🏆 Layup Lines: Minnesota's statement win

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

• Scheduling note: I’m in California for my brother’s wedding and am so excited that I’m taking the weekend off to lock in and celebrate. I hope your next couple days are also filled with great vibes and I’ll see you back here Tuesday.

This 477 word newsletter should take about 2 minutes to read.

Wild Wednesday delivers

• What an awesome night of basketball. We saw:

  • The Lynx getting a small dose of revenge with a big win over the Liberty that didn’t feel as close as the final score indicated.

  • Naz Hillmon cap a career-high 21 points by nailing her fifth 3-pointer of the night with less than 3 seconds left to win the game for Atlanta.

  • And the Fever and Mercury combining to put up more than 200 points in what is becoming a heated rivalry (more on this below).

Today’s game

• After going 2-1 with our bets yesterday, we’re now 69-73 this season and have $437 remaining of our initial $1,000 budget remaining to wager.

• There’s only one game on tonight — Golden State @ Washington (7:30pm ET, Prime Video).

  • It’s too early to forecast playoff positioning, but these teams are currently in 8th and 9th and this game could end up being pretty important for the final playoff spot.

    • I’ve missed on multiple Mystics reads recently and am in a state that somehow still hasn’t legalized sports betting, so I’m going to skip this one. If I had a wager, it would be Washington -4.5.

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Take of the day

• Easy with hindsight, but I do feel silly for not seeing the Indiana - Phoenix result coming. Something pretty clearly happened between the Fever locker room and DeWanna Bonner before she got bought out to lead to some bad blood and the Fever came out swinging last night.

  • But the silliest moment of the night game after the game, when Kahleah Copper was asked about Bonner being booed by the Indiana crowd and said, “I don’t understand” and “it’s just very distasteful what their fanbase is doing.” Full answer here.

  • Copper is 30 years old, in her 10th WNBA season and grew up in Philadelphia of all places. You don’t understand why a fan base would boo a former player who requested a trade off their team? Come on now.

Pic to go

• Napheesa Collier had 30 points and nine rebounds last night — MVPhee has a nice ring to it.

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