Leading Off: Dodgers' Buehler Makes 1st Start, Bryant Rests

The Broncos are going to be without one of their young linebackers into the regular season. Second-year player Drew Sanders tore his Achilles tendon about a month ago during the early part of Denver’s offseason workout program, sources confirmed Monday to The Post Sanders, a third-round draft pick in 2023, played inside linebacker after first being drafted and then during the season switched full-time to outside linebacker. All told, Sanders played in all 17 games as a rookie, started four and finished with 24 tackles (one for loss).

Jonathan Drouin authored one of the best stories in the NHL this season and provided the Colorado Avalanche with incredible value. Now, the question is will both sides be able to agree on a new contract to make this short-term partnership a longer one? There is certainly a will to make it happen on both sides, but the way remains a little less certain. “I’m going to dwell on this loss for a bit.

Troy Renck: A day later, hearts remain in throats, fists remain in a ball. The frustration and disappointment with the Nuggets’ season-ending defeat is palpable. There is no shame in losing to a team as talented as the Minnesota Timberwolves. But the Nuggets did not lose. They choked. No NBA team over the last 25 years has ever squandered a 20-point lead in a Game 7.

In an emptying locker room of players who had forgotten what it feels like to end a season with a loss, nobody was in uncharted territory as much as Christian Braun. Towel draped over his head, eyes red underneath it, the second-year guard was in a state of disbelief that replicated the entire Nuggets fanbase.

From celebration to cataclysmic ouster. You could almost feel the afterparty warming up. The Nuggets came out of the halftime locker room up 15 and promptly pushed their lead to 20. You could see Luka Doncic and Dallas preparing to fly northwest for Game 1 of the Western Conference Finals. Then it all came crashing down.

Nikola Jokic’s expression was either vacant or vengeful, defeated or determined. Staring at the basketball court but maybe beyond it, too, he stood alone on the Target Center baseline and watched the fourth quarter of a historic clobbering without taking his seat on the bench. Was he antsy to jump on the team plane back to Denver to play Game 7 immediately?