The Unrivaled semifinals are here and Sparks players Dearcia Hamby, Rae Burrell and Azurá Stevens will play for their respective teams.
Welcome to our Sparks Unrivaled Update Series! There are four Sparks players participating in the inaugural season of Unrivaled. We will be doing a weekly recap on how these players are doing in Miami as they play some 3×3 basketball in a competitive environment during the WNBA offseason.
The final week of regular season action has concluded, and despite Sparks players losing five out of the six games they were involved in, big picture-wise, there is some good news. Team Vinyl and Rose made the playoffs, meaning Dearica Hamby, Rae Burrell and Azurá Stevens will all play this championship weekend.
The Unrivaled semifinals will feature three Sparks players and a Sparks coach:
– Azurá Stevens (Rose) matches up against Laces (7:30 p.m. PT on Sunday, March 16)
– Dearica Hamby and Rae Burrell (Vinyl) will face the Lunar Owls (8:30 p.m. PT on Sunday, March 16)…Sparks Asst.…
— LA Sparks PR (@LASparksPR) March 11, 2025
Unfortunately, Rickea Jackson and Team Mist have been eliminated, ending her Unrivaled season. She played in all 14 contests and averaged 13.6 points, 3.9 rebounds and 1.0 assists per game.
Before we discuss the playoff matchups, let’s dive deeper into what happened during this past week’s slate of games for the Sparks players participating in Unrivaled.
Team Vinyl
Burrell had her best performance of the week in Vinyl’s 80-74 loss against Phantom. She scored 14 points in that game. Hamby played well below her usual level in this defeat, scoring just nine points on 4-11 shooting.
In Vinyl’s final regular season game, they were blown out 74-46 and the only silver lining in such a bad defeat was Hamby’s double-double. She ended the game with 12 points and 13 rebounds.
Team Rose
Stevens is back from her leg injury and played in both games for Team Rose. They split their games this week, losing to the Lunar Owls 66-56 but defeating Vinyl 74-46.
Stevens played just under 10 minutes in both contests but was serviceable. She averaged eight points and 6.5 boards in each game. Stevens was the second-best rebounder for her team in this week’s matchups. She is now healthy and ready for playoff action.
Team Mist
With Team Mist losing 76-69 against the Laces and then getting obliterated by the Lunar Owls 92-58, Rickea Jackson’s time at Unrivaled is officially done. Her best game this week was against the Lunar Owls. Jackson was the only player who was able to score for the Mist and she ended the night with 22 points on 10-19 shooting.
While losing nine of their 14 games is far from ideal, Unrivaled was good for Jackson. She was able to work on her game, and she was an aggressive and effective scorer. With the WNBA season right around the corner, hopefully, she can take the momentum she’s gained in Miami and bring it back to Los Angeles.
Upcoming Games
The Unrivaled 2025 Play off Bracket
If you’ve been with us from the start we have come a long way but we aren’t done with this historic season yet! Make sure you lock in with us next Sunday and Monday to see what Club will take home the first ever Unrivaled Championship! pic.twitter.com/TBIdOFfzkc
— Unrivaled Basketball (@Unrivaledwbb) March 11, 2025
With the postseason here, Hamby and Burrell are playing for Vinyl and Stevens is representing Team Rose. The Unrivaled playoffs feature four teams competing in single-elimination games.
We’ll kick things off on Sunday with Rose taking on the Laces at 4:30 PM PT and Vinyl playing the Lunar Owls at 5:30 PM PT. On Monday, the winners of Sunday’s games will play each other for the first Unrivaled championship.
The scenario that Sparks fans should be rooting for would be Vinyl and Rose winning their semifinal matchups; that way, we would have Sparks players on both sides of the title game.
All games are streaming on TNT, truTV and Max.
You can follow Edwin on Twitter at @ECreates88 or on Bluesky at @ecreates88.bsky.social.