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What’s good, family. It’s Sykes here again with another edition of layup lines.
Before we get started, a quick word on our schedule. Starting next week we’ll be switching to a 3-day rotation on Monday, Wednesday and Friday instead of the regular 5 days. We’re trying something different while we’re in the swing of the NBA offseason. Let us know if you like the pacing!
Now, a quick word on the WNBA’s 6-team race for the last 3 seeds in the playoffs.
Take a look at the standings. The first five seeds are pretty much on lock. The Chicago Sky and the Las Vegas Aces have locked up the first 2 playoff seeds — it’s only a matter of what order they’ll come in.
Behind those two, you’ve got the Sun, Mystics and Storm comfortably ahead of the pack in the 3, 4 and 5 slots. Those teams are playoff locks. But underneath them? There’s absolute chaos ensuing.
There’s a 3.5 game gap between the Dallas Wings as the 6th seed and the Minnesota Lynx as the 11th seed. In between them, you’ve got the Mercury at 7 with a 13-18 record. The Liberty, Sparks and Dream are behind them all with a 12-18 record and the Lynx are sitting at 12-19.
Only 8 teams can make the postseason and there’s only between 4 to 6 games left in everybody’s season. Three of these teams will be heartbroken.
It might be the Phoenix, who was in the Finals last year and have the best point guard in the W in Skylar Diggins-Smith. It might be the Sparks with Nneka Ogwumike, who is an MVP candidate. It might be the Dream, who have one of the best rookies we’ve seen in years in Rhyne Howard. It could be the Liberty with Sabrina Ionescu and it could even be the Wings with the best young core in the W if they slip far enough.
This league, man. It’s as cutthroat as it gets. There’s so much talent to go around. Even teams with legends and All-Stars and future Hall of Famers on them aren’t safe.
That’s terrifying. It’ll be hard to put down money on any of this. But I’ll be watching every minute of it.
The Tip-Off
Some NBA goodness from around the USA TODAY Sports network.
LeBron James is extension eligible starting on Thursday. The Lakers will almost certainly offer him one and he almost certainly isn’t signing it. It’s going to be a contract year for the King, which is always fun.
He has leverage and can control the Lakers’ offseason decisions moving forward. I wrote about exactly why he won’t sign the extension and why the Lakers — if things go SUPER left — might explore trading him.
“He wants two things: To play with his son and to play for a championship. To make the latter happen, James is keeping his finger pressed on the scale to push the Lakers into making moves. He wants a Russell Westbrook trade. And if it means sacrificing the Lakers’ last two future draft picks to get it done? He wants to do it. He can force them into that corner by threatening to leave if they don’t. An extension destroys that leverage, which is why he won’t sign it.
But the Lakers still seem steadfast in their unwillingness to completely mortgage their future to grant LeBron’s wishes. So now, this is a pretty expensive game of chicken.”
They’re almost definitely not trading LeBron. But if they were going to? Those are the places they probably should call. Check it out.
One to Watch
(All odds via Tipico.)
Liberty (-6.5, -290) vs. Sparks (+225), O/U 163.5, 7 PM ET
This game is interesting for all the reasons mentioned above here. The playoff implications in this one are huge. These two teams just played each other and the Liberty cleaned the Sparks out, 102-73. I don’t expect the result to be as drastic, but I do expect a win from the Liberty — especially with them being at home. I’ll take them -6.5.
Shootaround
— Hear Vin Scully call Kobe Bryant’s first pitch for the Dodgers and get in your feels
— Speaking of Scully, here are the best calls from the legend. No, it’s not basketball. But you’ll love it anyway.
— The Jaylen Brown-KD saga seems to be settling down in Boston.
— Ben Simmons and Doc Rivers seem to have really peaced things up between them.
That’s all, folks! Enjoy the basketball tonight.
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