🔥 Layup Lines: Last day of the regular season

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

• Programming note: During the playoffs, we’re going to send a newsletter every day there are games. See you back here bright and early Sunday!

This 447 word newsletter should take less than 2 minutes to read.

👀 Bracket gets set tonight

• The Dream easily handling the Sun for the second time in three days gives them sole possession of second place … for the time being. If the Aces can win their 16th straight game tonight, they will jump back to 2nd.

  • The other interesting dynamic at the top of the standings is that the Lynx can essentially choose who they want to play. Minnesota has Golden State tonight and with a win, would shove the Valkyries to 8th and play them in the first round. If the Lynx lose, they'll take on the Storm.

    • I’d probably rather play the Storm, but if you’ve got your eyes on a title, I’m not sure there’s any real difference. Will be curious to see how Minnesota handles this tonight.

• Phoenix and New York playing in the first round is going to be fun, otherwise, here’s a great ESPN breakdown on what’s at stake tonight for determining the other three matchups.

• And I will make picks for the playoffs, but I’ve donated enough money to sportsbooks for one regular season and don’t have a read on who plays hard tonight and who coasts.

  

  Courtesy ESPN

📅 Sunday’s slate

• We don’t know the matchups, but we do know that the playoffs start Sunday with four games — 1:00pm ET (ESPN), 3:00pm (ABC), 5:00pm (ESPN) and 10:00pm (ESPN).

  • Though the Venn diagram of NFL and WNBA fans might not have as much overlap as I think, starting the playoffs at the exact same time as the country’s most popular sport kicks off Week 2 doesn’t make a ton of sense.

  • Diehard W fans might not care about football, but if the goal is to keep growing the sport, why make more casual fans choose?

💰 “Card” to go

• I’m not going to pretend to get the appeal of NFT trading cards or why someone paid $175,000 to own a digital image that you can view below for $0.

  • But the price tag is a sign that the Clark card market hasn’t slowed down even with her injury, as its the largest-ever sale in the 5+ year history of the Panini blockchain.

Layup Lines is written 100% by a human being. I very much appreciate you reading and will see you back here tomorrow.

— Everett Cook, Founder & Editor