{"id":425323,"date":"2026-01-23T16:36:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-23T16:36:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/425323\/"},"modified":"2026-01-23T16:36:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-23T16:36:08","slug":"unrivaled-because-of-ab-phantom-is-fast-becoming-a-club-to-beat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/425323\/","title":{"rendered":"Unrivaled: Because of AB, Phantom is fast becoming a club to beat"},"content":{"rendered":"

If there was an early-season favorite for a fictional Unrivaled Most Improved Player Award, it would be Aliyah Boston. And in large part due to Boston, Phantom is Unrivaled\u2019s most improved team.<\/p>\n

Last year, Phantom finished a league-worst 4-10, outscored by 138 points, or almost 10 points per game, for the season. Through five games, this year\u2019s Phantom has all the indicators not only of a playoff team, but of a true contender. At 3-2, Phantom has the league\u2019s best scoring margin, outscoring opponents by over eight points per game and 41 points overall.<\/p>\n

Phantom\u2019s areas of improvement also correspond with Boston\u2019s strengths. They\u2019re better on the boards and more active defensively, increasing their rebounds, steals and blocks per game. They\u2019re also a much better assisting team, an area where Boston, arguably Unrivaled\u2019s best passing big, gives the club an extra edge.<\/p>\n

Of course, Boston herself had to better. Her debut Unrivaled season was unimpressive, suggesting, in contrast to some players<\/a>, her game was suited to 5×5 but not 3×3. A member of Vinyl, Boston saw limited minutes, cleaning the glass with success when she got the chance but otherwise failing to make much of a positive impact.<\/p>\n

So far this season, she looks like the player fans have grown familiar with since her days at South Carolina and through her first three WNBA seasons with the Indiana Fever. She\u2019s averaging over 18 points and eight rebounds per game. Her two blocks per game lead the league, while her 1.8 steals per contest rank fourth overall. She\u2019s also tossing 2.6 assists per game, or 13 overall; that compares to just nine total last season.<\/p>\n

Boston also is doing all the little, smart things that irritate her opponents and arouse the ire of fans of the other team, but please her teammates and supporters. That includes her more innocuous habits, such as consistently running the floor to draw in an opposing defender and create more favorable transition scoring opportunities for her guards, something Unrivaled commentator Sarah Kustok complimented her for when Boston visited the booth during a recent broadcast.<\/p>\n

More notoriously, she\u2019s swinging elbows, hooking opposing players\u2019 arms and setting moving screens.<\/p>\n

The latter is something that her teammate, Kelsey Plum, has gained an appreciation for, which she (somewhat reluctantly) admitted as guest on Boston and Candace Parker\u2019s podcast, Post Moves<\/a>. Having frequently been the victim of Boston\u2019s illegal screening tricks, Plum is now the beneficiary, creating a two-woman game that is the best in Unrivaled.<\/p>\n

Plum and Boston\u2019s fast partnership, as well as Plum\u2019s overall rapid acclimation to Unrivaled, also has been critical to the Ghost Gang\u2019s growth. KP is fifth in Unrivaled in scoring at 22.6 points per game. Her six assists per game are the third-best in the league.<\/p>\n

Phantom head coach Roneeka Hodges also deserve credit for her club\u2019s success. Recognizing the effectiveness of the Boston-Plum pairing, she\u2019s not messing around; rather, she\u2019s establishing rotations that maximize their shared court time.<\/p>\n

On Friday night, the Ghost Gang goes for a second-straight win against Vinyl (8:45 p.m. ET, TNT\/truTV).<\/p>\n

Unlike Phantom, Vinyl has yet to find their groove. Similar to last season, the club is inconsistent. Their talent sometimes is in-tune, connected and engaged, but, too often, it record scratches, resulting listless losses. Coming off one of the poorest games of her Unrivaled career, at least expect Dearica Hamby to be dialed in to deliver a bounceback performance.<\/p>\n

Rose and Mist meet in a get-right matchup<\/p>\n

Rose has lost two-straight games. Mist lost their last game. Week 3 of Unrivaled thus tips off with two veteran clubs desperate for a win (7:30 p.m. ET, TNT\/truTV).<\/p>\n

No, Rose\u2019s unexpected Ls are not the fault of Kahleah Copper, who missed Rose\u2019s three opening wins. Rose, however, needs to rediscover how to play most effectively with Copper, a high-usage offense-first player.<\/p>\n

With Copper sidelined, things fit a bit more cleanly for Rose, with Chelsea Gray surrounded by \u201cstars in their role\u201d who are more defensive-minded play finishers. Shakira Austin and Azur\u00e1 Stevens are mobile bigs with elite defensive length; offensively, both are capable of cashing in on dimes from Gray, while Stevens can also stretch out to the 3-point line. Lexie Hull and Sug Sutton are eager to get after perimeter players defensively, all while serving as spot-up 3-point shooters.<\/p>\n

Those players\u2019 more defined roles put a lot of the offensive creation burden on Gray. But she, and Rose, were thriving. Rose has to figure out how to share some of those responsibilities with Copper, while maintaining their defensive integrity.<\/p>\n

Mist, likewise, has some things to solve in order to reach their upside. Head coach Zach O\u2019Brien should take a cue from Hodges by having his club, like Phantom, lean into their best pairings and combinations.<\/p>\n

That must begin with more Allisha Gray.<\/p>\n

As a member of Lunar Owls last season, Gray logged almost 20 minutes per game, scoring 19.4 points, compiling 2.7 assists and grabbing 5.7 boards. This season, Gray is putting up 21.7 points, 4.0 assists and 5.3 rebounds\u2014in just 13.3 minutes per game. After finishing second in the 2025 WNBA season in total minutes, Gray has proven can handle a bigger load; she\u2019s one of the fittest players in the sport.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s time for Mist to get serious and maximize Gray, deploying her and Breanna Stewart as much as possible.<\/p>\n

Will Rose or Mist approach this as a must-win matchup, making the hard decisions required to avoid another defeat?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"If there was an early-season favorite for a fictional Unrivaled Most Improved Player Award, it would be Aliyah…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":425324,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[99,18419,434],"class_list":["post-425323","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wnba","tag-sports","tag-unrivaled","tag-wnba"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/425323","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=425323"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/425323\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/425324"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=425323"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=425323"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=425323"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}