The WNBA's new playoff format is bringing chaos to the Chicago Sky and it's great for basketball

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What’s good, family? It’s Sykes, once again, delivering another edition of Layup Lines into your inbox. Today, let’s talk about the Chicago Sky.

The WNBA’s defending champions find themselves in a precarious situation. They’re down 1-0 to the New York Liberty after losing Game 1 on their home floor.

Nobody can really blame them — Sabrina Ionescu was absolutely brilliant. Marine Johannes’ passing is still sending shockwaves through the basketball world. Nobody expected them to play as perfectly as they did down the stretch, but it happens. Sometimes, you lose a game you’re supposed to win. That’s what happened with the Sky.

In a best-of-3 series? That’s normally OK. You’ve still got two games to make it up. But the Sky are going to have a tough time doing that now. Why? Because of the W’s new playoff format.

Everyone lauded the league for going away from single elimination games in round 1 and getting rid of the bye-week. Ultimately, it means more games. More games mean more chaos — more drama. And that’s a good thing.

Just look at the situation the Sky is in right now. They’ve essentially lost homecourt advantage.

Under the new rules, the first two games are played at the higher seed’s court. The lower seed gets the final third game in the series.  The Sky will have to beat the Liberty on the road in order to advance and defend their title — that’s if they can beat them at home.

That’s a tough road to take for the champs. Can they do it? Absolutely. They’re the champs. They’ve got Kahleah Copper (We think?????) and Candace Parker. They can do anything.

But will they? We’ll see.

That’s the drama everyone loves. That’s the intrigue that brings eyes to the table. And the more eyes on these games, the better. Because it’s great basketball.

Buckle in, everyone. We’re in for a wild ride.

The Tip-Off

Some NBA goodness from around the USA TODAY Sports network.

Bronny James’ recruitment is, apparently, underway. Obviously, dude has already pulled offers from places like North Carolina A&T and UNC Central, but he was never going there.

Now, it’s getting serious. Penny Hardaway and Memphis are reportedly sending an offer his way. Our Bryan Kalbrosky wrote about how this is just the start to what will almost certainly be a chaotic process.

“In addition to Oregon and Memphis, there are several other schools with reported interest in landing a commitment from Bronny. On3 reports that USC has offered Bronny a scholarship as well.

But now that there is apparently an offer letter extended to the four-star recruit, expect several other high-major universities to get involved and do the same. The madness has officially begun.”

We’ll have to keep it locked on this one. No idea where Bronny is going, but teams will no doubt be pulling out all the stops to get him. We’ll see how it ends.

Shootaround

— Steph Curry is an absolute menace, y’all.

— It’s great to see Satou Sabally back on the court and healthy. Because when she’s right? She can do stuff like this.

— Jalen Rose thinks making Ben Simmons a point guard was a mistake and he might be right.

— Here are 5 things to watch for in the 2022-23 NBA season.

That’s all, folks! Enjoy your weekend.

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