Layup Lines: Clark struggles, Fever still win

Happy Saturday and welcome back to Layup Lines, your quick recap of what’s going on in the WNBA. Have a great one out there — today is your day.

This 490 word newsletter should take about 2 minutes to read.

Looking at last night

• We went 0-1 with our bets yesterday by correctly predicting Caitlin Clark would not break out of her slump (12 points, 1-7 on 3-pointers), but incorrectly thinking Atlanta would use that to win.

  • The Dream are so hard to handicap. They have three dynamic guards who can all score 30 but never do so in the same game. They start a 6-foot-3 power forward and a 6-foot-9 center but allowed guard Sophie Cunningham to tie her career high in rebounds last night (10). They’re one of the deepest teams in the league but also rarely beat the other good teams.

    • A 12-8 record is just not good enough!

  • I also don’t want to discount the Fever and Kelsey Mitchell, who scored 25 last night in the win.

• In the other game, the Storm got lukewarm revenge on the Sun for their bad loss earlier in the week by winning without covering.

Today’s games

• We’re 54-50 this season with a $1.25 profit. That’s not a typo. Spend it wisely.

• There are two games on national TV today — Minnesota @ Chicago (1:00pm ET, ABC) and Golden State @ Las Vegas (4:00pm, CBS).

• Memorizers of yesterday’s newsletter will know that we did some reader polling on the first game of the day. Those who voted overwhelmingly wanted to take Minnesota. I like you, and you like the Lynx, but this line moved from -9.5 to -12.5 overnight. For it being Minnesota’s third game in four days, and with Angel Reese on a tear, that’s just too many points.

  • Chicago +12.5, $50 to win $44.

• We took Golden State to win a day early in case A’ja Wilson doesn’t play. That line is going to scream toward the Valks if she’s officially ruled out for the Aces, and that’s the bet.

  • Bet: Golden State to win (moneyline), $50 to win $45.

Good reads

• Golden State now favored to accomplish a WNBA first (The Athletic)

• Midseason roster moves deep dive (Her Hoop Stats)

• Awards tracker (ESPN)

Graphic to go

• Congrats to the legend Tina Charles, who joined Diana Taurasi last night as the only WNBA players to score 8,000+ career points.

  • If you’re curious, the 36-year-old Charles would need to play probably five more full seasons to top Taurasi’s record of 10,646.

Layup Lines is written 100% by human beings with visual assistance from AI tools. We very much appreciate you reading. If you’re still here, you must like this newsletter enough to share it with a friend. We’ll see you back here tomorrow.

— Everett Cook, Founder & Editor