Layup Lines: Weekend whiplash

Happy Friday and welcome back to Layup Lines, your quick recap of what’s going on in the WNBA. We put up an 0-2 stinker last night that I do not feel great about, but hey — it’s Friday and while the sun is not yet shining here in New York, it’s out there somewhere.

• Two reasonable lessons from last night:

  • If a team is missing both their centers (New York) and their opponent is getting 15+ points (Golden State), just take the team getting the points instead of getting cute with the total.

  • If a team’s point total is 10 points higher than it should be (Chicago), recognize it’s a fishy line and not some miraculous insight I’m getting over Vegas.

This 491 word newsletter should take about 2 minutes to read.

Bets of the day

• We’re 13-16 this season and have $900.77 remaining of our initial $1,000 to wager. Hope you enjoyed yesterday’s short-lived 77 cents.

• There are five games today, all on ION — Connecticut @ Indiana (7:30pm ET), New York @ Washington (7:30), Los Angeles @ Las Vegas (10), Minnesota @ Phoenix (10) and Atlanta @ Seattle (10). We’re taking three of them:

  • I’m not convinced the Fever have figured out their Caitlin Clark-less offense and the Sun are banged up in the backcourt.

    • Bet: Connecticut / Indiana under 159.5 total points scored, $100 to win $92.

  • The Sparks have struggled defensively all season and are still missing Rickea Jackson.

    • Bet: L.A. / Las Vegas over 166.5 total points scored, $50 to win $44.

  • The Liberty played a physical game last night against the scrappy Valkyries and are still banged up inside, where Washington has a ton of size.

    • Bet: Washington +8 vs. New York, $50 to win $94.

Take of the day

• The last Liberty game I went to was in 2019. New York still had its home games at the 5,000 seat Westchester County Center, but was playing an exhibition against the Chinese National Team at Barclays. The attendance for that game was officially 4,115 but it felt like half of that in person. The upper deck was curtained off and the arena was quiet.

• So last night at Barclays completely floored me. I can’t get over it. It wasn’t just that there were more than 15,000 people at a midweek regular season WNBA game against an unknown Valkyries team — it was also that they were LOUD and into it. There were costumes and clear diehards. People around me were discussing the backup center rotation.

• There are so many signs that we are in the midst of a women’s basketball revolution, but for me personally, last night was a peak.

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If you bet, please do so responsibly, and we will see you back here tomorrow.

— Everett Cook, Founder & Editor