Skylar Diggins-Smith took the court Saturday with a point to prove. Her Lunar Owls had suffered their first loss less than 24 hours earlier, and the guard wanted to make sure everyone knew they were still the team to beat at Unrivaled.
Message delivered. She went off for 25 points, 5 assists and 2 steals as the Lunar Owls beat the Laces and clinched the first playoff spot for the league's inaugural season.
"It's still Hootie Hoo," Diggins-Smith yelled before running off the court, repeating what has become the Lunar Owls' victory cry.
"I do consider myself the most competitive player here," she told ESPN. "You always have a chance to come back, to make the game competitive. ... It gives me the streetball mindset I played with as a kid."
At 9-1, the Lunar Owls sit atop Unrivaled's standings. Less than three weeks remain in the regular season, which launched Jan. 17 and is being played exclusively in Miami. The majority of WNBA players have traditionally headed overseas in the offseason, but the new 3-on-3 league -- founded by All-Stars Napheesa Collier and Breanna Stewart -- gives over three dozen of the league's players a domestic option.
Diggins-Smith, who has typically remained in the United States to train instead of playing professional basketball overseas in the offseason, knew she wanted to take part in Unrivaled from the get-go.
"I look at this as an opportunity to get some good bump coming off of maternity leave last season, not being 100 percent happy with my season," the Seattle Storm starter said. "I don't think of this as any time off or rest."
Diggins-Smith has hit a league-high five game-winning shots this season, and is averaging 17.0 points, 4.3 assists and 2.6 rebounds to help the Lunar Owls build a three-game lead in the standings heading into Friday's round of games. The top four teams advance to the postseason, and every club has four remaining contests before the Unrivaled semifinals on March 16.
"It's been really intense, especially as people have started to see the writing on the wall," Diggins-Smith said. "We understand there is a target on our back."
Here are four things to watch as Unrivaled's regular season winds down:
Courtney Williams wraps up the game with a jumper as the Lunar Owls clinch the first playoff spot in Unrivaled.
Why have the Lunar Owls dominated -- and can they keep it going?
The Lunar Owls are averaging a league-high 80.2 points -- almost 10 points better than the second-highest scoring team, the Vinyl. Collier leads Unrivaled in scoring at 26.6 PPG, and teammate Allisha Gray ranks fourth at 20.1 PPG.
Collier, who led the Minnesota Lynx to the WNBA Finals last season, also leads the league in steals (2.0 per game) and ranks second in blocks (1.2) and third in rebounds (11.1), shooting 60.8% from the floor. She won the league's 1-on-1 tournament earlier this month.
But Collier and the Lunar Owls point to their collective buy-in as why they've played so well.
"The level of compete we have, the selflessness ... any one of us could go off for 30 on any given night," Collier said. "That meshes really well."
Familiarity has also helped.
"We've all been in the league for years. We all know each other's strengths, and who we are as players. We are not auditioning. We are secure in our roles," Diggins-Smith said. "We know we all are going to get in the game, get in the rotation, and not only that, we all rely on each other to be threats. There is no insecurity or egos."
In the preseason, the Lunar Owls got in extra scrimmages and drills before exhibition games started in the first week of January. And since the league tipped off, they've followed a strict regimen of practice, weight sessions and recovery days.
And while other players at Unrivaled have left Miami for a variety of reasons -- to attend other business commitments, introductory news conferences to their new WNBA teams or NBA All-Star Weekend -- Collier, Diggins-Smith, Gray, forward/center Shakira Austin and guard Courtney Williams made a point to stay in town as much as possible, even between games.
"We went into this process surrendering to being who we are, but at the same time, the most important thing is winning and getting a championship, so doing what we have to do to get there," Diggins-Smith said.
The Lunar Owls said their lone loss, 72-53 to the Rose on Feb. 21, came at the perfect time. Williams said they never expected to win every game, and that the setback provided a learning opportunity and extra motivation for what they hope is a championship run.
"The Rose put a battery back in our back," Williams said. "We are going to continue to stack our days. We don't have no ego; we don't have no pride. We understand that every team can come out and beat us on any given night. ... We just want to win games. And that's what we've been doing."
Angel Reese goes for 22 points and 21 rebounds as the Rose deliver the Lunar Owls their first loss.
Which team is the Lunar Owls' biggest competition?
Angel Reese walked off the court at Wayfair Arena fluttering her hands and mocking the Lunar Owls after handing them their first loss last Friday.
She entered her postgame news conference minutes later smelling a red rose.
"It takes every petal to make the rose," Reese said. "Every single bucket, basket, stop, rebound, steal, missed layup too. It all contributed to being able to be together at the right time, which is perfect."
Over the past week, the second-place Rose (6-4) have emerged as a strong contender to challenge the Lunar Owls in the playoffs. And Reese's play is a big reason.
In 23 minutes Friday, Reese scored 22 points and grabbed 21 rebounds, making her the first player in Unrivaled history to tally a 20-point, 20-rebound double-double.
The record night came three days after she put together a 16-point, 15-rebound performance. The Chicago Sky star leads the league with 11.7 rebounds per game and is one of just four players to average a double-double (Collier, Breanna Stewart and Alyssa Thomas).
"I just kind of have a knack for the ball. I have the mentality that anything I want in life, I'm going to get," Reese said. "You got to manifest anything you want in life. I manifest I want that ball when it comes off the rim."
Reese, who shot 39.1% from the field during her WNBA rookie season, said she has been training with Naismith Hall of Famer Lisa Leslie nearly once a week in Miami, working on finishing her layups and finishing through contact. But in games, playing alongside Las Vegas Aces point guard Chelsea Gray has helped unlock Reese. Their two-woman game has been crucial toward the Rose's success.
What other teams are in the playoff race?
The Laces, who are 5-5 and in third place, are another team to watch, especially in a close race where playoff tiebreakers will be determined by head-to-head record and point differential.
However, after starting the season 4-0, the Laces have struggled to win, losing four of their past five games as they've navigated injuries, including to perennial WNBA MVP contender Alyssa Thomas.
For the Laces to regain their rhythm heading into the playoffs, a lot of the weight will fall on the shoulders of Kayla McBride, whose 23.9 points is the second-best average in the league.
"You just try to put everything into perspective," Laces coach Andrew Wade said. "[Monday] was AT's first game back. We're still folding others back in, continuing to build chemistry as we wind down in these final weeks."
The Vinyl, at 4-6 and five games behind the Lunar Owls (and one game ahead of the 3-7 Mist and Phantom), sit in the fourth and final playoff spot. Like the Aces, their playoff hopes rest primarily on one player. Los Angeles Sparks forward Dearica Hamby ranks third in the league with 21.3 PPG and also averages 9.8 rebounds. She has received help from Arike Ogunbowale, who is averaging 11.1 PPG and a team-high 3.7 APG, and Rhyne Howard (20.0 PPG, which ranks fifth in the league).
"I enjoy how my team plays," Vinyl coach Teresa Weatherspoon said. "My team plays hard. They play with energy; they do everything we ask them to. ... If you've never played 3-on-3, you need to know how intense this really is."
Rose continue their winning ways as Chelsea Gray calls game with a deep 3-pointer.
How will injuries impact the stretch run?
It was a few days before the start of the highly anticipated one-on-one tournament midway through the season that Unrivaled announced it would combine the first two rounds due to rising injuries.
As with any competitive sports league, injuries take a toll. But they began to pile up at Unrivaled at the beginning of the month, and the Feb. 8 game between the Laces and Vinyl had to be canceled because the Laces didn't have enough active players.
"I don't think there is any season in anything where you can get through it without players getting injured, unfortunately," Collier said. "Some years you are just unlucky, and unfortunately right now we are having more injuries than normal, or we expected."
In addition to Thomas, the Laces lost Jackie Young, Tiffany Hayes and Kate Martin for a significant amount of time. DiJonai Carrington and Brittney Sykes also have missed time. None were season-ending injuries, but it forced Unrivaled to build out a "relief player pool," a group of players such as Ariel Atkins and Natisha Hiedeman, who can float between teams depending on which club needs reinforcements.
Thomas' knee injury sidelined her for a month.
"It was a slow process in the beginning, building the strength and regaining stability," said Thomas, whose move from the Connecticut Sun to the Phoenix Mercury was one of the biggest offseason trades. "I'm in [the training room] from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. every day getting treatment, rehab, exercises, everything."
The Laces are slowly integrating their injured players back into the lineup. Young is working her way back, and the team hopes to have a nearly full roster by the start of the postseason.
"Before all of these injuries, we were undefeated and we were beating teams pretty good," Thomas said. "For us it's getting back into a rhythm. It doesn't matter where we fall in the [standings], it's about getting back to where we were and making that last push."