With the last week of regular season tip-offs beginning later tonight, I thought there would be no better time to break down all the highs and lows of the inaugural season of the Unrivaled league. We have seen some incredible performances, new dynamic duos form throughout the season, where WNBA rivals once stood. Overall, the first season of this league founded by Minnesota Lynx Forward Napheesa Collier and New York Liberty Forward Breanna Stewart. From an official Unrivaled draft to reinventing the game of women’s basketball to give this new league the same integrity of the W while adding engaging twists, overall this season was an overwhelming success.

This week’s last week of regular season play, despite it being two thirds of the way through, still has some insane storylines to keep tabs on. As of right now, there is still one spot left for playoff basketball, and two teams vying for it. With both the Vinyl and Mist being handed a loss earlier this weekend, these two teams have one more chance tonight to clinch that last spot in the first year of Unrivaled playoff basketball. Despite the loss earlier this weekend, Breanna Stewart’s Mist Ball Club previously won their last three straight, keeping them in the running for that last spot. Vinyl BC lost their game on Saturday to the Phantom, whose loss the night before to the three seed Laces eliminated them from playoff contention. In addition to the Laces being seeded at three, the Rose have officially clinched the two seed, and the 12-1 Lunar Owls have taken the one spot. Based on this season’s stats, it’s clear that the Lunar Owls are going to be the favorites this postseason; however, the one loss they’ve endured came at the hands of the Rose right before the mid-season break. The consistency of both the Lunar Owls and the Rose has, unsurprisingly to most, resulted in the first and second seed being locked down. The third seed Laces had a catastrophic fall off about halfway through the season when injury or illness plagued essentially the entire team after a blistering hot start. With several veteran players on the team, the Laces were initially named the favorite to take the crown this year, but after all that the players endured, a majority of their key players, specifically Aces Guard Jackie Young and the new Phoenix Mercury Forward, Alyssa Thomas.

The Phantom, so far the only team eliminated from postseason ball, ended their season on a high note, taking their last game from the still fighting Vinyl; however, that win wasn’t enough to erase a 4-10 record. While the team houses two MVP candidates in Center Brittney Griner and Guard Sabrina Iounescu, Coach Adam Harrington and the rest of the “Ghost Gang” should look forward to next season when, hopefully, additional Guard and a recent pick-up by the Los Angeles Sparks, Kelsey Plum officially makes her Unrivaled debut after pulling out of the 2024-2025 season. There were moments of sheer greatness on the court amongst the six women making up the team as it stood this year, and head coach Adam Harrington; with the potential addition of Plum as a permanent sixth member, the Phantom could truly have a chance next season. Defensively, the Ghosts and Gouls that made up this year’s Phantom roster in Sab, BG, Satou Sallaby, Marina Mabrey, and Natasha Hiedeman could’ve had a recipe for success, but with poor execution on the defensive end from the Phantom, they just couldn’t get it done as even the largest of leads eventually slipped away by the game’s untimed fourth quarter.

While the Unrivaled league has done so much good for women’s basketball and The W this offseason, one issue that remains is how injuries from this condensed three-on-three league could affect this upcoming 2025 WNBA season. With so many star competitors across the league playing under the microscope of smaller teams and a condensed court, the competition is as fierce as it possibly could be, so of course women are going all in each Unrivaled game they play. This meaning, if you’re playing at 100%, the nature of an injury is just as high as it is during the WNBA regular season (as we’ve seen with Jackie Young). Of course, that’s just part of the game, but stars like Thomas or Young are needed pieces for their teams (especially Thomas who was traded from Connecticut Sun in a sign-and-trade deal earlier in January). Several Unrivaled teams have overcome illness and injury, but none more than the Laces; however, they still have prevailed to claim one of the two spots that remained at the beginning of this last week of regular season play, and with some of these key players returning, they could surge at the right time and dethrone even the best of teams, including the coveted Lunar Owls. Despite the highs and lows that come with injury during the offseason, several other WNBA stars have either come out of the woodwork to join the Unrivaled league as either injured reserves or members for teams for next season already, proving that the league’s success could warrant an expansion of sorts, perhaps at least one or two new teams to allow more WNBA players to join in on the fun during The W’s offseason. Tune in tonight to see which team will take that last playoff spot! With a rematch of the season’s first game between the Mist and Lunar Owls tipping off tonight at 7:30 on TNT, be sure to tune in and see who will be joining the top three teams in potentially taking the first ever Unrivaled crown.