Week 3 of Unrivaled wraps with games between two of the league’s lowlights and two of the league’s highlights.
First, Lunar Owls and Hive will try to not be the league’s lone one-win club after the two 1-5 squads meet for the first time this season (7:30 p.m. ET, TNT/truTV). After that, the real action begins with Breeze challenging league-best Laces (8:45 p.m. ET, TNT/truTV).
With Unrivaled’s least-experienced club taking on the most-experienced club, the veteran Solemates surely have the advantage?
Not so fast. Breeze might be perfectly equipped to cause problems for Laces.
Outside of 5-foot-6 Jordin Canada, Laces’ other five players possess good size, strength and length. Brittney Sykes is 5-foot-9, but she’s one of the most explosive athletes at Unrivaled. Jackie Young plays bigger than her 6-foot-0 frame. Maddy Siegrist brings an elite shooting touch at 6-foot-2. Naz Hillmon’s Big Ten days gave her plenty of experience outmuscling bigger players at 6-foot-2. Alyssa Thomas, also listed at 6-foot-2, is the most irrepressible force in women’s basketball.
How Laces then maximizes their physical advantages with their high basketball IQs has them atop Unrivaled.
But, every other Unrivaled club has at least one player who stands 6-foot-4 or taller. And Breeze has two of the more dynamic bigs in 6-foot-6 Dominique Malonga and 6-foot-4 Cameron Brink. Can the combo of Dom and Cam expose Laces’ vulnerabilities?
The two twin towers have made Breeze one of the best rebounding and shot blocking clubs in Unrivaled, claiming ownership of the inside while Paige Bueckers provides the on-point playmaking and tough shotmaking. Malonga and Brink are both blocking over a shot per game, while Malonga ranks second in the league in rebounds per game with almost 11.
Unrivaled’s best 2-point finishing team, Laces might have more difficulty finishing as efficiently. Thomas, in particular, will have to test the tensile of Breeze’s rim protection, battering her way to the basket and daring Malonga and Brink to stop her without fouling.
The other end could pose a bigger problem for Laces. Thomas and Hillmon will look to leverage their superior strength to prevent Malonga and Brink from getting easy buckets around the basket. Stopping Malonga as she rolls to the basket? That’s a taller task that Laces, literally, might not be tall enough to accomplish. The Pagie-Dom pick and roll could crack Laces’ defense in ways that thus far have been rare, even if Dom doesn’t put a second dunk one someone’s head.
Laces enter the game with the league’s stingiest defense, giving up only 65 points per game. That defensive integrity is the foundation of their league-best scoring margin of 8.2 points per game, or 49 points overall.
But if Laces have to divert more defensive attention to Malonga and Brink, that could result in things opening up for Bueckers, and as Paige has proven, she doesn’t need much help to get going.
However, shooting, rather than size, could swing the outcome. Breeze is the lowest volume 3-point shooting club in the league, as they’re taking less than 13 3s per game and hitting them at 32.5 percent. Laces are not shooting a super-high volume, but they take over 18 3s per game with a team-wide percentage of 35.5 percent. Sykes has been one of Unrivaled’s best 3-point bombers to start the season, hitting 45.5 percent of her 5.5 3s per game. Young is at 37.7 percent on five triples per contest.
The vets’ ability to drain a couple of clutch 3s could prove critical, overcoming the youngsters’ height advantage and advancing Laces to 6-1.
