A sports blitz starts tonight, plus a WNBA Draft surprise

A sports blitz starts tonight, plus a WNBA Draft surprise

Good morning! I hope your TV is in working order. Coming up: 

📆 A busy stretch begins

1️⃣ Dallas’ surprise at No. 1

🏆 Rory’s family win

Up First: The NBA leads off a brilliant spring

One of the busiest stretches of important pro sporting events begins tonight, and I mean that in quite a positive way. The NBA playoffs tip off in a few hours, with two Play-In games. This weekend, the NHL playoffs will join. Both sports will crown winners by the third week of June … which is when the World Cup will be fully underway. Oh, and the WNBA season starts in three weeks. More on that in a second. 

It’s both dizzying and exciting. Let’s attack the mountain of important sports with what’s happening first: the NBA. 

The Play-In Tournament starts tonight, and it’s interesting to have such a new-feeling concept settle into the calendar (format refresher here). This year’s group is arguably the best since the Play-In’s inception in 2020-21. Just one team with a losing record — the Warriors — is playing, which is the fewest in the Play-In’s short history. Is that a good thing? If you look at the standings, you’ll notice that basically every other team tanked. Hm.

Anyway, I asked Bounce writer Zach Harper if any Play-In team could possibly make a Heat-like run (the No. 8 seed in 2022-23 that lost in the finals):

💬 “If anybody is going to do it, it’s going to be the team that ends up in the No. 8 seed in the East. That’s wildly disrespectful to the Pistons. The second-round opponent of either Toronto or Cleveland is what actually makes this feel possible. I could see a healthy Sixers team or this plucky Hornets team do it. Definitely not the Magic.”

Give me the Hornets of that crew, and I will direct all Detroit angst to Zach’s inbox.

The actual first-round matchups are great, too. Overall, there’s a real Thunder-versus-the-field vibe, but I discount that. There are too many big names and great teams throughout each conference. Examples: 

Outside of the defending champs, eight teams won 50 or more games. LeBron James’ Lakers (West No. 4) play Kevin Durant’s Rockets (West No. 5) in the first round. The Knicks (East No. 3) and Cavaliers (East No. 4) are still stacked with talent and elite scoring. Nikola Jokić still exists for the 54-win Nuggets (West No. 3).

The newcomers here — Victor Wembanyama and the Spurs (West No. 2, 62 wins), Cade Cunningham and the Pistons (East No. 1, 60 wins) — are even better. The storylines are rich.

I also asked Zach which first-round matchup he is most excited to watch:

💬 “It has to be the Nuggets and Wolves. These two teams had an epic battle in 2024 when the Wolves shocked the world. Both teams are deeper and better than they were then. Both teams are also dealing with key injuries, making them susceptible to losing the series. This should be at least six epic games.”

Make sure you’re subscribed to The Bounce for this playoff run, as Zach will be on-site for multiple series. And you can see how 146 NBA players anonymously voted on the eventual title winner. 

Let’s switch to the basketball league starting anew:

Eras: A new generation and a draft surprise

Of all the sports we talked about above, none are experiencing a more important moment than the WNBA. Titles are not being decided in the coming days, but after agreeing to a new collective bargaining agreement, the DNA of this league is changed. So last night’s draft felt like another new beginning. 

And it started with a mild surprise at the top: 

UConn’s Azzi Fudd went No. 1 to the Dallas Wings, making it the second straight year Dallas has drafted a Huskies guard with the top pick. Fudd, a capable scorer who should fit in well alongside Paige Bueckers, hit 45 percent of her 3-point attempts for a UConn team that finished the regular season undefeated. It also doesn’t hurt for chemistry that Fudd and Bueckers are dating.

Big names followed: TCU’s Olivia Miles at No. 2 to Minnesota, Spain’s Awa Fam Thiam to Seattle at No. 3 and UCLA’s Lauren Betts to Washington at No. 4. We also saw a trade in which Seattle nabbed LSU’s Flau’jae Johnson, originally picked by Golden State. The experts say this is a deep draft class. See the grades for every first-round pick.

I want to pause for another second on this new era, which Chantel Jennings highlighted well yesterday: 

The players who will be drafted on Monday night will never experience what it’s like to fight for a 401K match or dental insurance. They’ll travel on charter flights. The No. 1 pick will earn $500,000 in her first season — something it took (women’s basketball legend Sue) Bird a decade to make from the WNBA (and seven times as much as the No. 1 pick a year ago, Paige Bueckers).

Read that full story here. Onward:

News to Know

Bain involved in fatal 2024 collisionTop NFL Draft prospect Rueben Bain Jr. was the driver in a 2024 car crash that seriously injured a passenger, 22-year-old Destiny Betts, who later died from her injuries, according to court documents obtained by The Athletic. The crash report stated that Betts was not wearing a seatbelt at the time of the crash. Bain was cited for careless driving, but it was later dismissed. Read our full story.

More news:

Shaquille O’Neal offered to buy an engagement ring for the couple that went viral at a Pacers game last week. Read more.

ESPN’s Dick Vitale, 86, was diagnosed with melanoma. More details here.

Pacers star Tyrese Haliburton didn’t play this season after tearing his Achilles tendon in last year’s finals, but he said yesterday he also has a lingering shingles infection. It sounds painful.

Michael Malone has landed his first recruit out of the transfer portal at North Carolina: Virginia Tech’s Neoklis Avdalas.

Phillies third baseman Alec Bohm filed an injunction to seek the return of over $500,000 from his parents in their ongoing dispute. Read our full story.

Rangers goalie Jonathan Quick announced this season will be his last. More here.

German soccer club Union Berlin fought back against sexist comments after appointing Marie-Louise Eta as the team’s head coach for its final five games. Read the full backstory.

Boris Becker’s 1989 U.S. Open tennis trophy sold for over $357,000 at auction. It’s one of the rarest tennis sales ever.

📰 Find more news here 24/7.

Watch Guide

**📺 UCL: Two games****3 p.m. ET on Paramount+**I couldn’t choose between the two quarterfinal matchups: Liverpool against Paris Saint-Germain (PSG up 2-0 on aggregate) and Atlético Madrid against FC Barcelona (Atlético up 2-0, too). An elite start to a good sports day. 

📺 NHL: Capitals at Blue Jackets****7 p.m. ET on ESPN

Both of these teams are now eliminated from playoff contention, but it might be our last time seeing Alex Ovechkin in an NHL game. Turn it on. 

📺 NBA: Heat at Hornets****7:30 p.m. ET on Prime VideoThe first of two Play-In games tonight, with Trail Blazers-Suns following directly after at 10 p.m. ET. Both of these are good games. 

📺 Soccer: USWNT vs. Japan****10 p.m. ET on TNT/HBO Max/PeacockThe second of three friendlies in a week against the No. 5 team in FIFA’s rankings (the Americans are No. 2). The USWNT prevailed 2-1 on Saturday, a promising start.

Get tickets to games like these here.

Pulse Picks

One last Masters story, and it is a banger: Brendan Quinn wrote about how Rory McIlroy’s first Masters win belonged to the world. This one, however, belonged to his family. Make time for that today. 

Despite earning a Play-In spot, Golden State’s season is far from ideal for a franchise of its stature … which raises questions about Steve Kerr’s future as coach. 

A battle has emerged in the baseball world: collectors versus teams, over paper tickets. 

The North Dakota men’s hockey team didn’t win a national title at the Frozen Four last week. But the takeaway for the Bison is much more important: The sleeping giant has awoken. 

More North Dakota! What a day. Grace Raynor has the story of a small town in the rural state with 1,000 people that has produced two blue-chip football recruits this year. Welcome to Kindred. 

Most-clicked in the newsletter yesterday: The Jazz Chisholm Jr. forceout saga. 

Most-read on the website yesterday: The froyo scam.

📫 That’s all for now! Say hello at thepulse@theathletic.com, and check out our other newsletters.

This article originally appeared in The Athletic.

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