Down their top four scorers on Thursday against the Milwaukee Bucks, the Los Angeles Lakers turned to Bronny James, among other players. It didn’t go particularly well for the team, but James at least got to enjoy a career night.

The son of LeBron James logged 17 points, the first double-digit game of his career, on 7-of-10 shooting with five assists, three rebounds and four turnovers in 30 minutes in a 118-89 loss to Milwaukee. The Lakers were outscored by 36 points during his playing time.

Those 17 points tied with fellow rookie Dalton Knecht for the team lead.

While James enjoyed his first 10-point game, that also happens to be the threshold where LeBron is the all-time great, with an NBA-record 1,280 consecutive double-digit games and counting.

Bronny James has spent the season shuffling between the Lakers and the G League South Bay Lakers, enjoying a schedule that allows him to avoid most G League road games while joining his father with the NBA team. In the process, he has become something of a team mascot, with fans often chanting for him in the later minutes of games that have already been decided. 

His online following is strong enough that fans post his turnovers as highlights.

It is only in games like Thursday’s where James sees real rotation minutes. The Lakers entered the game severely short-handed. LeBron James (groin) and Rui Hachimura (ankle) have been out for several games, but Luka Dončić (ankle) and Austin Reaves (ankle) both sat out the game as well. Those four players have scored a combined 84.4 points per game this season.

The Bucks were also playing without Damian Lillard, but Giannis Antetokounmpo was still out there. The Greek Freak had 28 points, seven rebounds and four assists.

The Golden State Warriors can breathe a small sigh of relief on Stephen Curry.

The former MVP exited Thursday’s game against the Toronto Raptors with an apparent injury after landing hard on his tailbone on a drive in the third quarter. The Warriors later announced he would not return due to a pelvic contusion.

The team received positive news Friday, as Curry reportedly did not sustain structural damage, per ESPN’s Shams Charania. Curry is expected to miss the start of the team’s upcoming road trip, but it doesn’t sound like the injury will keep him sidelined for long.

That should come as good news considering how bad things looking Thursday night.

Curry was in clear pain after the impact. He left the court under his own power, but in clear discomfort as he massaged his tailbone and lower back before heading to the locker room. Warriors head coach Steve Kerr said after the game Curry was undergoing an MRI, but did want to re-enter the game before being ruled out.

“We decided not to risk anything,” Kerr said. “Hopefully, he’s not bad.”

He finished Thursday’s game with 17 points on 6-of-8 shooting (2-of-4 from 3-point range). The Warriors went on to win 117-114.

Curry’s exit was the last thing the Warriors want to see during their recent hot streak, especially after Curry missed Tuesday’s game to rest his back, which had been ailing him recently.

The Warriors have been one of the hottest teams in the NBA since the trade deadline, winning 15 of 18 after picking up Jimmy Butler to provide another veteran star alongside Curry and Draymond Green. The move seemed to galvanize Curry in particular, as he went from averaging 22.1 points per game with 38.9% 3-point shooting before the trade to 28.1 and 40.5% in the same stats entering Thursday.

That pushed the 41-29 Warriors to sixth place in the Western Conference, good for the final guaranteed playoff spot. With only 12 games remaining in the regular season after Thursday, the Warriors appear to have avoided an injury to their biggest star.

Rejoice, baseball fans, because the MLB regular season started earlier than ever in 2025. Tuesday marked the start of the Tokyo Series between the Chicago Cubs and Los Angeles Dodgers.

While spring training is still in full swing for most teams, the Cubs and Dodgers traveled to Tokyo for a two-game series that counts toward the regular season. The reigning champion Dodgers got off to a hot start, winning the first game of the series 4-1 behind a strong start from Yoshinobu Yamamoto and some timely hitting from Shohei Ohtani.

With the Cubs’ and Dodgers’ 2025 seasons already underway, when does the rest of the league start playing regular-season games? Here’s everything you need to know about MLB Opening Day 2025.

When is MLB Opening Day 2025?

For the Cubs and Dodgers, Opening Day was technically Tuesday, March 18, in Tokyo. They will play another regular-season game Wednesday before flying back to the United States to finish spring training.

For 26 other MLB teams, Opening Day will take place Thursday, March 27, with 14 games scheduled that day. The Milwaukee Brewers and New York Yankees will get things started at 3:05 p.m. ET, and the Baltimore Orioles and Toronto Blue Jays will get underway two minutes later. The final two games of the day — the Cubs vs. the Arizona Diamondbacks and the Athletics vs. the Seattle Mariners — will begin at 10:10 p.m. ET. Despite playing regular-season games on March 18 and 19, both the Cubs and Dodgers will play on March 27.

The Colorado Rockies and the Tampa Bay Rays are the only two teams that won’t play a regular-season game by the 27th. Those teams will open the season the following day, on Friday, March 28. The Rays and Rockies were initially set to begin play March 27, but the game was moved back a day after Hurricane Milton damaged Tropicana Field in October. 

In fact, Tropicana Field will not be ready for the start of the season, forcing the Rays to play their home games this year at George M. Steinbrenner Field in Tampa, where the Yankees play their spring training games. The Rays pushed back their first regular-season game so stadium workers would have an additional day to transition the ballpark from Yankees to Rays.

What is the MLB Tokyo Series?

To kick off the 2025 MLB regular season, the league opted to play two games between the Cubs and Dodgers in Tokyo a week before domestic Opening Day. Both teams boast Japanese stars, including Ohtani, Yamamoto and Wednesday’s starter, Roki Sasaki, for the Dodgers, as well as Seiya Suzuki and Tuesday’s starter, Shota Imanaga, for the Cubs.

This is the second straight season in which the league has played its first regular-season game overseas. The Dodgers and the San Diego Padres opened the 2024 MLB season with a two-game series in Korea while the rest of the league was still in the midst of spring training.

MLB Opening Day 2025 schedule

As noted, the Brewers and Yankees kick things off on March 27 at 3:05 p.m. ET on ESPN. ESPN will also broadcast the Detroit Tigers vs. Dodgers contest, which starts at 7:10 p.m. ET. Those are the only two games that will be nationally broadcast that day.

Full schedule of March 27 games (all times Eastern):

• 3:05 p.m. – Milwaukee Brewers at New York Yankees

• 3:07 p.m. – Baltimore Orioles at Toronto Blue Jays

• 4:05 p.m. – Texas Rangers at Boston Red Sox

• 4:05 p.m. – Philadelphia Phillies at Washington Nationals

• 4:10 p.m. – Cleveland Guardians at Kansas City Royals

• 4:10 p.m. – New York Mets at Houston Astros

• 4:10 p.m. – San Francisco Giants at Cincinnati Reds

• 4:10 p.m. – Atlanta Braves at San Diego Padres

• 4:10 p.m. – Los Angeles Angels at Chicago White Sox

• 4:10 p.m. – Pittsburgh Pirates at Miami Marlins

• 4:15 p.m. – Minnesota Twins at St. Louis Cardinals

• 7:10 p.m. – Detroit Tigers at Los Angeles Dodgers

• 10:10 p.m. – Chicago Cubs at Arizona Diamondbacks

• 10:10 p.m. – Athletics at Seattle Mariners

On March 28, the Colorado Rockies and Tampa Bay Rays will play their first regular-season game at 4:10 p.m. ET.

MLB Opening Day 2025 starting pitchers

With the regular season quickly approaching, a number of teams have already announced who will be on the mound for Opening Day. The Dodgers called on Yamamoto to start Game 1 of the Tokyo Series, and he opposed Imanaga in the contest.

The following pitchers will get the ball for their teams on domestic Opening Day:

• Freddy Peralta (MIL) vs. Carlos Rodón (NYY)

• Zach Eflin (BAL) vs. José Berríos (TOR)

• Garrett Crochet (BOS) vs. Nathan Eovaldi (TEX)

• Zack Wheeler (PHI) vs. MacKenzie Gore (WAS)

• Tanner Bibee (CLE) vs. Cole Ragans (KCR)

• Clay Holmes (NYM) vs. Framber Valdez (HOU)

• Logan Webb (SFG) vs. Hunter Greene (CIN)

• Chris Sale (ATL) vs. Michael King (SDP)

• Yusei Kikuchi (LAA) vs. Sean Burke (CWS)

• Paul Skenes (PIT) vs. Sandy Alcantara (MIA)

• Pablo López (MIN) vs. Sonny Gray (STL)

• Tarik Skubal (DET) vs. TBD (LAD)

• TBD (CHC) vs. Zac Gallen (ARI)

• Luis Severino (ATH) vs. Logan Gilbert (SEA)

• TBD (COL) vs. Shane McClanahan (TBR)*

*-Game on March 28

The Cubs, Dodgers and Rockies are the only three teams that have not named their starters ahead of their first regular-season games following the Tokyo Series.

Braden Fiske was only teammates with Cooper Kupp for one season, but the 2024 second-round rookie already had built up a lot of admiration for the veteran receiver.

Fiske told DJ Siddiqi of RG.org that he didn’t start to build a relationship with Kupp until the end of the season, but he was disappointed when reports surfaced that the team planned to move on from him during the 2025 offseason.

“As I’ve kind of learned, it’s the unfortunate side of the business—you never wanna see your brother get traded or released,” Fiske said. “Being a young player, you’re always surprised by moves like that ‘cause you’re so new to the league, and in college, you’re so used to guys being there. … Obviously, it was tough.”

Fiske finished his spectacular rookie season with 8.5 sacks, 10 quarterback hits and two forced fumbles. He is poised to be a figurehead on the Rams‘ young defense alongside 2024 Defensive Rookie of the Year Jared Verse. And along the way, Fiske picked up some learnings from Kupp despite them playing on opposite sides of the ball.

“I can’t really say enough good things about him,” Fiske said. “He really is one of the greatest humans I’ve been around, and just the way he carries himself, the way he goes about his work, the way he loves and takes care of his family. He really is top-notch. It sucks to see him go, but I’m excited to see where his journey takes him.”

Fiske isn’t the only Rams player to effuse praise for Kupp. Receivers Puka Nacua and Tutu Atwell already talked about how much they’ll miss their fellow wideout.

Kupp’s absence will be felt in the locker room, but Fiske and the Rams will still get to see Kupp throughout the season after he signed with the NFC West rival Seattle Seahawks. Kupp will face his old squad twice a year in 2025 and as long as he remains with the Seahawks. The Rams, meanwhile, replaced Kupp with Davante Adams to play opposite Nacua.

This article originally appeared on Rams Wire: Braden Fiske calls Cooper Kupp ‘one of the greatest humans’

The Golden State Warriors have had over 600 players don the more than 60 jersey numbers used by their players over the more than 75 years of existence the team has enjoyed in its rich and storied history.

Founded in 1946 during the Basketball Association of America (BAA — a precursor league of the NBA) era, the team has called home the cities of Philadelphia, San Francisco, Oakland, and even San Diego.

To commemorate the players who wore those numbers, Warriors Wire is covering the entire history of jersey numbers and the players who sported them since the founding of the team. For this article, we begin with the eighth of 12 players who wore the No. 8 jersey for the Warriors.

That player would be Golden State guard alum Nemanja Nedovic. After starting his pro career abroad, Nedovic was picked up with the 30th overall selection of the 2013 NBA draft by the Phoenix Suns.

The Nova Varos, Serbia native would play the sole season of his NBA career with the Dubs, though, after a draft night deal.

During his time suiting up for the Warriors, Nedovic wore only jersey No. 8 and put up 1.1 points per game.

This article originally appeared on Warriors Wire: Warriors jersey history – No. 8 – Nemanja Nedovic (2013-14)