Opening night of Unrivaled "was everything we were hoping for," Lunar Owls player and league co-founder Napheesa Collier said Friday.
In the inaugural game, Collier's Lunar Owls took down Breanna Stewart's Mist, staging a fourth-quarter comeback that was sealed by two 3-pointers by Skylar Diggins-Smith. Then Arike Ogunbowale's Vinyl won Game 2 over Angel Reese's Rose.
What did the new 3-on-3 women's pro basketball league do for an encore?
After Laces routed Phantom to open Day 2 on Saturday, Lunar Owls were back in action against the Rose. Diggins-Smith hit her second game-winning shot in as many days -- this time a winning free throw -- to score all 9 of her points in the second half. Collier finished with a game-high 31 points.
Kayla McBride led the Laces with a game-high 28 points, shooting 7-for-15 from beyond the arc.
Here's how Saturday played out.
Game 2 takeaways: Lunar Owls 79, Rose 70
Diggins-Smith won it for the Lunar Owls again Saturday afternoon -- and provided the league's first game-winning shot coming from the free-throw line. Unrivaled's free throw rules seem to be well-received so far for speeding up the game. They also amplify every make and miss. That meant Rose's four misses -- including three after halftime -- really came back to bite them in a game where they were tied in the third quarter and ultimately lost by nine. Three of the four contests this weekend were decided by single-digits, so free throw shooting could really sway some results throughout the season.
But Collier's mesmerizing play -- 58 points in less than 24 hours and doing it all on the court -- also helped the Lunar Owls improve to 2-0. She is the first player to have multiple 25-point games in Unrivaled history and the third to score at least 30 in a game -- all while carrying the weight of co-founding this league, which she does with her hallmark composure and steadiness. What a weekend on and off the court for Collier, who has shined individually while shepherding a successful opening weekend for this new league.
One thing I'll be watching moving forward: Through four games, it's clear the one-hour TV window for each contest is too short. On Saturday, the final game concluded closer to 4:30 p.m. ET than 4 p.m as scheduled. Will TNT have to deal with longer games, or will Unrivaled tweak any rules to speed things up further? It'll be interesting to see whether anything else about the game format is adjusted -- midseason or perhaps leading into Year 2 -- now that we've seen how it works. -- Alexa Philippou
Game 1 takeaways: Laces 86, Phantom 48
On the heels of a triumphant opening day that perfectly captured what Unrivaled officials said the league aspires to be, the start of Day 2 had a palpable drop-off in energy.
Perhaps it's because the first game of the day tipped at 2 p.m. ET. But the game between the Laces and Phantom was an old-fashioned blowout. The Phantom struggled to get anything going on either end of the condensed court. There was no tension. No drama. No suspense.
If these games aren't close and it isn't a battle to the final game-winning bucket, Unrivaled's game loses a lot of its intrigue. In the building, the quiet lulls were long -- so long the hype man went around trying to get spectators to do the wave. Others migrated to the players from other teams in the stands hoping for a picture.
By the time the fourth quarter arrived, the Laces already had the game in the bag. It was just a matter of how quickly they could reach the winning score. -- Kendra Andrews
Phantom certainly underperformed, but now that we've seen all six Unrivaled clubs take the floor, are the Laces the early favorite for the league's best team? There's a lot to like about this group: They can shoot (making 13 3-pointers Saturday), move the ball really well and already have strong chemistry. After we saw a decent amount of iso ball on Friday, with no team registering more than 14 assists in a game, the Laces finished with 23 -- a testament to their ability to hit shots but also to the team's offensive flow and players' commitment to playing together.
McBride was the star with 28 points and seven 3s, but all Laces players who played scored double figures -- no other team accomplished that through the first three games.
There was some concern about the Laces' lack of rim protection, but it didn't hurt them Saturday: Phantom managed just 48 points on 33% shooting, and the Laces limited Satou Sabally and Brittney Griner to a combined 16 points.
What's even more promising is that this group will only get better whenever two-way star Jackie Young returns from injury. One interesting tidbit: The format is obviously different, but it is notable that half of the Laces -- Tiffany Hayes, Stefanie Dolson and Young -- are all 3x3 Olympians, with Dolson and Young winning gold together in Tokyo. -- Philippou