Unrivaled: Breanna Stewart, Mist still searching for first win

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After a thrilling Friday night of Unrivaled action, four clubs are back on the court on Saturday evening.

All eyes will be on Mist, the league’s lone winless team. They’ll be looking to find the win column against Vinyl. After that, Laces will aim to bounce back from their first loss, a nail-bitter they dropped to Lunar Owls without Alyssa Thomas, against a Rose squad still searching for cohesion. Vinyl-Mist kicks off the evening at 6 p.m. ET, with Laces-Rose following at around 7 p.m. ET. Both games will be broadcast on TruTV.

Can Mist escape their winless fog?

It’s safe to assume that Unrivaled co-founder Breanna Stewart did not expect her club—one that featured two of her former WNBA championship-winning teammates in Jewell Loyd and Courtney Vandersloot—to be the league’s last winless team.

That’s where Stewie finds herself. And she’ll be set on doing everything she can to help Mist claim their first win on Saturday. While her 3-point shot has again eluded her, as she is shooting less than 11 percent on deep attempts through four games, she otherwise has held up her end of the bargain, averaging a double-double of 17.5 points and 11.5 rebounds per game, while shooting almost 57 percent on 2-point attempts.

As a club, Mist is struggling to make a 3, with a team-wide shooting percentage of 21.5 percent. Until that changes, it’s going to be hard for the team to find its way to a victory.

That’s especially true against an explosive Vinyl team that should have Dearica Hamby back in uniform after she missed the team’s loss last Monday. In her three games played, she’s been one of the league’s most productive players, ranking in the league-wide top five in most traditional and advanced stats. (And thanks to Across the Timeline for providing a more comprehensive Unrivaled stats database!) As long as one of Arike Ogunbowale or Rhyne Howard steps up to provide a punch of perimeter scoring, Vinyl should be well positioned to stop their two-game skid, and leave Mist with another loss.

Laces ready for response game against Rose

On Friday night, Rose fell to 1-4, scoring just 63 points in the loss to Phantom.

Even with Brittney Sykes sidelined with an injury, Rose’s level of talent suggests they should be better. Thus far, despite a roster featuring versatile skillsets seemingly primed to thrive in the 3×3 setting—a premier point guard in Chelsea Gray, an electric perimeter option in Kahleah Copper, a relentless interior force in Angel Reese, a sharpshooter with defensive chops in Lexie Hull and a 6-foot-6 big who is comfortable on the inside or outside in Azurá Stevens—Rose seems to be missing something.

And a team that is searching for its identity probably does not want to meet a motivated Laces side. Coming off their first loss, expect Laces to be ready to reassert their dominance, especially if Alyssa Thomas is back in the lineup.

Even if Thomas remains out, the return of Jackie Young, who made her debut on Friday night and appeared to have adjusted to the format by game’s end, equips Laces with a formidable group, especially with a scorching Kayla McBride. The league’s second-leading scorer at 25.6 points per game, McBuckets is shooting almost 48 percent from 3 on nearly nine attempts per game. All the while, she’s helping to take care of the boards and disrupting passing lanes, grabbing 6.2 boards and 1.2 steals per game.