Good morning, I’m Dan Gartland. I’m not surprised that the Heat’s roster of Giannis Antetokounmpo and hardly anybody else doesn’t appear to be working.
In today’s SI:AM:
📺 Televised NFL replay reviews?
⚾ Verducci’s World Series preview
🏈 Candidates for Maryland job
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Another big game for Angel Reese
Angel Reese is having a WNBA Finals for the ages.
Reese and the Dream beat the Valkyries in Game 3 last night, 97–71, to take a 2–1 series lead. And it was Reese who led the way. She had 21 points, 12 rebounds and three steals, despite not attempting a field goal in the fourth quarter.
It was Reese’s third double-double of the series, following a 14-point, 12-rebound showing in Game 1 and a 30-point, 16-rebound night in Game 2. That makes the 24-year-old Reese the youngest of the seven players who have recorded a double-double in three straight Finals games and the second player (after A’ja Wilson last year) to record at least 20 points and 12 rebounds in consecutive Finals games.
“Time to take over. Do whatever it takes to win,” Reese said in her postgame interview with Elle Duncan. “I said this game, I don’t want to have to say, ‘Give me the ball.’ Everybody was just playing together. It’s fun when you win and you play with a great group. This is a sisterhood.”
The game was played in front of a sold-out crowd of 17,099 at State Farm Arena after the WNBA shifted the Finals schedule to play the game at Atlanta’s largest arena. The Valkyries will have a chance to even the series at two games apiece in Game 4 on Saturday afternoon before it heads back to San Francisco on Monday.
Wait, who’s that guy who went off for the Grizzlies?
If I told you that a Grizzlies guard stuffed the stat sheet in a blowout win, you would probably say, “Cool. How many points did Ja Morant score?” But Morant doesn’t play for them anymore. No, the star for Memphis last night was an unlikely one: Ty Jerome.
Jerome had 45 points on 17-for-25 shooting to go along with seven rebounds and six assists in a 123–103 win over the Jazz. That shattered his previous career scoring high of 33 points.
His career night makes him just the sixth player in NBA history to have at least 45 points, five assists and five rebounds in a season opener. He joins an impressive list that also includes World B. Free, Michael Jordan, Anthony Davis, Kyrie Irving and Jaylen Brown. Jerome had the highest field goal percentage of any of those players, and Jordan is the only other one to put up those stats in a win.
This is Jerome’s eighth season in the NBA, but he’s mostly been a bench player. His best season was in 2024–25, when he appeared in 70 games for the Cavaliers (making three starts) and finished third in Sixth Man of the Year voting. He parlayed that success into a three-year, $28 million contract with Memphis, but a calf injury limited him to just 15 games last season.
The Grizzlies look a lot different now than when Jerome first signed, having traded away Morant and Jaren Jackson Jr., but that creates a bigger role for Jerome. He’s the second-oldest player on the roster (after Jerami Grant) and will be counted on to provide veteran leadership in addition to his spot in the starting lineup. The Grizzlies aren’t going anywhere, but a few more games like last night could have contenders calling about a trade.
The best of Sports Illustrated
The top five…
… things I saw last night:
5. A boneheaded play by CF Montréal’s Brayan Vera. He committed the world’s most obvious dive and was shown a yellow card for simulation. That was his second yellow of the match, so he was sent off. Montreal had to play the last hour of the match with 10 men. The MLS club lost the Canadian Championship final to the Hamilton Forge of the Canadian Premier League on penalties.
4. An emphatic block by Rhyne Howard.
3. This play by LaMelo Ball that somehow wasn’t called a travel. Even his brother Lonzo thought it was a travel.
2. Trevor Zegras’s hand-eye coordination to bat the puck out of mid-air into the net.
1. Tyrese Haliburton’s emotional interview after his first game since tearing his Achilles tendon in the 2025 playoffs.
📺 What we’re watching today …
NFL
Patriots at Bears, 8:15 p.m. ET, Prime Video
In a battle of rising quarterbacks. New England’s Drake Maye could become the sixth quarterback under 25 with three or more touchdown passes in four consecutive games in the Super Bowl era. Last week, Chicago’s Caleb Williams threw his 50th career touchdown pass, joining Lamar Jackson and Patrick Mahomes as the only quarterbacks in NFL history with fewer than 15 interceptions at the time of their 50th career touchdown pass.
NBA
Cavaliers at 76ers, 7 p.m. ET, ESPN
Cleveland swept the season series against the Sixers last season, but Philadelphia will look to keep its momentum going in LeBron James’s home debut.
Nuggets at Thunder, 9:30 p.m. ET, ESPN
Nikola Jokić and the Nuggets will open their season on the road in Oklahoma City against the Thunder, who are coming off a win in San Antonio.
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