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 will the new 3-on-3 women’s pro basketball league do for an encore?
Day 2 arrives Saturday: The Lunar Owls are taking on Rose after the Laces routed the Phantom.
Tag along for live updates from Miami.
Game 1 takeaways: Laces 86, Phanom 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…
