🏀 Unrivaled Weekly: The clutch factor
From The GIST (hi@thegistsports.com)
Leveling The Playing Field
There’s no crashout jar needed for today’s edition of Unrivaled Weekly — we’re here to break down the league’s hottest hands, vibe-check the top off-court moments, and unpack the plays that hit different.
☝️ Before we drop dimes, if you happen to be in Philadelphia today, might we suggest enjoying the best women’s basketball has to offer at Unrivaled’s Philly Watch Party? The City of Brotherly Sisterly Love is Unrivaled — and you can be, too.
Who says you can’t go home? Not Jon Bon Jovi and definitely not Unrivaled. As you read, pro women’s basketball is returning to Philly, and it’s been a long time coming (nearly three decades to be exact).
- A handful of hoopers, including Rose’s Kahleah Copper and Phantom’s Natasha Cloud, call Philadelphia home. Broad Street is so ready to welcome them back.
💥 The clutch factor
The GIST: Unrivaled is a masterclass in must-watch hoops — partially because of the league’s exhilarating Elam Ending. Twenty-eight game winners later, let’s talk about those dub-clinching buckets.
🤔 What is an “Elam Ending”?: Dreamed up by Ball State University professor Nick Elam, the unique game-ending format uses a target score instead of a timed fourth quarter. In Unrivaled, the target score is set by adding 11 points to the leading team’s point total after three quarters. The purpose? Ensuring every single play matters.
- With time off the table, the Elam Ending neutralizes the need for late-game fouls and eliminates clock wasting down the stretch.
- The game is never out of reach as long as a team can string together defensive stops. Oh, and guaranteed game winners don’t hurt the thrill factor either.
🫣 Comebacks encouraged but rare: The trailing team has won just four times so far this season, with the largest winning margin a mere four points in Laces’ 70–66 dub over Rose. But Laces know all too well that Elam Endings are a double-edged sword: They were on the wrong side of the year’s biggest fourth-quarter comeback, blowing a seven-point lead in an 83–81 loss to Mist.
🧺 What’s in a game winner?: There’s been 28 of them so far, and after analyzing each game-sealing bucket, some intriguing patterns emerged…
- Only five of the 28 game winners were assisted by a teammate, pointing to a penchant for isolation basketball when the game’s on the line. Why wouldn’t you want the ball in your hottest hooper’s hands?
- Just four games were won on a three-pointer. Perhaps even more surprising, all of those threes came off the dribble — three were pull ups (a Chelsea Gray specialty), and one was a stepback.
- Twenty game winners are from repeat clutch hoopers. Breanna Stewart (Mist) and Paige Bueckers (Breeze) have a league-best three each: Stewie’s buckets include a fadeaway jumper, foul shot, and finger roll, while Bueckers has banked on her stellar midrange game.
🔥 There’s no “right way” to knock down a game winner…but the celly? That has to be on point.
💿 One glance at the league standings, and it looks like Vinyl are a little, ahem, off-key. The 2025 runners-up have managed just two wins through seven games. Vinyl’s point margin is notably -0.71, meaning they’re losing games by less than one point on average.
- Does that mean they’re knocking on dubs’ door? Not really. Only two of their games were within five points: A 23-point beatdown of Hive masked double-digit losses to Laces and the league-worst Lunar Owls. All to say, there’s more harmonizing to be done.
🔥 Breeze BC’s Dominique Malonga finishes the season with five dunks.
The second hooper to throw down at Unrivaled, Malonga’s been dunking since she was 15 years old. Her incredible seven-foot-one wingspan helps, but the six-foot-six Frenchwoman also has some serious hops to power those smooth dunks.
- Malonga has the athleticism and coordination to slam with relative ease, but Unrivaled gives her the space to do it. With just six players on the floor and the ability to operate out of the pick-and-roll with Bueckers, expect more jams in Malonga’s future.
As always, thanks for lacing ’em up with us.
Yours through timeouts and technicals,
The GIST Team
Today’s email was brought to you by Lisa Minutillo. Fact-checking by Elisha Gunaratnam. Managing edits by Lauren Tuiskula. Head of content Ellen Hyslop.