💪 Layup Lines: Griner's big night

Happy Thursday and welcome back to Layup Lines, your quick recap of what’s going on in the WNBA. After getting Phoenix - Atlanta entirely wrong last night to stay ice cold, I’m looking at the clouds and contemplating a full Costanza.

This 482 word newsletter should take about 2 minutes to read.

🅰️ Dream pull off upset

• Atlanta being just seven point underdogs yesterday should’ve been a sign something fishy was up, as the Dream are still without Rhyne Howard and were playing their second road game in 24 hours against the fully loaded and rested Mercury.

  • Not only did they score 90 and pull off the upset, but they did it without being over-reliant on the 3-pointer. When Griner and Allisha Gray are both cooking inside, Atlanta feels dangerous and a lot less one-dimensional.

• Hard to find big takeaways for Phoenix, as the Mercury’s top 4 played together for the first time last night and it’s hard to win shooting 38% from the floor.

📺 Today’s games

• We’re 60-63 this season and have $527 of our initial $1,000 budget remaining to wager.

• There are three games today — Los Angeles @ Connecticut (7:00pm ET, League Pass), Las Vegas @ Indiana (7:00pm, Prime Video) and Seattle @ Chicago (8:30pm, League Pass). Look, I’m either going to bet my way out of this or completely embarrass myself in public. The only way to know is to go through the tunnel.

  • Marina Mabrey is probable and the Sun should be well rested after not sending anyone to the All-Star game.

    • Bet: Sun +6, $50 to win $44.

  • The Fever have been pretty bad on defense recently without Caitlin Clark and A’ja Wilson could score 1/5 of these points herself.

    • Bet: Las Vegas / Indiana over 165 total points scored, $50 to win $46.

  • The Storm are coming off an embarrassing home loss to Dallas and get Skylar Diggins back against a Sky team that might be the worst in the league when Angel Reese doesn’t play (and she missed shootaround today with a back injury).

    • Bet: Seattle / Chicago under 155.5, $50 to win $45.

📰 Good reads

• What to know about WNBA CBA negotiations (The Athletic)

• How the Valkyries have exceeded expectations — even their own (ESPN)

• Rookie Round-Up (Her Hoop Stats)

💰 Card to go

• The Caitlin Clark card that some predict will set the new record for the most expensive women’s sports card ever is up to $220,000 in auction.

  • Depending on how long extended bidding takes, we could know by tonight if that breaks her own record of $366,000 set for an autographed Gold Panini Prizm 1/1 in March.

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