Unrivaled Playoffs: Picks, Predictions and Odds

The playoffs for the inaugural season of the Unrivaled 3-on-3 League take place Sunday and Monday, with the semifinals tipping off Sunday night.

The Laces face off with the Rose, followed by the Lunar Owls taking on the Vinyl.

The Lunar Owls ran away with the regular season, finishing 13-1, five games ahead of the second-place Rose.

They averaged a league-high 80.7 points and their +170 point differential dwarfed the second-place Rose (+27). The team closed the season with five straight wins and are heavy favorites to win it all.

The Rose are the only team to knock off the Lunar Owls this season, and finished 8-6 overall. They take on the third place Laces, who won two straight to end the regular season at 7-7.

The Vinyl held on for fourth place despite losing its final three regular season games to finish 5-9. They’ll face the Lunar Owls in the second semifinal tomorrow night.

See below for our experts’ predictions on this matchup.

Laces vs. Rose Unrivaled Playoffs betting picks and predictions

Rose -3.5 (-110)

This is expected to be the more competitive matchup of the two semifinals. The Rose took 2-of-3 from the Laces, winning the last two. 

The Laces have gotten consistent work from Kayla McBride, who leads the team and is second in the league in scoring with 22.2 points. Tiffany Hayes is adding 16.1 points.

The team has been plagued with injuries as several players only participated in 4 to 6 games. That includes Jackie Young, who could be the team’s X-factor here. She only played in six contests, but Young had 27 points to lead the Laces to a 76-69 regular season-closing victory over the Mist. She is averaging 15.5 points in those six contests.

Chelsea Gray of the Rose has been one of the league’s top performers all season. She is third in the league in scoring at 21.3 points and paces the league in assists with 5.4 per game. She averaged 27 points in the team’s two victories over the Laces. 

Angel Reese has been dominant on the boards, leading the league with 12.1 rebounds per game. The Rose also recently welcomed back Azurá Stevens, who is averaging 11.7 points and 7.2 rebounds.

With Stevens back at full strength, Reese emerging in her role, and Gray established as the facilitator, look for the Rose to defeat the Laces for the third time this season and cover the 3.5-point spread as slight favorites.

Under 126.5 points (-110)

These teams have totaled less than 126.5 points in two of their three matchups. They Laces are fourth in the league in scoring at 68.4 points per game, while the Rose ranked last with 67.1 points.

Both teams averaged less than that their season averages in their three matchups with each other.

Additionally, this is a semifinal, with a survive and advance mentality. The defense will be amped up a bit, so look for a result similar to the 58-53 contest the Rose won two weeks ago against the Laces.

Vinyl vs. Lunar Owls Unrivaled Playoffs betting picks and predictions

Lunar Owls -12.5 (-110)

Other than one slight hiccup against the Rose, the Lunar Owls have been the class of the league during this inaugural season.

They dominated most league statistics. That includes an 80.7 points per game average, that was more than 11 points more than the next best team.

The Lunar Owls paced the league in assists, steals, and blocks, and turned the ball over the least. 

That starts with team stalwart Napheesa Collier, the four-time All-Star and two-time Olympic Gold Medalist who led the league with 25.7 points and added 10.6 rebounds per game.

Teammates Allisha Gray and Skylar Diggins-Smith also finished with the league’s top scorers. Gray had 19.1 points and 5.5 rebounds and Diggins-Smith added 17.1 points and 4.8 assists. 

Consistency has been the club’s hallmark, with five players participating in all 14 games.

The Vinyl are hurting right now. Rhyne Howard led the team with 20.5 points, and Dearica Hamby is chipping in with 19.9 points and 9.8 rebounds, but the team is clearly missing Arike Ogunbowale.

They lost handily in the season finale to the Rose last week, 74-46. Hamby led the team with 12 points and 13 rebounds.

However, the last time these teams met up, two weeks ago, the Laces kept it close in a 78-72 defeat.

Hanby had a game-high 31 points and added 11 rebounds, while Howard had 18 points and eight rebounds. DIggins-Smith led the Lunar Owls with 27 points in the victory.

But, while the Vinyl have played the Lunar Owls competitively all three times and only lost by more than 12.5 points once, our experts expect the Lunar Owls to make quick work of them in the semifinal.

The trio of Collier, Gray and Diggins-Smith averaged more than 62 points between them against the Vinyl this season. We expect them to do the same tomorrow night and cover the 12.5-point spread as heavy favorites. 

Over 150.5 points (-110)

This is a strategy call more than anything else. Like the Rose, the Lunar Owls are simply trying to advance to Monday night’s final.

Look for them to put the clamps down on the Vinyl defensively, but also temper their own scoring a bit, therefore look for the teams to total less than 150.5 points.

Unrivaled Playoffs outright odds

Lunar Owls	-250
Rose	+400
Laces	+600
Vinyl	+2200

Read a full breakdown of the Unrivaled Playoffs outright odds on site.

This article was written by a partner sports writer via Spotlight Sports Group. All odds displayed on this page were correct at the time of writing and are subject to withdrawal or change at any time.