Without equal, the new 3 on 3 basketball league co-founded by WNBA stars Breanna Stewart and Napheesa Collier, was briefed Friday in Miami and got off to an exciting start. In the league opener, Skylar Diggins-Smith scored three points to help Lunar Owls BC earn a dramatic victory over Mist BC, 84-80. In the nightcap, Rhyne Howard scored 33 points to lead Vinyl BC to a 79-73 victory over Rose BC.
The action will continue on Saturday with two other matches including Phantom BC vs Laces BC and Lunar Owls BC vs Rose BC. The Week 1 schedule concludes Monday with two more games.
With Unrivaled’s premiere party in the books, here are some key takeaways:
Diggins-Smith shows the value of the ‘winning score’
One of the many unique aspects of Unrivaled is that the fourth quarter is not timed and teams will play to a “winning score” which is determined by adding 11 points to the leading team’s point total at the end of the third quarter. In the first game, Mist led 73-67 after three, bringing the winning score to 84.
The Lunar Owls had been trailing for most of the night, but they rallied in the fourth quarter to stage a big comeback. Diggins-Smith, who had struggled earlier in the game, set the tone on fourth down on both ends of the court. And when it came to saving time, she took control.
First, Diggins-Smith hit a 3 to give the Lunar Owls an 81-78 lead, then, after Jewell Loyd scored at the other end to make it 81-80, Diggins-Smith sought to close the show. She asked for a screen and immediately threw her shot when DiJonai Carrington went under – a big mistake considering the circumstances. Diggins-Smith’s jumper went into place and the Lunar Owls bench stormed the field to celebrate.
Diggins-Smith finished with 21 points in the victory to give the Lunar Owls, the only team with five players, to a 1-0 start.
Had the teams played another seven-minute quarter, Mist might have been able to hold off the Lunar Owls down the stretch. But with the “win score” format, you can’t just run out of time. This really puts pressure on both teams and, as we’ve already seen, will lead to some exciting comebacks.
Howard leaves, shows it’s a league of guards
Rhyne Howard has been a bit inconsistent as a shooter in her first three seasons in the WNBA, but few players in the league are harder to stop when they’re starting. Rose BC learned that lesson the hard way on Friday, as Howard made six 3-pointers and finished with 33 points and six rebounds in Vinyl BC’s victory.
Early in the third quarter, Vinyl was 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 digits, and they never looked back.
Howard’s performance was perhaps the starkest indication that this was bound to be a guard league, just as many experts predicted. The amount of space on the court and the up-and-down nature of the games make it nearly impossible to stop guards like Howard, who can get downhill and create their own shot.
Here is a list of all players who 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 has a unique talent in the frontcourt.
What else have we learned
- Playing “full court” 3-on-3 with an 18-second shot clock absolutely speeds up the game, but sometimes too much. There were periods in both games where the action became hectic and sloppy. Teams were going back and forth taking quick shots (read, bad) without executing any action or chasing lags, which affected the quality of play. Hopefully this will improve as the season goes on and players get used to it more about each other and the format.
- Fouls and free throws are crucial. In Unrivaled, you only get one free throw per move to the line. If you are fouled on a two-point shot, the free throw is worth two points, and if you are fouled on a three-point shot, the free throw is worth three points. Free throws to complete an and-one are worth one point, while a trip to the line on a no-shot foul while in the bonus is worth two points. Getting to the line allows you to accumulate points quickly, but can also easily result in an empty possession. One bad night on the line could easily cost a team a game.
- These games are going to take a lot longer than expected. Unrivaled’s website stated that the games would fit into a one-hour television window, but it took just under three hours to complete both games on opening night. Of course, game times will vary by a few minutes here and there depending on fouls, challenges and the length of the untimed fourth quarter, but it’s immediately clear that games will last much longer than an hour.
