Unrivaled's opening night: Takeaways and results from first two games

Unrivaled, the new 3-on-3 women’s pro basketball league, is making its debut Friday. Co-founded by Minnesota Lynx star Napheesa Collier and two-time WNBA MVP Breanna Stewart of the New York Liberty, the six-team league runs two months before a March 17 championship game.

The first games are underway from Miami. Follow along for live updates.

Game 1 takeaways: Lunar Owls 84, Mist 80

Unrivaled’s inaugural game delivered — living up to and maybe even surpassing the hype. The fast-paced play might have been tiring for players — who are playing on a condensed full court, not a halfcourt like FIBA 3×3 — but was plenty entertaining for spectators.

It’s so much more difficult to defend as a team in 3-on-3, and this style lends itself to multiple players going on heaters throughout the game. In Game 1, that was Jewell Loyd and Rickea Jackson for the Mist and Allisha Gray, Napheesa Collier and Skylar-Diggins Smith for the Lunar Owls. There were few lulls in action, with the number of free throws cut down and, available for fans watching from home, coaches mic’d up during timeouts.

The league couldn’t have asked for a better ending to the first game, with Diggins-Smith’s big fourth quarter and game-winner helping the Lunar Owls come from behind to win 84-80. I was (and still am) intrigued to see how the “winning score” format worked in practice; it allowed a memorable end to Game 1 and, mimicking the essence of street-ball, will guarantee each game ends on a game-winning shot — a clever invention to further differentiate Unrivaled from the WNBA, NBA and other leagues. — ESPN’s Alexa Philippou

Unrivaled set out to produce a fast-paced, intense style of basketball. They got that in Game 1.

In the Lunar Owls’ win, transition play was practically unstoppable. Shots went up within the first five seconds of the 18-second shot clock. And if a defender was beat, it was almost a guaranteed bucket.

The fourth quarter produced the most intense basketball of the game. The speed picked up even more, the contact got more physical.

The Mist needed to score 11 points to win, but the Lunar Owls weren’t far behind, needing 17. Skylar Diggins-Smith hit the game-winning 3 for the Lunar Owls. Her teammates stormed the court, and she shouted out a “Hooty hoo” before exiting the floor. — ESPN’s Kendra Andrews