Friday will begin Unrivaledthe new professional women's 3×3 league in the United States, and its president took the floor to discuss the style of play and its ambitions at the technical level. “This game is anchored by the way you played basketball as a kid on a tarmac court”Luke Cooper told ESPN. “There is rhythm, movement. When you watch, you feel like you're watching real basketball… It's not a gimmick. »
In a single room with 850 seats, in Miami, the matches will be played on a field measuring 15 by 22 meters, and not on a half-court as is usually the case in 3×3, and in particular at the Olympic Games. . Furthermore, each match will consist of three seven-minute quarters and a fourth quarter called a “target score”.
This target score will be determined by adding 11 points to the lead team's score after three quarters. As explained ESPNif the score is 50-48 before the final quarter, the first team to reach 61 points will win the match. There will never be any overtime, and this therefore follows the principle of the Elam Ending, used for a few seasons at the All-Star Game.
“We want it to remain basketball”insists Cooper. “You just play to get a score, which is, honestly, the purest form of basketball. When you were playing as a kid, no one played for ten minutes in an impromptu game. You set a score and played until someone scored the deciding basket. »
Limit the number of mistakes
The creators of the Unrivaled league hope that a target score will eliminate fouls late in the match and speed up the overall pace of the game. To this end, the free throw process will also be different. When a player is fouled — whether on a lay-up or a 3-point shot — only one free throw will be awarded. This single throw will be worth two points for a foul on a 2-point or 3-point shot if the foul occurred on a 3-point attempt. An and-1 will be worth one point.
Players will be eliminated after their sixth foul, but if a team only has three players available and one of them commits a sixth foul, they will remain in the game but will receive a technical foul for each additional foul. Each technical foul will result in a free throw worth one point.
Due to the small size of the field and the desire for a quick game, the clock will be set at 18 seconds, compared to the usual 24 seconds. The clock will only stop on successful baskets in the last 30 seconds of a period, not in the last minute.
