lines: Clark card breaks record

Happy Friday and welcome back to Layup Lines, your quick recap of what’s going on in the WNBA. Remember that autographed Caitlin Clark card we wrote about yesterday? It sold for $660k last night, almost doubling the record also set by Clark for the most expensive women’s sports card ever.

• Hot take: it doesn’t make sense for a card to be worth eight times more than the entire annual salary of the person who signed it ($78,066 this season).

This 492 word newsletter should take about 2 minutes to read.

😱 Indiana’s supernatural win

• Maybe it was the help of their alternate Stranger Things jerseys, but the Fever traded punches with the Aces all night and have now beaten Las Vegas twice in a row for the first time in franchise history.

  • Indiana’s Natasha Howard and Aliyah Boston both picked up double-doubles and the team made 11 of 23 3-pointers. Then again, the Aces’ guards are so slow that they need A’ja Wilson to score 30+ every night to even have a chance — and she scored 20 yesterday.

• The other two games of the night were blowouts, as the Sparks scored over 100 points for the first time this season to beat the Sun by 15 and the Storm nearly relegated the Angel Reese-less Sky.

  • Chicago has lost its last 4 games by a combined 111 points. Afterwards, guard Rachel Banham said, “This is gross basketball and we know that," per reporter Karli Bell. No arguments, Rachel!

📺 Today’s games

• We’re 61-65 this season and have $472 of our initial $1,000 budget remaining to wager. I’m so cold that going 1-2 yesterday felt like a minor victory, which is just simply not where you want to be.

• There are three games tonight, all on ION — Phoenix @ New York (7:30pm ET), Las Vegas @ Minnesota (7:30pm) and Dallas @ Golden State (10:00pm).

  • The Mercury’s big four are playing together for just the second time this season after looking discombobulated on Wednesday.

    • Bet: Phoenix / New York under 171 total points scored, $50 to win $44.

  • Minnesota’s only flaw might be a lack of size defensively against true centers. A’ja should feast.

    • Bet: A’ja Wilson over 21.5 points scored, $50 to win $47.

  • The Valkyries lost leading scorer and All-Star Kayla Thornton for the rest of the season due to a knee injury in practice this week and should have to slow it down.

    • Bet: Golden State / Dallas under 163, $50 to win $45.

1️⃣9️⃣ Graphic to go

• 2025 No. 2 overall pick Dominique Malonga is still just 19 years old, so her 14 points and 10 rebounds last night made her the youngest player to ever record a double-double.

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

— Everett Cook, Founder & Editor