✨ Layup Lines: Plum calls game

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

• More good news: The league just set its all-time attendance record.

This 499 word newsletter should take about 2 minutes to read.

🤯 Bueckers' blowup still not enough

• It’s not hyperbolic to say Paige Bueckers had one of the most impressive games in the history of the league last night against L.A. Her 44 points on 17-21 (81%) shooting was the most points by a rookie in WNBA history, the first time any player has ever scored 40+ on 80% shooting and the highest scoring game this year.

  • And yet, just two other Wings scored more than five points and they lost to the Sparks 81-80.

  • This Kelsey Plum game-winner to overcome Bueckers’ big night could end up being crucial to the playoff picture, but the Sparks do need to play some defense.

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📺 Today’s games

• Well, we’ve done it. After 78 Layup Lines, a cool $1,000 has been donated to the DraftKings Sportsbook.

  • If you want my full brain dump, keep reading. In terms of Layup Lines, I’m still going to send the same newsletters … just without the losing picks.

• Of today’s four games, two of them are rematches from Tuesday. Washington and Phoenix, who both lost, need to beat Connecticut to stay within shouting distance of 8th place and beat Vegas to stay ahead near the top of the standings, respectively.

  • And New York shouldn’t struggle with Chicago, which makes Minnesota @ Atlanta the best game of the night. The Lynx have yet to lose back-to-back games this year and Atlanta tends to play up (or down) to its competition.

📊 Quick standings update

• We still have absolutely no idea who will be playing each other when the playoffs start Sept. 14 and that’s a beautiful thing.

💸 Gambling thoughts to go

• I’ve won a non-trivial amount of money every year since 2020 betting on the WNBA and have grown to genuinely love the league. So I started this newsletter thinking I could write it for existing fans while also pulling in more casual observers the same way I was pulled in — by making money.

  • Obviously that hasn’t happened. Gambling lines have gotten way sharper over the last five years as the W has gone more mainstream, and there’s also a chance I was better at reading the secondary market than the actual basketball prognostication anyway.

    • And yet, most of you still read almost every day. You haven’t gone anywhere all summer. That ultimately means more than whatever it says in my gambling account, so thank you for still clicking and being here.

    • No matter where this thing goes, your attention will always mean a lot to me!

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