Playoffs are here on ice, diamonds, and courts

Major League Baseball will begin an unusual 16-team playoff as the best-of-three wild card round kicks off on Tuesday. The Los Angeles Dodgers and Tampa Bay Rays are the top seeds from the National League and American League, respectively. The NBA Finals begin on Wednesday when LeBron James and the Western Conference champion Los Angeles Lakers take on the surprise winners of the Eastern Conference, the Miami Heat. Like all NBA playoff games this year, the finals will take place in the league’s Orlando, Fla., bubble. Baseball is holding much of its postseason at four neutral bubble sites in California and Texas.

What other sports are on right now? The Tampa Bay Lightning defeated the Dallas Stars in an empty arena to win the Stanley Cup Monday. Professional tennis began its second major tournament of the pandemic, the French Open, on the red clay courts of the Stade Roland Garros in Paris on Sunday. Twelve-time winner Rafael Nadal of Spain is the defending champion.

Dig deeper: Read Sharon Dierberger’s report in Muse about why colleges decided to start playing football.

Editor’s note: WORLD has updated this report since its initial posting.