Unrivaled 3×3 Basketball hit an injury wall this weekend, forcing the inaugural offseason league to cancel one regular-season game and truncate this week's 1v1 tournament.
With multiple Laces players sidelined, the league called off the team's Saturday night matchup against Vinyl BC.
Similarly, after seven participants had to pull out of Unrivaled's hotly anticipated 30-player 1v1 tournament, the league responded by shortening the contest's first round.
With all teams camped together on Unrivaled's Miami campus, specific details concerning player availability as well as injury type and severity have been tough to come by.
Laces stars Alyssa Thomas (knee) and Tiffany Hayes (concussion) both exited the 1v1 tournament after suffering injuries in previous Unrivaled matchups, putting their fitness statuses in question as the 2025 WNBA season looms.
Fellow Laces standouts Kayla McBride and Kate Martin, plus Rose BC's Brittney Sykes and Phantom stars Natasha Cloud and Marina Mabrey, will not participate. The withdrawal is "due to lingering injuries and to prioritize player wellbeing for regular-season games," per Unrivaled.
Injuries shrink Unrivaled 1v1 tournament's first round
Instead of a planned 14 games split across an afternoon session and an evening set on Monday, the now eight-game opening round of the league's 1v1 contest will occur in a single night of competition.
In an effort to maintain the original bracket as much as possible, Unrivaled decided against making any changes to its first-round matchups.
Because of this, five additional athletes will join the previously announced Jewell Loyd and Arike Ogunbowale in snagging first-round byes, with Courtney Williams, DiJonai Carrington, Satou Sabally, Rae Burrell, and Azurá Stevens now also set to tip off their 1v1 journeys during Tuesday's second round.
Unrivaled's reliance on short, elite rosters has spelled heated competition on a star-stacked court, but the strategy is now revealing its shortcomings. Such slim margins leave the league scrambling whenever one of their players — all of whom plan to return to the WNBA in mid-May — needs a break to prioritize rest and recovery.
How to watch Unrivaled's 1v1 tournament
The three-day competition tips off its eight-game first round at 7 PM ET on Monday. Both the second round and quarterfinals are set to begin at 7 PM ET on Tuesday, with the semifinals and finals slated for Friday at 7:30 PM ET.
All games will air live on truTV, with TNT also broadcasting Monday's and Friday's sessions.
WNBA roster shakeups kept rolling this week, with a deluge of moves radically reshaping the 2022 and 2023 league champion Las Vegas Aces.
After three seasons in Las Vegas, backup guard and popular locker room presence Sydney Colson signed a one-year deal with Indiana on Thursday. The Fever, who've been aggressive about inking athletes they believe will bring a title back to Indianapolis, targeted Colson for her veteran experience.
"[Colson] brings a championship pedigree to the Fever, adding depth to our point guard position, said Fever COO and GM Amber Cox in the team's announcement. "We have the utmost confidence in her ability to step into any situation and deliver on both ends of the floor."
Joining Colson in leaving Las Vegas is forward Alysha Clark. A key factor in the Aces' 2023 title run — which ultimately earned her the WNBA's Sixth Woman of the Year award — Clark is returning to the Seattle Storm, where she played from 2012 to 2020.
The Aces are also losing their 2024 Sixth Woman of the Year, Tiffany Hayes. Despite the Aces protecting her in December's expansion draft, the free agent guard will take her talents to incoming franchise Golden State. There, she'll link up with former Las Vegas assistant coach-turned-Valkyries boss Natalie Nakase.
"Having coached Tiffany last season in Las Vegas, I know firsthand the impact she brings both on and off the court," Nakase noted. "Her versatility, intensity, and ability to score will be invaluable as we build our team's identity."
Las Vegas Aces take aim at refreshed dynasty
After falling short of a three-peat championship last season — despite three-time WNBA MVP A'ja Wilson's outstanding 2024 performance — a significant Aces roster reshuffling was all but guaranteed ahead of the 2025 season.
Las Vegas kicked things off by shipping All-Star guard Kelsey Plum off to the LA Sparks last month. The blockbuster three-team trade sent Seattle's two-time champ Jewell Loyd to the Aces in return.
To shore up their front-court, Las Vegas inked 6-foot-4 power forward Cheyenne Parker-Tyus on Thursday. The 2023 All-Star averaged 15 points and 6.7 rebounds for Atlanta that season, and was on her way to matching that production last year when an ankle injury curbed her 2024 run.
Ultimately, Las Vegas's roller coaster offseason reflects both the WNBA's shifting landscape and the Aces' quest to revive their former dynasty, hoping a fresh start can fuel them all the way to another league title in 2025.
Tiffany Hayes is retiring from the WNBA, she announced on a new episode of the “Counted Me Out” podcast. But the 2017 All-Star still plans to play in international leagues.
“You could still catch me overseas,” Hayes said. “I just figured I’d focus on one thing and then summer time I could turn up my business. I could turn up life with my family and just live life like that.”
The 2023 WNBA season ran from May through September, while most international leagues operate on the opposite seasonal schedule, running from the fall through the spring. Hayes is playing for Shanghai in the Chinese Women’s Basketball Association this offseason.
“I don’t want to play two seasons anymore. I’m really at a crossroads right now. Which one do I play?” Hayes told The Athletic while playing in Turkey last offseason.
After playing 10 seasons with the Atlanta Dream, the 34-year-old guard signed a one-year deal with the Connecticut Sun in 2023. She averaged 12.1 points, 3.0 rebounds and 2.6 assists.
“It’s a lot of things,” Hayes said about her decision to step away from the WNBA. “I really feel like I’m older now. I got a lot of stuff that I really always want to get into but I’m so busy ’cause I’m playing year-round. Plus, my body, playing 11 seasons straight with no breaks, every year, two seasons in a year every time, that’s a lot.”
Hayes won two NCAA championships with UConn in 2009 and 2010, then became the No. 14 pick in the 2012 WNBA Draft. Hayes made her only All-Star appearance in 2017, and she was named to the All-WNBA First Team in 2018.
“You can’t guard me!”
Sun guard Tiffany Hayes made this emphatic statement to Liberty guard Sabrina Ionescu during Tuesday’s Game 2 of the WNBA semifinals. But Ionescu got the last laugh, leading New York to an 84-77 win and evening the series with Connecticut.
Hayes did score a game-high 30 points at New York’s Barclays Center. In the fourth quarter, as she made another move toward the basket, she was fouled by Ionescu in the paint, which triggered her trash talk.
“Yeah, they can’t guard her,” Sun forward Alyssa Thomas said after the game. “They can’t guard her, whether they tried to trap her, whether they tried to guard her one-on-one — hence why they went to a zone. They have no answer for her.”
🗣 "You can't guard me!"
— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) September 27, 2023
28 points and counting for Tiffany Hayes in Game 2 🔥 pic.twitter.com/Bd1gcAH8kU
For Ionescu, though, the victory speaks for itself. She led the Liberty with 21 points, and every New York starter finished in double digits.
“I’m not really focused on what other people say and how they try and rattle us,” she said. “For me, it’s all about winning. But it’s fun when you go against competitors that are into the game and want to talk. At the end of the day, it’s all about winning.”
The series continues with Game 3 at 7:30 p.m. ET Friday at Connecticut’s Mohegan Sun Arena.
Tiffany Hayes is out for at least a month, the Atlanta Dream announced Monday.
The guard has been diagnosed with a Grade 2 MCL tear in her right knee, an MRI confirmed over the weekend. The expected recovery time is approximately four to six weeks.
Through 11 games, Hayes is averaging a career-high 17.6 points, 3.3 assists and 1.6 steals. As of Monday, she is the 12th-ranked scorer in the league and leads the Dream in scoring.
Atlanta is currently 10th in the league with a record of 5-7, sitting just outside the playoff picture. Struggling to find consistency, the team will now rely on Courtney Williams (16.9 PPG) to carry the load.