Nuggets lose by 45, will play a Game 7 vs. Wolves; how will Xander Schauffele respond after round of 62?

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Good morning everyone, but especially…

XANDER SCHAUFFELE

The first round of PGA Championship in Valhalla belonged to Xander Schauffele. Not only does Schauffele hold a three-stroke lead heading into Friday, but he also tied a major championship record in the process.

Schauffele showed up and treated Valhalla like a putting course, finishing the day at 9 under. His score of 62 was the lowest competitive round ever in Valhalla and he tied the record for the lowest score ever recorded in a major championshipbut this isn’t exactly uncharted territory for the La Jolla, California native.

Last year, Schauffele shot 62 in the first round of the US Open. Starting strong was never a problem for him. Maintaining leadership, on the other hand, has haunted the man in recent years.

The world’s No. 3 golfer has six top-five finishes at majors but has never finished at the top of the leaderboard. That frustration is fueling Schauffele in today’s second round.

• Schauffele: “I think not winning makes you want to win more, as strange as that is. For me, at least, I react to it, and I want it more and more and more, and it makes me want to work more and more and more. harder. The top seems far away, and I feel like I have a lot of work to do, but I’m just slowly chipping away at it.”

One person who will be hot on Schauffele’s trail all weekend is at the top of the leaderboard Scottie Scheffler (-4), which ambushed for the eagle 167 meters away on his second shot of the tournament. Scheffler was detained by police on Friday morning outside Valhalla but has now been cleared and is expected to reach its departure time of 10:08 a.m. ET.

Rory McIlroy (-5) is also near the top of the leaderboard and is battling his own demons as he tries break his 11-year major championship drought.

The top of the PGA Championship leaderboard looks like this after the first round:

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 it’s not a good day to…

JAMAL MURRAY AND THE DENVER NUGGETS

To say the Nuggets laid an egg in game 6 against Timber Wolves You may be underestimating this. With a chance to shut down Minnesota and advance to the Western Conference finals, Denver hit a dozen in a 115-70 loss.

Denver trailed by 17 at the end of the first quarter, and the defending NBA champions couldn’t muster much resistance after that. MVP Nikola Jokic was kept under control all night. He scored just 22 points and recorded just two assists, his lowest playoff total since 2021.

The biggest problem for the Nuggets was that with the Timberwolves hounding Jokic every time he got the ball, no one else wanted to pick up the slack. This was especially true for Jamal Murray.

Murray scored 10 points while shooting 22.2% from the field and making just two of his seven 3-point attempts. In his post-game analysis, our own Colin Ward-Henninger believes a lingering injury hampered Murray in Game 6.

• Ward-Henninger: “Murray has been dealing with a calf injury for most of the postseason, and it has clearly affected him sporadically throughout this series. He settled for too many jumpers on Thursday, unable to find paths to the rim.”

Now the Nuggets must win Game 7 to avoid becoming the fifth consecutive NBA champion to be eliminated before the conference finals. For that to happen, they will have to hold off a Timberwolves team that is suddenly full of confidence.

Led by Antonio Eduardo and its 27 points, Minnesota made a bit of history in this defeat. The Timberwolves’ 45-point victory is now the second-largest margin of victory for a team facing elimination in NBA history.

So we’ll do it one last time on Sunday, and it will be just the Timberwolves’ second Game 7 in franchise history. In the previous one – which will take place exactly 20 years after Game 7 of this series – Kevin Garnet (32 points, 21 rebounds, five blocks, four steals) led the host Wolves to an 83-80 victory over the Kings. (In case you were wondering, Edwards was three.)

Not-so-honorable mentions

Chris Kreider hat trick leads Rangers to conference finals

For two periods of Game 6, it appeared that the Hurricanes would force a Game 7 against the guards. Then Chris Kreider decided he had had enough of this series and led New York to a 5-3 victory that punched their ticket to the
Eastern Conference Final.

Facing elimination, the Hurricanes controlled the contest for 40 minutes, taking a 3-1 lead into the third period. Unfortunately for them, games last 60 minutes and Kreider completely owned the last 20.

In the span of 8:58, Kreider turned the Rangers’ two-goal deficit into a one-goal lead with a natural hat trick. All three of Kreider’s goals came from inside Frederico Andersen‘s grill, and he joined some elite company in Rangers franchise history.

• Kreider joins Marcos Messier It is Wayne Gretzky as the only Rangers to score a hat trick in a playoff period.
• His natural hat trick was only the eighth in Stanley Cup playoff history and the second in Rangers history.
• Kreider now has 74 points in the playoffs, just six behind Messier, second most in team history.

The Rangers are now the first Presidents’ Trophy winners to reach the conference finals since the 2014-15 Rangers, who lost to the Tampa Bay Lightning in the East finals.

As for the Hurricanes, they have been genuine Stanley Cup contenders all season and have gone about their business as such. They made big additions in free agency and made an impact at the trade deadline, notably earning the Jake Guentzel sweepstakes.

Despite these efforts, Carolina once again fell short of the postseason. The team hasn’t won a game beyond the second round since winning the Stanley Cup in 2006.

The fever broke at Caitlin Clark’s home debut

A sold out Gainbridge Fieldhouse was rocking Caitlin Clarkhome premiere on Thursday night. Much to Indiana’s dismay FeverWasn’t swinging as long as the New York Freedom came in and dismantled the home team, 102-66.

After a difficult WNBA debut against ConnecticutSun on Tuesday night, Clark got another dose of big league life with the 2023 Finals runner-up in the city. Reigning MVP Breanna Stewart got what he wanted in the paint, finishing the night with 31 points and 10 rebounds.

Clark, on the other hand, had nine points, seven rebounds and six assists. She could never really get into the offensive rhythm, and our own Jack Maloney thinks this can be attributed to a few key factors.

• Maloney: “Part of it was Betnijah Laney-Hamilton‘s, and part of that was her playing the ball more than she did against the Connecticut Sun. Finding the balance between scoring and playmaking will be an important part of the process for Clark this summer.”

Now 0-2, Clark and the Fever must get off the mat before two more tough games. The next two opponents? Uh, Freedom and the Sun.

At least we’ll see how quickly Clark adjusts to opposing defenses at the WNBA level.

What are we going to watch this weekend

We will be tuned into the PGA Championship throughout the weekend. See how.

Friday

Game 6: Panthers at Bruins7pm on TNT
Gemini in Guardians7:10 pm on Apple TV
Game 6: Knicks at Pacers8:30pm on ESPN
Game 6: Avalanche Stars10pm on TNT

Saturday

Freedom Fever1pm on ABC
Sparks in Aces3pm on ABC
Sailors at Orioles4:05 pm on FS1
Sky in the wings5pm on NBA TV
Preakness Stakes, 6:55 p.m. on NBC
Dreaming about Mercury7pm on NBA TV
Game 6: Thunder at Mavericks8pm on TNT
Game 6: Oilers on Canucks8pm on ESPN

Sunday

Game 7: Timberwolves at NuggetsTBD
NASCAR All-Star Race5:30 pm on FS1
Priests in Braves7pm on ESPN