🏀 Layup Lines: Limping into All-Star weekend

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

• Scheduling note: This is the last day of games before this weekend’s All-Star break, so we’re going to send a recap newsletter tomorrow and then take a couple days off.

  • The timing works out well, as only thing doing worse than W injury reports are my bets.

This 498 word newsletter should take about 2 minutes to read.

😕 Indiana’s costly win

• The Fever still won last night despite shooting 26% from 3 and giving up a dozen offensive rebounds to the Sun, but Caitlin Clark appeared to re-injure a leg / groin that’s slowed her down all year.

  • She was in tears and I’d be surprised if the superstar is back before August, much less able to participate in All-Star weekend.

• It’s come against bad or shorthanded teams, but the Sparks have now won three out of four games for the first time this season after easily handling Washington last night.

  • The young Mystics have scored over 80 points once in their last six games and might be hitting the rookie wall, so having both Sonia Citron and Kiki Iriafen playing in the All-Star game and not resting might end up hurting Washington’s playoff hopes.

👀 Today’s games

• I went 0-2 with picks last night and have picked five of my last 15 bets correctly. It’s a season of peaks and valleys — remember the good times — but I’m ready for the All-Star break.

  • We’re 57-57 this season with $736 of our initial $1,000 budget remaining to wager.

• There are five games today, with most of them on League Pass — Atlanta @ Chicago (12:00pm ET), Phoenix @ Minnesota (1:00pm), Golden State @ Seattle (3:00pm), Indiana @ New York (7:30pm, CBSSN) and Las Vegas @ Dallas (8:00pm). We’re taking the first four:

  • Rhyne Howard is out and while the Sky are playing a lot better on offense recently, they’re also down Angel Reese and Ariel Atkins.

    • Bet: Atlanta / Chicago under 158.5 total points scored, $50 to win $46.

  • The Mercury are really banged up and the Lynx are exhausted.

    • Bet: Phoenix / Minnesota under 157.5, $50 to win $46.

  • The Storm rarely lose back-to-back games, but the Valkyries have dropped their last two by three total points and should be playing hard.

    • Bet: Golden State +5, $50 to win $44.

  • Caitlin Clark is likely out, but the Fever have still been able to score without her and the Liberty haven’t covered a spread this large in 10+ games.

    • Bet: Indiana +10.5, $50 to win $43.

Guess to go

• If Clark can’t participate in the 3-point contest, teammate Kelsey Mitchell has been on fire and should replace her.

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