The opening day of the 2026 Unrivaled season was a success.
With all eight teams playing, the action was jam-packed, and while most games were decided before the game-winning baskets found the bottom of the net, the energy was palpable for basketball aficionados, from those inside Sephora Arena to everyone outside Miami.
So, with all four games in the books, here are three key takeaways from the action:
Mist, Laces and Rose take care of business
It’s a very small sample size, but most games weren’t very close on opening day.
Mist beat Hive 72-56
in the day’s first game. Then, Laces held Vinyl scoreless in the untimed fourth quarter to pull away for the 58-42. In the first game of the night session, Rose routed Lunar Owls, 80-60.
Despite some less-than-competitive outcomes, there were some standout performances.
Chelsea Gray, the reigning championship game MVP for Rose, who saw their championship banner hung before the night session, had a colossal game. The Point Gawd scored 35 points, had eight assists and three steals in the win.
Allisha Gray also had a strong performance for Mist. She had 21 points and nine rebounds as her team cruised to victory. For Laces, Brittney Sykes led the way with 19 points, with Jackie Young adding 15.
In defeat, we got a solid showing from Lunar Owls’ pairing of Marina Mabrey and Aaliyah Edwards. Mabrey flirted with a triple-double of 21 points, eight rebounds and nine assists, while Edwards finished with a 23-point and 12-rebound double-double.
Phantom-Breeze provided a thriller
There was one game that came down to the wire, and that was the contest between Breeze and Phantom, the fourth and final game.
Breeze came out on top 69-62, winning on a Rickea Jackson basket from the charity stripe.
Breeze, along with Hive, is on of the new expansion teams that joined Unrivaled, and Breeze certainly started their season with a bang.
Paige Bueckers ended the contes with a team-high 24 points, Dominique Malonga shot 60 percent from the field while scoring 15 points. Rickea Jackson bested her by one point, ending the night with 16. For Phantom, Tiffany Hayes scored 20 points and Aaliyah Boston had 18.
With Breeze up 57-51 after the three timed quarters, the target score for the untimed fourth was set at 68 points. When Breeze had 65 of the 68 points they needed to secure the win, a Natasha Cloud 3-pointer got Phantom up to 60 points. Hayes and Jackson then exchanged baskets, but after Hayes fouled Jackson, she was up for the game-winning free throw and knocked it down.
While it wasn’t nearly as thrilling as Skylar-Diggins’ famous game-winner from last year, it did give us a preview of the kind of intensity we’ll see all season long.
Don’t overreact!
It’s easy to take results and treat them as fact and how things will always be at Unrivaled. Resist that urge. Remember how much Rose struggled to start last season?
We need more games to see how teams adjust before drawing any kind of substantial conclusions. Sure, Bueckers-Malonga looked like a deadly combo. Gray was as dominant as ever, making Rose look like a great selection to be champions once again.
Still, let’s just watch and enjoy the ride for now.
And we won’t have to wait long to get more data. The next night of Unrivaled action will be on Friday with Vinyl playing Rose and Breeze taking on Hive.
