Quick Hits

• The World Series matchup is set: Brewers vs. Rays. Milwaukee is back on baseball's biggest stage for the first time since 1982 — a 44-year wait — and ESPN has a full preview with predictions and likely MVPs.
• The Timberwolves opened the NBA season by blowing out Giannis Antetokounmpo's new-look Miami Heat on Wednesday night, making for a rough debut for one of the league's biggest stars.
• The NFL plays in Paris on Sunday: Steelers vs. Saints at Stade de France. Protests in the city forced the cancellation of a Steelers fan event, but the league says the historic game will proceed as planned.
• Hall of Fame running back Marshall Faulk announced he has Parkinson's disease, saying he's "in a good place" and managing the condition through treatment after first noticing an issue with his hand.
• The WNBA Finals are rolling: the Golden State Valkyries and Atlanta Dream played Game 3 in Atlanta on Wednesday, with CBS billing it as another defensive battle centered on the Dream's Angel Reese.

Minnesota Teams

The Wolves couldn't have scripted a better opener. They went into Miami on Wednesday and handed the Heat — now featuring Giannis Antetokounmpo after a big offseason shake-up — a blowout loss in their season debut. Giannis's takeaway afterward: the Heat "got to trust each other more."

The local angle is fun, too: LaMelo Ball is running the show in Minnesota now, and CBS said he was "up to his old tricks" in his Wolves debut, with Anthony Edwards and the team landing on CBS's opening-night winners list. CBS's broader verdict: if opening night is any indication, Giannis's first season in Miami "could be a bumpy one."

Quiet elsewhere on the home front — nothing on the Vikings, Wild, or Gophers in today's feed.

NBA

Opening night was all about new homes (per CBS's debut report card): Giannis flopped in Miami, Kawhi Leonard made what CBS called his "great escape" to Toronto, Anthony Davis "finally played a game!," and CBS's winners-and-losers column warned that Steph Curry "could be in for a long year."

Thursday's slate was headlined by 76ers-Cavaliers — where LeBron James is the draw in the betting markets — plus Nuggets-Thunder. Final scores weren't in this batch.

One extra WNBA Finals note: Enes Kanter Freedom says he was "kicked out of" Game 3 in Atlanta after refusing a suite. He was previously ejected from a WNBA game in August amid his involvement in the debate around transgender athletes.

NFL

Thursday night's Patriots-Bears game gave us the NFL's weirdest moment of the week: the Bears became the first team in 16 years flagged for an "illegal forward handoff" after a failed trick play. Translation for non-football folks: you can't hand the ball forward to a teammate past the line of scrimmage. The obscure penalty, not the score, is what everyone was scrambling to Google.

Back to Paris: Sunday's Steelers-Saints game at Stade de France goes on as planned, with the NFL working alongside local authorities and increasing security after the fan-event cancellation.

And with the trade deadline approaching, CBS floated a wish list of 10 "moves that need to happen" — headlined by Saquon Barkley to the Seahawks. That's speculation, not reporting, but it's the rumor everyone's kicking around.

MLB

The Fall Classic is here: Brewers vs. Rays. ESPN marked Milwaukee's first trip back since 1982 with a look back at what baseball looked like the last time the Brewers got this far — no cell phones, different world, very long wait in between.

The series' most famous fan is ready: ESPN broadcaster Dick Vitale, a lifelong Tampa Bay baseball devotee, will be in the stands for the Rays' home games and is calling it now — "Rays in seven, baby."

Other Sports

Soccer: Harry Kane scored a penalty and bossed the attack as Bayern Munich held Arsenal to a Champions League draw — which, as CBS put it, showed Arsenal exactly what they're missing at striker. Bigger alarm bells are ringing at Manchester United, who lost 4-1 at Como, with CBS saying things are "getting serious" for manager Michael Carrick.

UFC: UFC 333 lands this weekend in Abu Dhabi, headlined by Alexander Volkanovski vs. Movsar Evloev.

NASCAR: ESPN declares Carson Hocevar the sport's new bad boy — the garage's consensus "public enemy No. 1" for rubbing rivals the wrong way.