Roster roulette
Happy Thursday! And hopefully your week is less chaotic than the NBA’s first full night of the 2026-27 season was: Six of Wednesday’s 11 games were decided by 20+ points, while a parade of stars made their debuts in weird, unfamiliar uniforms. (It was like scrolling through the old Straight Cash Homey blog, with random jerseys everywhere.) We’ll look at why all that roster-churn may be helping to fuel the early-season madness. Plus, Atlanta has suddenly seized total control of the WNBA Finals behind Angel Reese’s dominant series, Patriots-Bears gets the NFL’s Week 7 underway tonight, and Denver and Cleveland finally join the NBA party with their season openers. Here’s what we’re watching today:
The Main Events
All listed times are Eastern.
Football:
🏈 Thursday Night Football: Patriots (40%) at Bears (60%) - 8:15 p.m. (Prime Video)
🏈 CFB: James Madison (79%) at Appalachian State (21%) - 7 p.m. (ESPNU)
🏈 CFB: East Carolina (22%) at Memphis (78%) - 7:30 p.m. (ESPN2)
🏈🏆 Super Bowl check-in: 49ers 19% to win NFL title
🏈🏆 College Football Playoff check-in: Georgia 18% to win national title
NBA:
🏀 Cavaliers (41%) at 76ers (59%) - 7 p.m. (ESPN)
🏀 Nuggets (25%) at Thunder (75%) - 9:30 p.m. (ESPN)
🏀🏆 NBA title check-in: Thunder 26% to win
NHL:
🏒 Rangers (51%) at Maple Leafs (49%) - 7 p.m. (MSG / Sportsnet)
🏒 Predators (41%) at Bruins (59%) - 7 p.m. (NESN / FanDuel Sports Network)
🏒 Panthers (48%) at Penguins (52%) - 7 p.m. (Scripps Sports / SportsNet)
🏒🏆 Stanley Cup check-in: Hurricanes/Panthers 11% to win
Soccer:
⚽ Europa League: Bayer Leverkusen (82%) at OFI Crete (7%) - 12:45 p.m. (Paramount+)
⚽ Europa League: AC Milan (27%) at Bournemouth (49%) - 3 p.m. (Paramount+ / CBSSN)
⚽🏆 Champions League title check-in: FC Barcelona 27% to win
⚽🏆 Premier League title check-in: Arsenal FC 64% to win
⚽🏆 Europa League title check-in: Juventus 17% to win
⚽🏆 MLS title check-in: Nashville SC 20% to win MLS Cup
⚽🏆 NWSL title check-in: Gotham FC 38% to win
MLB:
⚾🏆 World Series: Off-day. (MIL-TB series begins Friday)
⚾🏆 World Series title check-in: Brewers 64% to win
WNBA:
🏀🏆 WNBA Finals: Off-day. (Game 4 set for Saturday)
🏀🏆 WNBA title check-in: Dream 78% to win
Welcome to the blender
The NBA was blessed with some compelling basketball on Tuesday’s 2026-27 Opening Day slate — including LeBron James and the Sixers spoiling the Knicks’ ring ceremony, the Pistons coming back from down 22 against the Celtics, and a very chippy opening installment of the Thunder-Spurs rivalry.
With 22 teams in action for a busier night on Wednesday, however, the blowouts came fast and furious. The average margin of victory across all the games was a staggering 20.3 points, making Oct. 21 the third-most lopsided day of opening-week games (on average) in NBA history with a minimum of 5 games played — trailing only Dec. 25, 2020 (23.2) and Oct. 29, 2023 (22.3) — and the most lopsided opening-week day with a minimum of 10 games — beating out Nov. 4, 1997 (17.6).
Wednesday’s six 20+ point blowouts were also the most on any NBA opening-week date in history:
That doesn’t mean all the games were devoid of interesting nuggets (albeit not of the Denver variety — they’ll open their season tonight). Walker Kessler, for instance, had 26 points on 12-for-12 shooting with 10 dunks (!) in his first Lakers game, one of the highest scoring totals on a perfect shooting night in NBA history. And he wasn’t alone among new faces getting off to a fast start in new places: Minnesota added LaMelo Ball, then beat Giannis and the Heat by 25. (I joked about how jarring this was to see.) Kawhi Leonard returned to Toronto, who beat Chicago by 43. Damian Lillard returned to Portland, who beat Phoenix by 41. And Washington with Anthony Davis beat Milwaukee by 12.
The whole night felt like somebody hit the “randomize rosters” option on NBA 2K, which probably made all those huge blowouts no coincidence. After a crazy offseason, getting used to all the new player-team combos is going to take some work. Here are the teams with the least roster continuity in their season openers, measured by the share of last season’s minutes belonging to players who did — or didn’t — appear in the team’s first game of 2026-27:
That probably means we can expect things to get more chaotic before they calm down, as teams are still getting used to all of their new players. But hey, that’s part of the early-season NBA fun before things get too serious.
Dream theater
A few days ago, we wondered whether the Atlanta Dream could counter the Golden State Valkyries’ historic defense to climb back in the WNBA Finals. Well, consider that question answered. On the heels of Angel Reese’s huge Game 2 output, she delivered another big performance (21 points, 12 boards) in Game 3 as Atlanta blew out Golden State by 26 to take a commanding 2-1 series lead. The Dream’s 120.3 offensive rating against the Valkyries on Wednesday was the fourth-highest Golden State had allowed all season, and the Valkyries’ minus-40 point differential over the past two games represents their worst pair of consecutive contests all season long.
What else we’re reading
Smart, short reads we liked while building today’s odds.
🏀 “First impressions at your new NBA job” by Tyler Lauletta
🏈 “Flowers for Brian Flores” by Ray Carpenter
📍 “The Geography of Sports Innovation” by Andrew Petcash
🏈 “Jalen Hurts Fallout: The NFL’s Global Ambitions Are a Players’ Problem” by Ethan Strauss
🏈🎙️ “The Joe Buck-Troy Aikman On-Air Divorce Dilemma” by Andrew Marchand
Next on deck…
Friday (10/23)
🏈 CFB: Duke at Virginia
⚾🏆 MLB Playoffs: Rays at Brewers, World Series Game 1 (Series tied 0-0)
🏀🏆 WNBA Playoffs: No games. (Off-day)
🏀 NBA: Knicks at Celtics
🏒 NHL: Lightning at Avalanche
⚽ Premier League: Ipswich Town at Nottingham Forest
Saturday (10/24)
🏈 CFB: #7 Ole Miss at #19 Texas
🏈 CFB: #14 Houston at #10 Utah
⚾🏆 MLB Playoffs: Rays at Brewers, World Series Game 2
🏀🏆 WNBA Playoffs: Valkyries at Dream, WNBA Finals Game 4 (ATL leads 2-1)
🏀 NBA: Warriors at Suns
🏒 NHL: Maple Leafs at Oilers
⚽ Premier League: Tottenham Hotspur at Chelsea
Sunday (10/25)
🏈 NFL: Chiefs at Seahawks
🏈 NFL: Packers at Lions
🏈 NFL: Bengals at Ravens
⚾🏆 MLB Playoffs: No games. (Off-day)
🏀🏆 WNBA Playoffs: No games. (Off-day)
🏀 NBA: Clippers at Thunder
🏒 NHL: Canadiens at Jets (Heritage Classic)
⚽ Premier League: Liverpool vs. Brighton
⚽ MLS: LAFC at LA Galaxy
🏁 NASCAR: YellaWood 500 at Talladega
🏁 F1: United States Grand Prix
