Eagles get rival Cowboys for NFL regular-season opener on Sept. 4
The Philadelphia Eagles will start defending their championship at home on Sept. 4 against the division rival Dallas Cowboys. The matchup for the annual regular-season kickoff game was revealed by the NFL in the first in a series of announcements of notable games this week ahead of the full schedule release. The Cowboys-Eagles matchup will be on Thursday night in the first game in NBC’s package of primarily Sunday night games.
The NBA draft lottery: 14 ping-pong balls, and the right to pick No. 1 overall on the line
Sometime around 6 p.m. EDT Monday, locked inside a secure room with no way of communicating with the outside world, team executives and others will watch 14 ping-pong balls start to bounce inside a machine. The balls will be numbered, 1 through 14. One will be drawn, then a second, then a third, then a fourth. And with that, the people inside that room will find out, an hour or so before the rest of the world, which team won the No. 1 pick in next month’s NBA draft. The NBA draft lottery is Monday night in Chicago, with the winner getting the chance to pick No. 1 overall.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander continues to be a model of emotionless consistency for the Thunder
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is mostly an expressionless, seemingly emotionless model of consistency. Whether Oklahoma City’s superstar guard has an off night or scores 50 points, the cool Canadian sticks to the script. He says he’s not an all-time great yet, but Gilgeous-Alexander seems to be on his way to greatness. The MVP finalist led the league in scoring and helped the Thunder win a league-high 68 games this season, earning respect from teammates and opponents alike. He’ll need to summon all his skills to help the Thunder get past Denver.
The White Sox lost 121 games last season. This year’s Rockies have been worse so far
When the Chicago White Sox set the modern record of 121 losses last year, they were outscored by 306 runs over the whole season. Colorado has played less than a fourth of the 2025 campaign so far. And the Rockies are already at minus-128. Last year’s White Sox were 12-28 after 40 games. This year’s Rockies are 7-33. On Saturday, Colorado lost 21-0 to San Diego. Even after rebounding with a win Sunday, the Rockies fired manager Bud Black. It remains to be seen if Colorado stays bad enough to challenge Chicago’s loss total from a year ago. But so far the Rockies have been worse than the White Sox were.
NASCAR star Kyle Larson is ready to focus on the Indianapolis 500 — after a sprint car race
KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) — NASCAR star Kyle Larson is ready to take another shot at “the Double,” running every lap of the Indianapolis 500 and the Coca-Cola 600 on the same day Memorial Day weekend. At least, he will be ready after squeezing in one more sprint car race on Monday night in Indiana. Larson won his third Cup Series race of the season on Sunday at Kansas Speedway, then flew that night to Indianapolis. But with practice for the 500 not starting until Tuesday, he figured he might as well head to Kokoma for a High Limit Racing series race first.
Bobrovsky stops 23 shots, Panthers top Maple Leafs 2-0 in Game 4 to tie series
SUNRISE, Fla. (AP) — Sergei Bobrovsky stopped 23 shots for his fifth career playoff shutout, Carter Verhaeghe and Sam Bennett scored and the Florida Panthers beat the Toronto Maple Leafs 2-0 on Sunday night in Game 4 to even the Eastern Conference semifinal series. Verhaeghe scored on a power play in the first period, Bennett added the insurance score with 7:50 left and Bobrovsky did the rest. He’s the first goalie with two shutouts in this year’s playoffs. Joseph Woll stopped 35 shots for the Maple Leafs, who took a 2-0 series lead with a pair of home wins and now return there for Game 5 on Wednesday with the series knotted 2-2.
Mikko Rantanen has a goal and 2 assists for Stars in 5-2 win over Jets to take a 2-1 series lead
DALLAS (AP) — Mikko Rantanen had a goal and two assists, including on the tiebreaking goal off Alexander Petrovic’s skate as the Dallas Stars beat the Winnipeg Jets 5-2 on Sunday to take 2-1 lead in the second-round Western Conference series. Officials reviewed Petrovic’s goal with 16:09 left for more than five minutes before confirming the 3-2 lead that came off the rebound of a shot by Rantanen. Soon after play resumed, Rantanen scored his ninth goal of the playoffs. Game 4 is Tuesday night in Dallas. Roope Hintz had a goal and an assist for the Stars, and Wyatt Johnston added a late goal. Kyle Connor and Nino Niederreiter scored for the Jets.