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- 🤯 Layup Lines: Dynasty
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Happy Saturday and welcome back to Layup Lines, your quick recap of what’s going on in the WNBA.
A wild, unpredictable 2025 season at least ended with a logical conclusion — the best player in the world taking home another title and another Finals MVP award.
This 496 word newsletter should take about 2 minutes to read.
🏆 Aces win third title in four years
Courtesy @LVAces
Las Vegas completed the greatest midseason comeback in league history last night by winning Game 4, 97-86, to sweep the Mercury. This team lost to the Lynx by 53 in early August before rocketing through the rest of the season by going 25-3. 25-3!
Their unbelievable second half of the season puts A’ja Wilson, Jackie Young, Chelsea Gray and Becky Hammon into the upper echelon of the basketball Pantheon.
Wilson finished off her incredible run by scoring 31 last night and averaging 28.5 points, 11.8 rebounds and 2 blockers per game to win her second Finals MVP award.
Because this is the WNBA, Game 4 wasn’t without some ref drama. Mercury coach Nate Tibbetts became the first coach to be ejected from a Finals game after two incredibly questionable technical fouls in the third quarter and Las Vegas shot 35 free throws to Phoenix’s 19.
The Aces undoubtedly outplayed the Mercury, so it’s still better than last year, but officiating has to be a major part of the upcoming CBA negotiations.
Courtesy @alexaphilippou
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🐐 More amazing A’ja stats
As the first WNBA player to ever win MVP, DPOY and Finals MVP in the same year, there’s an argument to be made that Wilson just finished the greatest individual season in league history.
When you consider that in 79 NBA seasons, only Hakeem Olajuwon has done that, it’s one of the best seasons in basketball history.
Courtesy @BleacherReport
🏅 All-WNBA teams named
This is the only postseason award I can present without any major counterarguments.
If I had to dig for something, maybe Kelsey Plum or Dearica Hamby over Sabrina Ionescu?
Courtesy @wnba
😢 Emotions to go
Truth time — I’m sad the season is over! I started this newsletter after a few years of successfully handicapping W games, failed spectacularly at that by going 86-103 in the regular season, but still found a loyal audience over 115 of these newsletters despite the losses.
The fun news? We went 2-0 last night to finish the playoffs 15-14. Not quite a 25-3 comeback but I will certainly take finishing above .500.
I’ll send out another newsletter next week and then take some time off to figure out what comes next for Layup Lines. I really love writing this and hope it can continue in some form in the future.
So whether you’re a diehard or a new WNBA fan, I very much appreciate you reading and supporting all season — and I’ll keep you posted on what comes next.
— Everett Cook, Founder & Editor