💪 Layup Lines: Two season-savers

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

This 486 word newsletter should take about 2 minutes to read.

🥊 Storm, Fever stay alive

• The Storm have lost games in the 4th quarter all year long, but the missing key might have been 19-year-old Dominique Malonga. The 2025 No. 2 overall pick checked in with 6 minutes left last night and flipped the game by using her 7-foot-1 wingspan to completely disrupt the Aces’ offense.

  • Her go-ahead 3 point play helped Seattle close on a 16-4 run to snap Las Vegas’ impressive 17-game winning streak and extend its season.

  • Malonga now has two double-doubles in two playoff games and these defensive highlights are frankly insane from someone who is more than four years younger than WNBA ROY Paige Bueckers.

• Earlier Tuesday, Indiana won a playoff game for the first time in 10 years by holding Atlanta to 38% shooting and just five made 3-pointers. The Dream were flat from the jump and now have to head back to Atlanta for Game 3.

📺 Today’s games

• Both games tonight are on ESPN — Phoenix @ New York (8:00pm ET) and Minnesota @ Golden State (10:00pm).

  • Breanna Stewart told media today that she sprained her MCL and wants to play tonight, but we’ll see how effective she can actually be with that injury.

  • This home game for Golden State is being played at the SAP Center in San Jose, which has roughly the same capacity as the Chase Center and should still be electric. There is such a talent gap with Minnesota though and the Lynx should handle business.

  • And yes, I gave out a moneyline favorite parlay yesterday in which both legs lost. I’m 0-4 in the playoffs. Fade me and you’ll beat the S&P 500. Bets:

    • Minnesota / Golden State under 151.5 total points scored

    • Phoenix +3

👏 Take of the day

• This new 1-1-1 series format for the first round is awesome. Since moving to a best-of-three opening round in 2022 where the higher seed hosted the first two games, just three of the 12 matchups went to three games.

  • If either the Mercury or Valkyries win tonight, we’ll match that total in one season. Home court advantage for teams with their backs against the wall is fun!

💰 Card of the day

• I’m interested to see how the market responds to high-end Paige Bueckers WNBA cards, like the ones Panini said yesterday are “coming soon.” She isn’t close to Caitlin Clark value but could still carve out a big market after an incredible 2025.

  • Read more via cllct.

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