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⛳ Good morning to everybody, however particularly to …

XANDER SCHAUFFELE

The primary spherical of the PGA Championship at Valhalla belonged to Xander Schauffele. Not solely does Schauffele maintain a three-stroke lead heading into Friday, however he additionally tied a serious championship document within the course of.

Schauffele got here out and handled Valhalla like a putt-putt course, ending the day at 9 below. His rating of 62 was the bottom aggressive spherical ever at Valhalla and he tied a document for the bottom rating ever recorded at a serious championship, however this is not precisely uncharted territory for the La Jolla, California, native.

Simply final 12 months, Schauffele shot a 62 within the first spherical of the U.S. Open. Beginning robust has by no means actually been an issue for him. Sustaining the lead, alternatively, has haunted the person lately.

The No. 3 golfer on the planet has six top-five finishes at majors, however he has by no means completed on the high of the leaderboard. That frustration is fueling Schauffele going into right this moment’s second spherical.

• Schauffele: “I believe not profitable makes you wish to win extra, as bizarre as that’s. For me, no less than, I react to it, and I would like it increasingly more and extra, and it makes me wish to work tougher and tougher and tougher. The highest feels distant, and I really feel like I’ve lots of work to do. However simply slowly chipping away at it.”

One one who can be nipping at Schauffele’s heels all weekend is top-ranked Scottie Scheffler (-4), who holed out for eagle from 167 yards away on his second shot of the match. Scheffler was detained by police early Friday morning outdoors of Valhalla however has already been launched and is predicted to satisfy his 10:08 a.m. ET tee time. 

Rory McIlroy (-5) can also be lurking close to the highest of the leaderboard, and he’s battling his personal demons as he is attempting to break his 11-year main championship drought.

The highest of the PGA Championship leaderboard seems like this after Spherical 1:

1. Xander Schauffele (-9)
T-2. Tony Finau (-6)
T-2. Sahith Theegala (-6)
T-2. Mark Hubbard (-6)
T-5. Rory McIlroy (-5)
T-5. Robert MacIntyre (-5)
T-5. Tom Hoge (-5)
T-5. Tom Kim (-5)
T-5. Thomas Detry (-5)
T-5. Collin Morikawa (-5)

👍 Honorable mentions

And never such a very good morning for …

JAMAL MURRAY AND THE DENVER NUGGETS

To say the Nuggets laid an egg in Recreation 6 towards the Timberwolves could be understating it. With an opportunity to shut out the Minnesota and advance to the Western Convention finals, Denver laid a dozen in a 115-70 loss.

Denver trailed by 17 on the finish of the primary quarter, and the reigning NBA champs could not muster a lot resistance after that. MVP Nikola Jokic was held in test all night time. He scored simply 22 factors and logged simply two assists, which was his lowest playoff whole since 2021.

The larger situation for the Nuggets was that, with the Timberwolves hounding Jokic each time he received the ball, nobody else needed to choose up the slack. That was very true of Jamal Murray.

Murray scored all of 10 factors whereas capturing 22.2% from the sphere and hitting simply two of his seven 3-point makes an attempt. In his postgame evaluation, our personal Colin Ward-Henninger believes a nagging harm hampered Murray in Recreation 6.

• Ward-Henninger: “Murray has been coping with a calf harm for many of the postseason, and it is clearly affected him sporadically all through this collection. He settled for lots of jumpers on Thursday, unable to seek out pathways to the rim.”

Now the Nuggets should win Recreation 7 in an effort to keep away from changing into the fifth straight NBA reigning champion to be eradicated earlier than the convention finals. For that to occur, they should maintain off a Timberwolves staff that is abruptly brimming with confidence.

Led by Anthony Edwards and his 27 factors, Minnesota made slightly historical past on this blowout. The Timberwolves’ 45-point win is now the second-largest margin of victory for a staff dealing with elimination in NBA historical past.

So we’ll do it one final time on Sunday, and it is going to be solely the Timberwolves’ second Recreation 7 in franchise historical past. Of their earlier one — which can be precisely 20 years to the day of this collection’ Recreation 7 — Kevin Garnett (32 factors, 21 boards, 5 blocks, 4 steals) led the host Wolves to an 83-80 win over the Kings. (In case you have been questioning, Edwards was three years previous.)

👎 Not so honorable mentions

🏒 Chris Kreider’s hat trick lifts Rangers to convention finals

Via two durations in Recreation 6, it regarded just like the Hurricanes would pressure a Recreation 7 towards the Rangers. Then Chris Kreider determined he’d had sufficient of this collection and powered the New York to a 5-3 win that punched their ticket to the
Jap Convention Closing.

Going through elimination, the Hurricanes have been accountable for the competition for 40 minutes as they carried a 3-1 lead into the third interval. Sadly for them, video games are 60 minutes, and Kreider utterly owned the final 20.

Within the span of 8:58, Kreider flipped the Rangers’ two-goal deficit right into a one-goal lead with a pure hat trick. All three of Kreider’s targets got here from proper in Frederik Andersen‘s grill, and he joined some elite firm in Rangers franchise historical past.

• Kreider joins Mark Messier and Wayne Gretzky as the one Rangers to attain a hat trick in a single playoff interval.
• His pure hat trick was simply the eighth in Stanley Cup playoffs historical past and the second in Rangers historical past.
• Kreider now has 74 playoff factors, simply six behind Messier for the second-most in staff historical past.

The Rangers at the moment are the primary Presidents’ Trophy winner to succeed in the convention finals for the reason that 2014-15 Rangers, who went on to lose to the Tampa Bay Lightning within the East finals.

As for the Hurricanes, they have been bona fide Stanley Cup contenders all season and performed their enterprise as such. They made huge additions in free company and made a splash on the commerce deadline, most notably profitable the Jake Guentzel sweepstakes.

Regardless of these efforts, Carolina has fallen brief within the postseason as soon as once more. The staff hasn’t received a recreation past the second spherical because it received the Stanley Cup in 2006.

🏀 Fever flounder in Caitlin Clark’s dwelling debut

A sold-out Gainbridge Fieldhouse was rocking for Caitlin Clark‘s dwelling debut on Thursday night time. A lot to the dismay of the Indiana Fever, it wasn’t rocking for lengthy because the New York Liberty got here in and dismantled the house staff, 102-66.

After a robust WNBA debut towards the ConnecticutSolar on Tuesday night time, Clark received one other dose of life within the huge leagues with the 2023 Finals runner-up on the town. Reigning MVP Breanna Stewart received no matter she needed within the paint, ending the night time with 31 factors and 10 rebounds.

Clark, alternatively, tallied 9 factors, seven rebounds, and 6 assists. She may by no means actually get in a groove offensively, and our personal Jack Maloney thinks that may be chalked as much as a few key elements.

• Maloney: “A few of that was Betnijah Laney-Hamilton‘s robust protection, and a few of that was her taking part in off the ball greater than she did towards the Connecticut Solar. Discovering the steadiness between scoring and playmaking can be a serious a part of the method for Clark this summer season.”

Now 0-2, Clark and the Fever should decide themselves up off the mat forward of two extra robust video games. These subsequent two opponents? Uh, the Liberty and the Solar.

Not less than we’ll get to see how shortly Clark adjusts to opposing defenses on the WNBA degree.

📺 What we’re watching this weekend

🏌 We’ll be tuned into the PGA Championship all weekend. Here is how.

Friday

🏒 Recreation 6: Panthers at Bruins, 7 p.m. on TNT
⚾ Twins at Guardians, 7:10 p.m. on Apple TV
🏀 Recreation 6: Knicks at Pacers, 8:30 p.m. on ESPN
🏒 Recreation 6: Stars at Avalanche, 10 p.m. on TNT

Saturday

🏀 Fever at Liberty, 1 p.m. on ABC
🏀 Sparks at Aces, 3 p.m. on ABC
⚾ Mariners at Orioles, 4:05 p.m. on FS1
🏀 Sky at Wings, 5 p.m. on NBA TV
🏇 Preakness Stakes, 6:55 p.m. on NBC
🏀 Dream at Mercury, 7 p.m. on NBA TV
🏀 Recreation 6: Thunder at Mavericks, 8 p.m. on TNT
🏒 Recreation 6: Oilers at Canucks, 8 p.m. on ESPN

Sunday

🏀 Recreation 7: Timberwolves at Nuggets, TBD
🏎 NASCAR All-Star Race, 5:30 p.m. on FS1
⚾ Padres at Braves, 7 p.m. on ESPN