As the second season of Unrivaled enters the middle stretch of the season, hoops fans are in for a potential playoff preview to end Monday night’s slate in Miami. The 5-1 Laces currently lead the standings, with the 4-2 Breeze not too far behind. The game will begin at 8:45 p.m. ET.
The Laces are 1.5-point favorites on DraftKings Sportsbook (-130 on the Moneyline), while the Breeze are +100 underdogs. The game total is set at 142.5 points. Below, I’ll break down tonight’s marquee game and offer a prediction.
Laces vs. Breeze Preview
Given each team’s star power, it’s hardly a surprise that both have been competitive. Reigning WNBA Rookie of the Year Paige Bueckers headlines the Breeze, which also features Los Angeles Sparks teammates Rickea Jackson and Cameron Brink. The Breeze made headlines in their win over the Lunar Owls on Saturday, as Dominique Malonga threw down a vicious dunk, the second in Unrivaled’s history.
The Laces have a similar combination of young and veteran talent. They’re led by Alyssa Thomas, who helped lead the Phoenix Mercury to the WNBA Finals while making the All-WNBA First Team. So far this season, Thomas has averaged an ultra-efficient 11.2 points and 8.0 rebounds per game. She’s joined by Jackie Young, a fellow All-WNBA honoree and a champion with the Las Vegas Aces, as well as four-time All-Defensive member Brittany Sykes and the Atlanta Dream duo of Naz Hillmon and Jordin Canada.
Laces vs. Breeze Pick
Both of these teams have been solid offensively, with the Laces scoring 73.2 points per game and the Breeze scoring 72.5. However, the Breeze have dominated the glass, snagging 3.4 more rebounds per game than any other team and 4.5 more than the Laces, thanks to Malonga and Bueckers, who rank second and eighth, respectively, in that stat. They’ve also recorded the second-most blocks, with Malonga and Brink ranking fifth and sixth league-wide.
The key for the Laces will be forcing turnovers. The Breeze have been sloppy with the ball, ranking second-to-last in turnovers per game and dead last in steals, while the Laces rank fourth in steals and third in turnovers (though much better than the Breeze). In Skyes and Young, they also have two of the 11 players with the most made threes, and only Bueckers has made more than 1.5 per game for the Breeze. They’ve also had slightly better ball movement than the Breeze, registering 1.3 more assists per game.
Between their rebounding prowess and Bueckers’ shooting, the Breeze probably have the better all-around squad, but if the Dallas Wings star’s shot isn’t falling, their sloppiness with the ball decreases their ceiling. They’re probably more due for regression, given that Bueckers has hit 45.8% of her threes after converting at just a 33.1% rate during the WNBA season and Brink has also out-performed her regular season averages by eight percentage points. For the Laces, only Sykes is significantly out-shooting her WNBA averages. I’ll take just enough Bueckers regression for the Laces’ swarming defense to make the difference.
