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Happy Monday, and welcome to June! The last weekend of May certainly provided its share of fireworks on the way out: the San Antonio Spurs vanquished the defending champion Oklahoma City Thunder on the road in Game 7 Saturday to punch their ticket to the NBA Finals, and before that, the Carolina Hurricanes blew out the Montreal Canadiens on Friday night to make the Stanley Cup Final as well. Both championship series will start this week — but Sunday and Monday are the first days with neither an NBA nor NHL playoff game since April 16 (if we consider the NBA Play-In Tournament to be “playoffs”).
That leaves us a little breathing room before we dive into a month that will contain the NBA and NHL finals (and their drafts, later on), the start of the World Cup, the end of the French Open (and the start of Wimbledon) in tennis, the US Open in golf, the Monaco Grand Prix, the WNBA Commissioner’s Cup, NASCAR’s In-Season Challenge, and probably a lot more stuff we’re forgetting right now. So as we pause to reset the board, here’s what we’re keeping tabs on today:
🗓️ TONIGHT’S DANCE
The Main Events
All listed times are Eastern. 🚨= Elimination game
NBA Playoffs:
🏀 No games (finals start 6/3)
NHL Playoffs:
🏒 No games (finals start 6/2)
MLB:
⚾ Giants (41%) at Brewers (59%) - 7:40 p.m. (FS1)
⚾ Dodgers (61%) at D-Backs (39%) - 9:40 p.m. (MLB.tv)
⚾ Mets (44%) at Mariners (56%) - 9:40 p.m. (MLB.tv)
WNBA:
🏀 Storm (16%) at Wings (84%) - 8 p.m. (USA Network)
🏀 Lynx (60%) at Mercury (40%) - 10 p.m. (Peacock)
Soccer:
⚽ International Friendly: Canada (62%) vs. Uzbekistan (16%) - 9 p.m. (FS2)
Tennis:
🎾 French Open, men’s (Alexander Zverev 44% to win) and women’s (Aryna Sabalenka 42% to win) fourth round
🔍 FIND THE EDGE
French (wide) Open
It wasn’t too long ago that Grand Slam tennis belonged to just a small number of players, at least on the men’s side. From Roger Federer’s breakthrough at 2003 Wimbledon to Novak Djokovic’s triumph at the 2023 US Open, the “Big Three” of Federer, Djokovic, and Rafael Nadal won 66 out of 81 possible majors — or 82% — peaking with two separate runs of 18 consecutive Slams (2005 French Open through 2009 Wimbledon) and 13 consecutive Slams (2017 Australian Open through 2020 Australian Open).
And while the women’s game has often been more prone to interlopers sneaking in for stray major titles, it usually features at least one or two dominant forces winning the majority of Slams as well — from Margaret Court and Billie Jean King to Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova, Steffi Graf, and Monica Seles, or later, Serena Williams, Venus Williams, and Justine Henin.
Within that paradigm, the French Open is also as set up for long runs of dominance as any major, because the unique clay surface at Roland-Garros lends itself to great specialists like Nadal and Henin, who dominate the dirt over all other court types. All of which is to say: we don’t expect a wide-open championship in France most years — which makes this year’s chaos on the clay even more striking.
As we prepare for Monday’s fourth-round action, the women’s side is missing 11 of the top 14 seeds after a string of upsets left just three former Grand Slam winners active in the tournament (Aryna Sabalenka, Naomi Osaka, Madison Keys) and zero former French Open winners. And on the men’s side, only three of the top 18 seeds remain active, with ZERO former major champions in the round of 16 of a Slam for the first time in Open Era tennis history.
Where does all of that leave us in the prediction market odds? Both the men’s and women’s markets have settled on a favorite in the 40% range — Alexander Zverev and Aryna Sabalenka, respectively — and they are the highest remaining seeds. (Sabalenka is also a four-time Slam winner, for what it’s worth).
But they are the last remaining bastions of normalcy at Roland-Garros. Next up in the men’s and women’s odds are, respectively, João Fonseca, a Brazilian teenager making his first deep run in a major tournament, and Marta Kostyuk, who had made the quarterfinals at a Slam only once before, at Australia in 2024.
Perhaps the chaos stops here and the favorites end up restoring some sense of order. But for now, Roland-Garros has been an uncharacteristic free-for-all the likes of which we haven’t seen in a long time.
📊 CHART OF THE DAY
The Parity Era lives
Speaking of chaos: just when we thought we might see the NBA transition out of its Parity Era — with an unprecedented streak of unique champions — courtesy of another Thunder title, the Spurs’ victory Saturday guaranteed that we will get yet another different NBA champion in 2026, marking the eighth consecutive season that will be true (dating back to the 2019 Toronto Raptors). Eventually, that trend will stop because either a true dynasty will form or we’ll simply run out of new teams to win — but for now, a sport once defined by multiyear title runs is passing the Larry O’Brien Trophy around like a hot potato.
❄️ STAY FROSTY
What else we’re reading
Smart, short reads we liked while building today’s odds.
⚽ “Depending where you are in the US, up to 50% of World Cup matches kick off during the workday” by Hyunsoo Rim
🏀 “Chet Holmgren and the $240 Million Disappearing Act” by Kevin O’Connor
🎾 “On Novak and Time” by Joe Posnanski
🌍 “The Week in International Sport: Volleyball ratings, test cricket’s popularity and Ivar Stenberg” by Ben Wylie
⚾ “Getting to Fifty-Six” by Pages From Baseball’s Past
👀 EYES UP
Next on deck…
Tuesday (6/2)
🏀 NBA Playoffs: No games
🏒 NHL Playoffs: Golden Knights at Hurricanes, Stanley Cup Final Game 1 (Series tied 0-0)
⚾ MLB: Guardians at Yankees
🏀 WNBA: Fire at Valkyries
⚽ International Friendly: Croatia vs. Belgium
🎾 Tennis: French Open, quarterfinals
Wednesday (6/3)
🏀 NBA Playoffs: Knicks at Spurs, NBA Finals Game 1 (Series tied 0-0)
🏒 NHL Playoffs: No games
⚾ MLB: Blue Jays at Braves
🏀 WNBA: Tempo at Liberty
⚽ International Friendly: Albania vs. Israel
🎾 Tennis: French Open, quarterfinals
Thursday (6/4)
🏀 NBA Playoffs: No games
🏒 NHL Playoffs: Golden Knights at Hurricanes, Stanley Cup Final Game 2
⚾ MLB: Dodgers at Diamondbacks
🏀 WNBA: Valkyries at Lynx
⚽ International Friendly: Mexico vs. Serbia
🎾 Tennis: French Open, women’s semifinals
⛳ Golf: The Memorial Tournament (Muirfield Village Golf Club - Dublin, OH)
🧠 Looking ahead
Stay tuned for more updates and in-depth analysis of these events and more as they unfold. We’ll be bringing you all the scores, highlights, and expert commentary.
Got a favorite team or sport you want us to cover more? Let us know!
All data current as of time of send.
— by Neil Paine
*Event contracts are offered through Robinhood Derivatives, LLC — probabilities referenced or sourced from KalshiEx LLC or ForecastEx LLC.