Good Morning! Here’s what happened in the world of sports Thursday, May 15.

NBA

If the Nuggets go on to make the NBA Finals, we will look back fondly on last night as The Julian Strawther game. The little-used second-year guard exploded for 15 second-half points, leading Denver to a crucial 119-107 game six victory over the Oklahoma City Thunder. Really, the entire Denver supporting cast showed up after a disappointing game five– Jamaal Murray had 25 points, eight rebounds, and seven assists, while Christian Braun had a 23 point-11 rebound double-double. On the other side, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander was the only Thunder player with over 20 points, as OKC struggled mightily from three-point range. Just as we all hoped, this series is going the distance. A must-see Game Seven will tip-off Sunday afternoon in Oklahoma City. I can’t wait to watch it.

NHL

With their season on the line, the Washington Capitals may have played their best game of the series. It wasn’t enough. Andrei Svechnikov scored with two minutes left in the third period and the Carolina Hurricanes beat the Caps 2-1, booking their spot in the Eastern Conference Finals. On a quest for their first Stanley Cup since 2006, the Canes are playing fantastic team hockey right now.

Well the Jets are leading the Stars 1-0 right now at the end of the second period. While it looks like the Jets will win, Once again, I don’t know how this late-night hockey game will finish up… but either Dallas is moving on or Winnipeg will survive for a game six this weekend. I guess I’ll tell you about it on Monday!

MLB

A fairly uneventful day on the diamond, as most teams in the big leagues had the day off. Two quick notes for ya–

• Remember how dominant Jacob deGrom was? Well the two-time Cy Young winner is healthy and starting regain his form. DeGrom shut out Houston for eight innings yesterday and the Rangers beat the Astros 1-0. Texas manager Bruce Bochy won his 2,195th career game, moving past Sparky Anderson for sixth-most all-time.

• And the Twins continued their winning ways, shutting out the Orioles yesterday both on the field and on the web:

GOLF

Jhonattan Vegas has a two-stroke lead at the PGA Championship after round one. The big story after Thursday, however, were the wet conditions. After heavy rain this week, we saw a wide range of scores and a lot of big names falling towards the bottom of the leaderboard. No matter, we’re all set for an exciting weekend at the year’s second major!

OVER IN EUROPE

Casper Ruud is one of the best clay-court tennis players in the world. He just won the Madrid Open last week, one of the top clay tournaments of the year. In the quarterfinals of the Italian Open yesterday, Ruud was beaten 6-0, 6-1 in just over an hour… that’s how good Jannik Sinner looks in his return to action. An unbelievable result for the world number one in Rome. On the women’s side, Coco Gauff continued her exceptional run of form and advanced to the finals, where she’ll take on the home-crowd favorite Jasmine Paolini.

Lamine Yamal is 17 years old. There’s a good argument that he’s the best soccer player in the world. And if you aren’t sure about that claim, watch this– the Barcelona forward scored an awesome goal to clinch La Liga for his team yesterday:

NOTEWORTHY NEWS

This is a weird one– a report came out that Bears quarterback Caleb Williams consulted with lawyers and at one point pursued ways to opt out of the NFL Draft in order to avoid being selected by Chicago last season. He eventually changed his mind, but Williams still struggled this season, and apparently was left without any help from the coaching staff to watch film and learn the NFL on his own. That’s just a quick summary of the headlines– it’s a crazy article about an upcoming book, with news about lots of quarterbacks. Here’s the link, it’s worth reading if you want to check it out. My biggest takeaway? Expect big things from Caleb in year two, as the new coaching staff might give him a real fighting chance at success.

The WNBA is back! Today is the first day of the new season, and hype around the league has never been higher. It’s been a hectic offseason– not sure which star players are on which teams? Click the link below to preview The Athletic’s preseason all-WNBA selections. We’ll check back in later this summer for our first edition of power rankings:

Finally, get ready for a big announcement today from the Red Sox. It’s probably just a uniform, but I wanted to give you a heads up in case:

THIS WEEKEND’S BIG GAMES (all times Eastern)

NBA:

• Celtics @ Knicks, 8 PM on ESPN

  • New York leads 3-2

• Nuggets @ Thunder, 3:30 PM Sunday on ABC

  • GAME SEVEN!

NHL:

• Maple Leafs @ Panthers, 8 PM on TNT/Max

  • Florida leads 3-2

• IF NECESSARY: Jets @ Stars, Game 6 Saturday

• IF NECESSARY: Maple Leafs @ Panthers, Sunday on TNT/Max

MLB: Mets @ Yankees; Juan Soto’s return to the Bronx, all weekend long

WNBA OPENING WEEKEND:

• Sparks @ Valkyries, 10 PM on ION

• Aces @ Liberty, 1 PM Saturday on ABC

• Sky @ Fever, 3 PM Saturday on ABC

GOLF: PGA Championship, all weekend on ESPN

“Our contracts -- me, Draymond, Steve, Jimmy -- are all two years [more]. And we want this ride to last as long as possible,” –Steph Curry, discussing the pressure on the Warriors to finely tune their roster over the summer

Bonus Remix recap! Always one to show up in the big moments, Shohei Ohtani has two homers tonight…

Have a wonderful weekend!