Rose, Beasley square off

Derrick Rose and Michael Beasley forever will be linked. That's an inevitability for players who get chosen No. 1 and No. 2 in an NBA draft.

So on some level, it's fitting their first pro game -- one that won't have fans, won't count in standings and likely will be long forgotten in a few days -- will pit them against one another. Rose's Chicago Bulls face Beasley's Miami Heat today, one of three games that will open the Orlando summer league's weeklong schedule in Florida.

For a meaningless matchup, there's an abundance of big-game hype.

And it almost seems like neither 19-year-old can truly understand why.

"I didn't even know we're playing Miami first," Rose said. "I'm not going to be checking him."

"If you want to make it a Mike Beasley and Derrick Rose show, go ahead," Beasley said. "But that's not how it's going to be."

Teams will play five games in five days at the summer league, which also features Indiana, Oklahoma City, New Jersey and Orlando, with each squad playing all the others once. Most of the players are either rookies or second-year pros, most of them simply fighting for jobs in the NBA this coming season.

More basketball

Becky Hammon scored a season-high 28 points and combined with Sophia Young to score San Antonio's final 24 points and the Silver Stars (12-6) held off the host Washington Mystics (6-11) for a 83-75 win in the WNBA.

Football

James MacPherson threw for 326 yards and had a hand in seven touchdowns, and the Grand Rapids Rampage (8-10) upset the host Chicago Rush, 58-41, to advance to the Arena Football League American Conference finals. Grand Rapids will visit defending champion San Jose Saturday for the American Conference title. The winner advances to the Arena Bowl in New Orleans July 27.

• Bob Ackles, the B.C. Lions' first water boy who went on to become the CFL team's president and chief executive officer, died after having a heart attack yesterday in Vancouver, British Columbia. He was 69.

Hockey

Owen Nolan, 36, a power forward who spent last season with the Calgary Flames, signed a two-year deal with the Minnesota Wild. Nolan, 6 feet 1, 215 pounds, had 16 goals and 16 assists in 77 games for the Flames last season, his 16th in the NHL. The Wild also signed goalie Barry Brust to a multiyear contract and right winger Jesse Schultz to a one-year deal.

Horse racing

Mint Lane got a second stakes victory in a row, posting a pace-setting win in the $200,000 Dwyer Stakes at Belmont in New York. The Dwyer is the first major 3-year-old race in New York after the Belmont Stakes. Mint Lane, who did not compete in the Triple Crown, could be a divisional factor in the second half of the year. With Eibar Coa aboard, Mint Lane rolled to a 2 3/4-length win over Tizbig.

Wild Things

Drew Hoisington hit a walk-off home run, the first of his career, as host Washington edged the Florence Freedom, 3-2, in Frontier League baseball action.