What went wrong for Breanna Stewart and Mist BC as team fails to make Unrivaled playoffs 

Breanna Stewart and Mist BC found themselves on the outside looking in on the Unrivaled playoffs after the regular season ended on Monday night. Mist BC lost the tiebreaker to Vinyl BC (both had a 5-9 record, but Vinyl BC had a better record against the playoff teams).

Mist BC had a competitive season despite what their record might say. Seven of their nine losses were by less than ten points as Breanna Stewart tried to guide her team through the regular season. Stewart, one of the co-founders of the league alongside Napheesa Collier, was one of the best individual players during the regular season, finishing sixth in scoring.

Here's the breakdown about Mist BC's struggles this season:

A lackluster supporting cast around Breanna Stewart

Despite Breanna Stewart's efforts on the offensive end of the court, the players around her struggled to find their footing. Stewart's Mist BC teammates Rickea Jackson and Jewell Loyd were second and third on the team in scoring but averaged significantly less than their leader.

While neither Loyd nor Jackson played the best throughout the Unrivaled season, the team also suffered due to injuries to Jewell Loyd and Dijonai Carrington. They signed NaLyssa Smith to a relief player contract after they were hit by the injuries.

The lack of scoring from her teammates and the injuries put more pressure on Stewart to deliver for her team. The New York Liberty forward was exceptional, but her team struggled mightily when she was on the bench. Stewart was near the top of the league in minutes played.

Poor playmaking

Unrivaled's 3v3 format and smaller court tend to ensure a faster pace of play and more isolation-centric offensive schemes, but the top-seeded Lunar Owls led the league in assists and offense by a wide margin, largely because they refused to play one-on-one in their games. By contrast, Mist BC was one of the more isolation-dependent teams in the league, which bogged down their offense.

Olympians Breanna Stewart and Jewell Loyd are amongst the best isolation scorers the WNBA has, but their lack of harmony on the offensive end of the court often resulted in one watching the other try to make something of nothing instead of passing the ball to a teammate and running the offense.

Mist BC's last game is a great example of the struggles they faced throughout their first season together. In their 92-58 loss to the Lunar Owls, Stewart faced a litany of double teams as Napheesa Collier and Co. held her to just 15 points despite her shooting 50% from the field. Outside of a standout game from Rickea Jackson, who scored 22 points, no one else on Mist BC made more than four shots.

Carelessness with the basketball

Mist BC struggled to score all season long, but it was the turnovers that did the team in at the end. Breanna Stewart and Co. had the second-worst assist-to-turnover ratio in the league behind playoff-bound Rose BC. However, Rose BC had the defense to overcome their lack of playmaking, while Mist BC's mistakes were turned into points for their opponent.

Loyd, Breanna Stewart and Courtney Vandersloot are all veteran players in the WNBA, but they have lost a step when it comes to their transition game. The result throughout the season was easy buckets for the other team when Mist gave the ball up.

It was a long season for Stewart and Co., but they and head coach Phil Handy have to go back to the drawing board and rethink their approach. It remains to be seen whether or not the selection committee will re-do the rosters in Unrivaled, but with there being a chance that players like A'ja Wilson and Caitlin Clark play in the league next year, perhaps a star could join Mist BC and change their fortunes.