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MEDLEY, Fla. — If not for the existence of new 3-on-3 women’s basketball league Unrivaled, fans would never get the opportunity to see Dallas Wings star Paige Bueckers go off for 24 points in January.
In another era, the WNBA’s 2025 Rookie of the Year would be playing basketball overseas somewhere and not stateside in front of a televised audience on TNT. But the Miami-based league, which opened its second season on Monday at Sephora Arena, has given fans more access to their favorite players outside of the WNBA circuit, which runs from May through October.
Bueckers, who signed a three-year deal with Unrivaled before the Wings selected her No. 1 overall in the 2025 WNBA draft, opened scoring for Breeze BC on Monday night and helped lead the expansion team, one of two Unrivaled added for 2026, to a 69-62 win over Phantom.
She finished with 24 points on 7-of-15 shooting, six assists, five rebounds and two blocks in her league debut.
It was a typical performance for Bueckers, who averaged 19.2 points, 5.4 assists and 3.9 rebounds during her WNBA rookie campaign and ranks second among Unrivaled’s 54 participating players in scoring after the first day of games, which also featured her Wings teammates Arike Ogunbowale, Maddy Siegrist and Li Yueru.
Bueckers’ outing was a treat for fans, who last saw her in game action for the Wings’ regular season finale on Sept. 11. Monday showed that she can dominate in any format, and Unrivaled is certainly unique.
“People are used to the 5-on-5, so to be able to watch 3-on-3 and different players and the different setting, and a different format — it’s just really, really fun,” Bueckers said in her postgame news conference.
Unrivaled teams play on a 72-by-49.2-foot court, with just three players from each club taking to it at a time, and it’s in front of an intimate crowd of around 1,000 people. Just one free throw is granted when a player is fouled, with one shot being worth two points for a foul on a 2-point shot or three points on a three-point attempt. Free throw attempts after a foul on a made basket is worth one point.
Games have three 7-minute quarters. The final quarter utilizes a winning score to end the contest, adding 11 points to the higher score between teams at the end of the third quarter. Bueckers’ Breeze led Phantom 57-51 to end the third quarter. The winning score was 68.
There is no overtime in Unrivaled, games can end on a free throw and an 18-second shot clock is used. The WNBA uses a 24-second shot clock.
Bueckers, also an investor in the league where she will reportedly make more in her first year than her entire four-year WNBA rookie salary, said she certainly felt that change in pace.
“Today, I felt the conditioning aspect of it,” Bueckers said. “This is so fast-paced … The conditioning is an aspect I think that we’re all getting used to.”
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