Unrivaled, the new 3-on-3 basketball league co-founded by WNBA stars Breanna Stewart and Napheesa Collier, tipped off in Miami on Friday and got off to a thrilling start. In the league’s first game, Skylar Diggins-Smith hit a walk-off 3-pointer to lift Lunar Owls BC to a dramatic comeback win over Mist BC, 84-80. In the nightcap, Rhyne Howard poured in 33 points to carry Vinyl BC to a 79-73 win over Rose BC.
The action will continue on Saturday with two more games, including Phantom BC vs. Laces BC and Lunar Owls BC vs. Rose BC. The Week 1 schedule will conclude on Monday with two more games.
With the first night of Unrivaled in the books, here are some key takeaways:
Diggins-Smith shows value of ‘winning score’
One of the many unique aspects of Unrivaled is that the fourth quarter is untimed, and the teams will play to a “winning score” that is determined by adding 11 points to the leading team’s point total at the end of the third quarter. In the opener, Mist led 73-67 after three, which put the winning score at 84.
Lunar Owls had trailed most of the night, but they got their act together in the fourth quarter to stage a big comeback. Diggins-Smith, who had struggled earlier in the game, set the tone in the fourth on both ends of the floor. And when it came to winning time, she took control.
First, Diggins-Smith hit a 3 to put Lunar Owls up 81-78, and then, after Jewell Loyd scored on the other end to make it 81-80, Diggins-Smith looked to close the show. She called for a screen, and immediately went into her shot when DiJonai Carrington went under — a big mistake given the circumstances. Diggins-Smith’s jumper rattled in and the Lunar Owls bench stormed the court to celebrate.
Diggins-Smith finished with 21 points in the win to get the short-handed Lunar Owls, the only team with five players, off to a 1-0 start.
If the teams had been playing another seven-minute quarter, Mist may have been able to hold the Lunar Owls off down the stretch. But with the “winning score” format you can’t just run out the clock. That really puts the pressure on both teams and, as we’ve already seen, will lead to some exciting comebacks.
Howard goes off, shows that this is a guard’s league
Rhyne Howard has been a bit inconsistent as a shotmaker in her first three seasons in the WNBA, but few in the league are more difficult to stop when they get it going. Rose BC learned that lesson the hard way on Friday, as Howard drained six 3-pointers and finished with 33 points and six rebounds in Vinyl BC’s victory.
Early in the third quarter, Vinyl were clinging to a three-point lead when Howard suddenly took over. In less than two minutes, she made three 3s and scored 11 points to push Vinyl’s lead to double figures, and they never looked back.
Howard’s performance was perhaps the starkest indication that this will ineed be a guard’s league, just as many experts predicted. The amount of space on the court and the up-and-down nature of the games makes it borderline impossible to stop guards like Howard who can get downhill and create their own shot.
Here’s a list of every player that scored at least 20 points on opening night: Howard (33), Jewell Loyd (30), Napheesa Collier (27), Kahleah Copper (24), Skylar Diggins-Smith (21) and Chelsea Gray (21). The only forward among them was Collier, who is a unique talent in the frontcourt.
What else we learned
- Playing “fullcourt” 3-on-3 with an 18-second shot clock absolutely speeds up play, but at times too much. There were stretches in both games where the action got hectic and sloppy. Teams were running back and forth putting up quick (read, bad) shots without running any actions or hunting mismatches, which affected the quality of play. Hopefully that will improve as the season goes along and the players become more accustomed to each other and the format.
- Fouls and free throws are crucial. In Unrivaled, you only get one free throw per trip to the line. If you’re fouled on a two-point shot, the free throw is worth two points, and if you’re fouled on a three-point shot, the free throw is worth three points. Free throws to complete an and-one remain worth one point, while a trip to the line on a non-shooting foul while in the bonus is worth two points. Getting to the line allows you to rack up points quickly, but can also easily result in an empty possession. A bad night from the line could easily cost a team a game.
- These games are going to take much longer than anyone expected. Unrivaled’s website said that the games would fit in a one-hour TV window, but it took just under three hours to complete the two games on opening night. Of course, game times will vary by a few minutes here and there depending on fouls, challenges and how long the untimed fourth quarter lasts, but it’s immediately clear that games will take much longer than one hour.
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