Unrivaled provides a clean laboratory for measuring the successes—and failures—of certain lineups. Unlike its five-on-five counterpart, three-on-three basketball offers no room to hide. Help defense will not be on the way, and mismatches will be placed under a microscope. The league’s smaller rosters also mean players will face off against each other more frequently than if additional bench players were involved.
So … which Unrivaled team has the best three-player lineup? Based on the information above, that should be an easy question to answer. However, the league doesn’t publish any lineup stats. We’ll just have to grab the data ourselves. Unrivaled's play-by-play data provides the detail needed to calculate possession-based stats. After running the numbers, we ranked the best lineup for each team by net rating—the difference between points scored and points allowed per 100 possessions.
Without further ado, here is a ranking of the top lineups in Unrivaled. (A lineup had to have at least 100 total possessions to qualify. For lineups that didn’t meet that threshold, the team’s best or next-best trio is listed as their secondary lineup.) Read until the end for a full list of how different Unrivaled lineups fare.
Breeze: Paige Bueckers, Kate Martin, Cameron Brink
+44.2 net rating, 127 possessions
Don’t dismiss the Breeze as a bunch of kids. The trio of Bueckers, Martin and Brink has had a positive plus-minus in six of seven games, and its best performance came in an 83–64 win against the Mist. (Bueckers, Martin and Brink outscored the Mist by 15 points over 33 possessions.) It’s easy to see why this lineup works: Bueckers leads the way in scoring and playmaking, Brink provides rim protection and Martin brings space and grit as an off-ball wing.
Best secondary lineup: Bueckers, Rickea Jackson, Brink (+30.7, 108 possessions). Jackson is shooting a hyper-efficient 69.2% while playing in this lineup.
The Vet 🆚 The Youngin’
— Unrivaled Basketball (@Unrivaledwbb) January 20, 2026
Husky on husky crime going down on TNT! pic.twitter.com/VVjUhJX4dB
Mist: Allisha Gray, Veronica Burton, Breanna Stewart
+42.9, 272 possessions
Out of all lineups with at least 150 possessions, Gray, Burton and Stewart form the league’s best. It helps that Gray has played at an MVP level: She has averaged 26.3 points on 46.3% shooting over the Mist’s last four games. It also doesn’t hurt to have Stewart, who looks fully healthy, and Burton, who has a lineup-high 17 assists and nine offensive rebounds. (Notice a commonality between the top two lineups? Each has a star primary ballhandler, a high-effort guard or wing, and a versatile big.)
Best secondary lineup: Burton, Arike Ogunbowale, Stewart (+40.9, 44 possessions). It’s a luxury to replace Gray with Ogunbowale when needed.
Phantom: Tiffany Hayes, Kelsey Plum, Aliyah Boston
+27.5, 208 possessions
This might be Unrivaled’s most balanced lineup in terms of how production is divided. While all three players are on the floor together, Hayes has shot 64.3% from three while Plum and Boston have hit nearly 60% of their shots from within the arc. To top it off, no player has scored more than 41% of this lineup’s total points.
Best secondary lineup: Hayes, Plum, Kiki Iriafen (+29.2, 34 possessions). Ditto for swapping out Boston for Iriafen.
Rose: Chelsea Gray, Lexie Hull, Azurá Stevens
+24.7, 129 possessions
The Point Gawd isn’t the only reason for this lineup’s success. Gray, Hull and Stevens outscored the Breeze 15–2 in the third quarter of a 73–69 win, and that run included three steals from Hull, two threes from Gray and seven points from Stevens. (It was also the game in which Gray had 37 points.) Since Hull sat out with an illness and Kahleah Copper became a starter, this lineup hasn’t seen as much action as of late.
Chelsea Gray with back-to-back triples 🎯
— TNT Sports U.S. (@TNTSportsUS) January 12, 2026
Paige Bueckers with a tough two 🔥
Get to truTV or HBO Max for Rose vs Breeze! pic.twitter.com/P3GeJ19EBM
Best secondary lineup: Gray, Stevens, Shakira Austin (+67.1, 51 possessions). This might be the best two-big lineup in the league.
Laces: Jordin Canada, Brittney Sykes, Naz Hillmon
+14.6, 152 possessions
Not the lineup you would expect? While the Laces do have more successful crews than this one, the Canada-Sykes-Hillmon trio outscored the Breeze 28–16 en route to the team's fifth straight win Monday. Together, Canada and Sykes also create havoc: This lineup also has the most steals per possession out of any lineup on the floor for at least 50 possessions.
Best secondary lineup: Jackie Young, Maddy Siegrist, Alyssa Thomas (+62.7, 95 possessions). The Laces have moved away from this lineup, choosing to pair Sykes with Young rather than Siegrist.
Vinyl: Erica Wheeler, Rhyne Howard, Dearica Hamby
+4.8, 125 possessions
Consider the Vinyl a work in progress. The Wheeler-Howard-Hamby group had its best outing in an early-season win against the Hive, but it’s been hit-or-miss since then. What has seemed to work is the duo of Wheeler and Howard: Together, they have finished with a positive plus-minus in five out of seven games.
Best secondary lineup: Williams, Howard, Brittney Griner (+68.6, 32 possessions). Small sample size caveats apply, but lineups featuring Griner have been the Vinyl’s best.
Lunar Owls: Rebecca Allen, Marina Mabrey, Aaliyah Edwards
-6.2, 382 possessions
With Napheesa Collier out for the year and Skylar Diggins sidelined for the first three games, the Lunar Owls have struggled. This lineup logged 59, 47, 80 (!) and 75 total possessions in the team’s first four games, and has performed better since Diggins’s return. They have a +16.6 net rating in the Lunar Owls’ last three games.
Best secondary lineup: Skylar Diggins, Rachel Banham, Temi Fágbénlé (0.6, 25 possessions). It’s been tough sledding overall for the Lunar Owls and they haven’t found a consistent second grouping.
Hive: Kelsey Mitchell, Sonia Citron, Ezi Magbegor
-14.4, 336 possessions
On paper, this lineup should work. Mitchell is an electric scorer, Citron is a smart, do-everything wing and Magbegor is a lengthy rim protector. But it hasn’t worked out in practice, as the Hive have allowed a 62.9% effective field goal percentage with all three on the floor.
2026 Unrivaled Lineups by Net Rating (Min. 100 possessions)
More WNBA on Sports Illustrated
- Caitlin Clark Lands New Gig As Part of NBC’s NBA Broadcast Team
- Elle Duncan Lands New Role Covering WNBA After ESPN Departure
- Paige Bueckers Addresses WNBA Rivalry With Caitlin Clark: ‘We’re Cool, We’re Friends’
- WNBA 2026 Season Schedule: Caitlin Clark vs. Angel Reese Matchups, Key Dates and More
This article was originally published on www.si.com as Ranking the Top Lineups in Unrivaled for the 2026 Season.
