With its new and unique format, Unrivaled promised to deliver fast-paced games with a lot of scoring and many highlight plays. Plus, it features many of the WNBA’s brightest stars. The first two contests of the season did not disappoint.
Jewell Loyd led all scorers in the first game of the season between the Mist and Lunar Owls with 30 points, as she quickly caught fire and reminded every WNBA team why they might want to trade for her. Napheesa Collier and Skylar Diggins-Smith were not far behind with 27 and 21 points respectively, as well as a clutch three to decide the game from Diggins-Smith. In the second game of the night, Chelsea Gray, Kahleah Copper, and Rhyne Howard went off as well in a battle between the Rose and Vinyl basketball clubs.
Breanna Stewart had a rather quiet game for her standards, putting up 6 points, 14 rebounds, 2 assists, and 1 steal, but overall, the stars came to play and made sure that opening night was a success for Unrivaled.
It wasn’t just the big stars who made huge plays, though. DiJonai Carrington, the reigning Most Improved Player of the Year in the WNBA, had one of the most electric plays of the evening.
DiJonai Carrington’s chase-down block was one of the best defensive plays of the night
Playing 3-on-3 on two baskets, even on a shorter court, asks a lot of players and is not for everyone. DiJonai Carrington is perfect for Unrivaled, though. She is fast, athletic, and a great defender. Her defense may just be her biggest asset in Unrivaled. The fast-paced 3-on-3 style means that defenders are often on an island without any help defenders or a rim protector to come over and help.
DiJonai Carrington has no problem with being in a situation like that, especially after the defensive success she found in the WNBA in 2024. Carrington took on some of the toughest defensive matchups in the league, including rookie phenom Caitlin Clark, who struggled with Carrington’s defense particularly early in the season.
The two were quickly framed as rivals—some Fever fans even took Carrington’s defense on Clark personally and spread a lot of unnecessary hate online—but the reality is just that teams have to throw their best defenders at Clark to stand a chance, and Carrington is not afraid to battle defensively.
That will go a long way in Unrivaled. Paired with her athleticism, Carrington’s defense should quickly create quite a few highlight plays throughout the season. She already has one that fans won’t forget quickly.
With about 40 seconds left in the first quarter of the game between the Lunar Owls and Mist, Carrington turned the ball over, sending a bounce pass right into the hands of Shakira Austin. Austin pushed the ball ahead to Courtney Williams, who had an open lane to the basket. Carrington, however, hustled back on defense and got a chase-down block that had the crowd in the building going wild.
Since being drafted in the second round of the 2021 WNBA Draft, DiJonai Carrington has played four seasons in the W and improved every year. 2024 marked by far her best season yet, as she averaged 12.7 points, 5 rebounds, 1.6 assists, and 1.6 steals per game, and was named to the All-Defensive First Team.
Carrington is on the rise, trying to establish herself as one of the better two-way guards in the game, and Unrivaled should help her improve even further, especially offensively as a scorer and decision-maker.