Good Morning, Stumpers!

There will be a GAME SEVEN! The Nuggets took care of business last night have forced their second straight Game Seven of this postseason. Who was the star, none other than obviously JULIAN STRAWTHER with 15 second-half points! A lot of sports to dissect including Day 1 of the PGA Championship, and a peek into the soccer world as well! Stump time!

Today’s Rundown

What’s in today’s edition?

• ⛳️ PGA Championship Day One Review: Vegas, baby!

• 🏀 Game 6 Showdown in Denver

• 🏒 Hurricanes out-pace Capitals, advance to next round

• 🏌️ Golf-themed ‘Of The Day’ section for your entertainment

On This Day

On This Day…

🥊 Copacabana Incident in NYC

Famous athletes have been in the news for all sorts of reasons throughout history, but as far as baseball fights, the Copacabana Incident may reign supreme in terms of oddity.

On this day in 1957, Yankee legends Mickey Mantle, Yogi Berra, Whitey Ford, Hank Bauer, and Billy Martin are involved in a massive brawl at the Copacabana Nightclub in NYC while watching Sammy Davis Jr. perform. Apparently, a booze filled evening led to the Yankees players taking exception to some of the remarks a group of other fellas had towards Sammy Davis Jr. The story has changed and evolved over the years, but it did indeed lead to the trade of Billy Martin, who never quite was the same player for anyone but the Yankees.

Today’s Trivia

🧠 Test your sports knowledge…

Yesterday’s Trivia Answer: E. Xander Schauffele! Does last years winner of the event stand a chance this year?

Before We Dive In…

👀 Yesterday’s Must See’s

• 🏀 The Julian Strawther Game! As we all expected!

• 💪 Bryson came THIS close to a hole-in-one… INCHES

• 🏒 DOWN GOES THE REF! DOWN GOES THE REF!

• 🔨 Canes hammer door shut on Caps

🔍️ Stump Spotlight

Nuggets vs Thunder

🏀 There Will Be A Game Seven!

What else did you expect? Of course this series with the two leading MVP candidate was going to go to a decisive Game 7! Couldn’t imagine it any other way! Let’s talk about how it happened.

When I looked at my ESPN app yesterday morning and saw that the Thunder were 5.5 point favorites in last night’s contest, I was taken aback. But why was I? The Thunder have the best team in the NBA all year long, and they were expected to win this series in fewer games than what has happened. The Nuggets don’t really blow teams out, they know their game is staying close with teams all game and then pulling away in the last quarter using their championship pedigree.

That’s exactly what they did.

Jamal Murray had the flu. MPJ still had the bum shoulder. And the boys as a whole had been going every other day without rest for almost the last two weeks. The motors were low, but the juice was still high. They stayed right there with the Thunder all first half! It was a lot of Jokic and Murray for the Nugs, and SGA and Chet for OKC. As we’ve said before, these games are usually not won solely by the stars. They will usually cancel each other out. These games are won in the trenches and they are won by the ones you don’t see coming.

Who was the culprit last night?

None other than Gonzaga Alum Julian Strawther! The Nuggets sharpshooter off the bench ended the game with 15 points, all of which came in the second half! MPJ sat a lot late, and it was in part due to the shooting from Strawther. He was getting open, hitting shots, and makig great back cuts to get layups at the rim. He was just being a basketball player, and it was great for Nugget Nation!

He ended the game with 15 points off the bench after not even logging any minutes at all in Game 3 of this series. The Thunder are usually good when the others step up, but they didn’t get much contribution from then at all. Jalen Williams went 3/16 from the field and ended with 6 points, and nobody outside of SGA and Chet had more than 10. The Nuggets were able to close out the Thunder down the stretch, and now this series goes back to OKC in a few days, where we have the two greatest words in sports!

GAME SEVEN!

Everything is on the table. Winner gets a date with Minnesota! Cinema!

The Hot Stove

🏒 Carolina Down Capitals, Advance

The epic season of Alexander Ovechkin and the Washington Capitals is officially over, as they ran into an absolute buzzsaw in the Carolina Hurricanes.

After game two, this looked like it really could be anyone series. Until it wasn’t. The Carolina Hurricanes put their game into another gear, outscoring the Capitals 12-3 over the next three games to eliminate Washington in a gentleman’s sweep. When I say another gear, I mean it. The Hurricanes play at an absolutely insane pace, they skate hard and fast, I’d argue faster than anyone else in the NHL. Their tempo was just too much for Washington’s veteran roster to keep up with, it was a nightmare matchup for Ovi and the boys. The Hurricanes now await the winner of the Maple Leafs and Panthers, who play Game 6 tonight and Toronto on the brink of elimination.

⛳️ PGA Championship Day One

It took until the VERY end of the day for us to find our day one leader, and it took him a flurry of late birdies to secure his spot alone atop the standings.

In a very weird day of golf, it was none other than Jhonattan Vegas who rose to the top and separated himself to hold a 2-shot lead over the field. Vegas, who shot a 7-under 64, has never shot a round that low in a major in a career, has never finished in the top 20 in a major, and hasn’t even qualified for one in three years. So I suppose yesterday was just making up for lost time. Vegas was in the final grouping of the day, so we really had to wait for this one. He holds a lead over Ryan Gerard, a PGA tour rookie who grew up near the course, and Cam Davis of Australia, who both sit at -5. What was really surprising is the lack of big names at the top of the leaderboard. Scottie Scheffler, who shot a 69 and sits at -2, had the best score of anyone from the top 10 in the world. There’s a host of big name players in the -2,-1, and E par group: Victor Hovland, Jon Rahm, Tommy Fleetwood, Tony Finau, Collin Morikawa, Ludvig Aberg, and Bryson DeChambeau. The tournament favorite, Rory McIlroy, struggled to an ugly +3. Jordan Spieth, who needs a PGA Championship win to complete the career grand slam, will likely have to wait until next year; he managed to post a +5.

⚽️ Barca Wins LaLiga, Sprinklered Off Field

Yes, you read that right, they turned the sprinklers on.

Barcelona defeated their cross town rival Espanyol 2-0 yesterday, the second time in three years Barca has won the LaLiga title on their rivals field. Tempers flared in 2023 after Espanyol supporters breached the pitch and chased Barca players down the tunnel. So this year, Barca manager Hansi Flick ensured that those scenes would not be repeated. Flick took his players off the pitch to celebrate in the locker room. As they were preparing to leave the field, Espanyol turned on the sprinklers, soaking the Barca players and staff. What a wild moment, but congrats to Barca. They successfully completed the Spanish trifecta, winners of LaLiga, Copa Del Ray, and Spanish Supercopa.

⬇️ Quick Links

• 🌊 Steph running it back with Green, Butler

• 😲 Williams sought to avoid Bears before draft

• ☀️ Suns sued by employee for fourth time in seven months

• 🤣

What To Watch

🏀 NBA Playoffs

• ESPN: Celtics @ Knicks (8:00 PM)

⚾️ Major League Baseball

• What to Watch: Braves @ Red Sox (7:10 PM), Mets @ Yankees (7:05 PM), Tigers @ Blue Jays (7:10 PM), Cardinals @ Royals (7:40 PM), Astros @ Rangers (8:05 PM), Angels @ Dodgers (10:10 PM), A’s @ Giants (10:15 PM), full schedule

🏒 NHL Playoffs

• TNT: Maple Leafs @ Panthers (8:00 PM)

⚽️ Soccer

• Premier League: Aston Villa vs Tottenham (2:30 PM), Chelsea vs Man U (3:15 PM)

• NWSL: Orlando Pride @ Kansas City (8:00 PM on PRIME)

⛳️ PGA Championship day two! Here is the leaderboard!

The Moment You’ve Been Waiting For

Thanks for sticking to the end! Share The Daily Stump using this link, it would go a long way. Appreciate the hell out of you all. Trees may get chopped. Stumps hold strong 🌴