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🗽 Layup Lines: Liberty try to keep up

Last night helped prove there's a clear top two in the WNBA this year.

Author

Everett Cook
July 26, 2025

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

  • Last night lacked some punch for everyone except the readers of this newsletter — every favorite both won and covered, but we went 2-1 with our picks for the first time in eons.

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

Slow Friday night

  • It’s been almost impossible to beat the Lynx (14-0) or Liberty (12-2) at home, but Phoenix and Las Vegas also didn’t make either team work too hard.

    • The Mercury still look really out of sorts offensively while getting used to their best players being back and made just seven 3-pointers, while the Aces got down early and essentially stopped trying in the second half.

      • Another night, another sign that we’re on a collision course of last year’s Finals.

  • And I remain very impressed with the Valkyries, who snapped a 3-game losing streak despite being down three top scorers.

Courtesy @wnba

Today’s games

  • We’re 63-66 this season and have $512 of our initial $1,000 budget remaining to wager.

  • There are two games today — Los Angeles @ New York (7:00pm ET, NBA TV) and Seattle @ Washington (7:30pm, League Pass). Let’s hit ‘em both!

    • This is the last of eight-straight home games for red-hot New York and it should be a fun one — the Liberty have won five in a row and the Sparks have won four. Both teams are scoring well enough for most overs to hit, but this is a huge number for a back-to-back for New York.

      • Bet: L.A. / New York under 176 total points scored, $50 to win $45.

    • The Storm have the league’s best road defense and there’s a revenge factor at play from recently losing to the Mystics.

      • Bet: Seattle -4, $50 to win $44.

Thanks Claude. Full spreadsheet.

Playoff picture to go

  • Three teams are not making the playoffs — Connecticut, Dallas, and Chicago.

    • That, is, in order: to be expected, disappointing for a talented team that is just horribly coached, and a complete disaster.

  • Five of the league’s 13 teams don’t make it, which means two of L.A., Washington, Golden State, Las Vegas, and Indiana are going to be left out.

    • I think the Mystics will be one of them, and while the obvious other answer is L.A. … but is it crazy to think the once-mighty Aces completely miss the playoffs?

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

— Everett Cook, Founder & Editor