Unrivaled: Lunar Owls looking at 9-0 as season’s home stretch begins

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There are three weeks remaining in Unrivaled’s inaugural regular season. After that, the top four teams will advance to the league’s first playoffs. The semifinals will be played on Sunday, Mar. 16, with the championship to follow on Monday, Mar. 17. Between now and then, the league’s six clubs have six regular-season games cement their playoff position or make their postseason push.

We’ve entered our Push to Playoffs Era Here are the standings after last night’s games We want to hear from you… what are your playoff predictions ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/3GEUQdWJRu

— Unrivaled Basketball (@Unrivaledwbb) February 20, 2025

The league also announced its end-of-season awards, with honors to be given for MVP, Defensive Player of the Year and Coach of the Year, along with First Team and Second Team All-Unrivaled.

Co-founder and Lunar Owl Napheesa Collier likely has locked up the MVP, as she tops the league in points and steals per game for the undefeated Owls, while ranking second in rebounds to Laces’ Alyssa Thomas, who only has played three games. Fans can vote for their MVP choices, submitting a ballot with their top three candidates until Mar. 11 at 3 p.m. ET. Collier also has a strong case for Defensive Player of the Year, with the versatility that earned her the WNBA’s 2024 DPOY honor also shining in the 3×3 setting. Her head coach, DJ Sackmann, certainly stands as the Coach of the Year favorite.

Expect Collier to earn unanimous election to First Team All-Unrivaled, while Laces’ Kayla McBride, Vinyl’s Dearica Hamby, Lunar Owls’ Allisha Gray, Mist’s Breanna Stewart and Rose’s Chelsea Gray all have put together seasons worthy of consideration for the other five All-Unrivaled selections.

Some news regarding the Unrivaled Playoffs:

–Top 4 teams advance to postseason–First semifinal matchup is Sunday, March 16. The Finals are Monday, March 17 @ 7:30 p.m. ET.

Also, here are the season awards:–MVP–1st Team/2nd Team All-Unrivaled–DPOY–Coach of the Year

— Meghan L. Hall (@ItsMeghanLHall) February 19, 2025

To kick off Week 5 of Unrivaled, Lunar Owls will look to run their record to a perfect 9-0 against a reinvigorated Rose team that has won three-straight games (7:15 p.m. ET, TNT). Then, Mist and Vinyl meet in a game that could have implications for the fourth and final playoff slot (8:15 p.m. ET).

Can Rose prick Lunar Owls’ perfection?

In their final game before the midseason break, Lunar Owls exhibited unmatched resiliency, overcoming a nine-point deficit in fourth quarter to reach the target score before Mist, thus preserving their undefeated record.

Can Rose similarly force Lunar Owls to dig deep? The club not only is playing its best ball of the season, but, if the game is close down the stretch, Chelsea Gray has the clutch chops necessary to compete with, and possibly overcome, the Owls.

Rose also sports several other strengths that could advantage them. Their double-big lineup of Angel Reese and Azurá Stevens could overwhelm an Owls side that prefers to play small, with the 6-foot-1 Collier often serving as the team’s lone “big.” The boards, in particular, could be an area where Rose causes problems for Lunar Owls, with Reese and Stevens, who both rank in the top five in offensive rebounds per game, providing second chances for Rose, while, on the other end, the pair can prevent Owls from earning additional scoring opportunities.

Then, Gray can control the pace of the game, making the game a slow grind rather than the kind of high-flying affair that Owls prefer. Add in disruptive defensive play from Lexie Hull and Brittney Sykes and Rose has the ingredients to give Owls a tough test.

Will Vinyl find a groove against Mist?

It was an ugly start for Vinyl on Tuesday, with the team scoring just two points in the first quarter, despite returning to their best starting lineup of Dearica Hamby, Arike Ogunbowale and Rhyne Howard. While the duo of Hamby and Howard managed to get Vinyl back into the game in their eventual loss to Rose, Ogunbowale struggled, going scoreless as she missed all seven of her field goal attempts in just 13 minutes of play. Vinyl has now lost five games in a row, disregarding the victory they picked up due to Laces forfeiting.

Mist, arguably, has been even more disappointing, epitomized by the club fumbling away an opportunity to upset Lunar Owls in their last game before the break. Possibly, head coach Phil Handy, impressed by Aaliyah Edwards’ run to the championship of the 1-on-1 tournament, will look to involve the rookie more often. Among the club’s regular players, she’s averaging the fewest field goal attempts per game, despite her club-best 62.8 shooting from the field. However, if her teammates don’t shoot better, it will be difficult for Mist to find the win column.

Despite her otherwise strong production, Breanna Stewart remains ice cold from behind the arc, shooting 15.4 percent from 3. Conversely, Jewell Loyd sports a solid 38 percent mark from deep, yet she inconsistently has made an impact in other areas of the game.