The PGA Tour and LIV Golf will look much more similar than usual this weekend.

Driving the news: The Zurich Classic, which teed off on Thursday at TPC Louisiana outside New Orleans, is the only team event on the PGA Tour calendar.

• LIV Golf is always team-centric, and this weekend's event at The Grange Golf Club in Adelaide, Australia — which teed off late Thursday night ET — is the breakaway tour's first to feature teammates playing together.

Here's how they compare…

Field and format:

• Zurich Classic: 80 pairs of golfers play four-ball in the first and third rounds (teammates play their own ball, best score on each hole gets carded) and foursomes in the second and final rounds (teammates alternate shots on the same ball). Top 33 teams (and ties) make the cut.
• LIV Adelaide: 12 teams of four compete in standard stroke play, with golfers' scores counting for both individual and team prizes. For the first time ever, teammates are grouped together in Round 1. As with all LIV events, there are just three rounds and no cuts.

Purse and payouts:

• Zurich Classic: Each member of the winning team earns $1.24 million of the $8.6 million purse. The final payout goes to 33rd place, with teammates earning just $18,000 each.
• LIV Adelaide: The individual purse is $20 million, with the winner earning $4 million and even last place taking home $120,000. The top three teams split an additional $5 million.

The intrigue: LIV always competes in teams, but this is PGA Tour golfers' one chance (besides the Ryder Cup and Presidents Cup) to play with instead of against someone. Some notable pairs:

• Defending champs: Patrick Cantlay (world No. 4) and Xander Schauffele (No. 5) will try to go back-to-back after setting the tournament record last year (29-under par).
• Golden Bears: On paper, the team with the best shot to unseat the champs is Max Homa (No. 7) and Collin Morikawa (No. 13), both of whom played at Cal-Berkeley.
• Brothers: Matt Fitzpatrick (No. 8) — fresh off his playoff win over Jordan Spieth at the RBC Heritage — is playing with his younger brother Alex (No. 705), who's making just his second PGA Tour start.
• Wily veterans: David Duval, 51, and John Daly, 56 — who've combined for 18 PGA Tour wins, including three major championships — are the most decorated team.

Leaderboard: Here's where things stand after Round 1:

• Zurich Classic: Two teams (Beau Hossler/Wyndham Clark and Sean O'Hair/Brandon Matthews) are tied for the lead at 11-under.
• LIV Adelaide: Talor Gooch (-10) leads the individuals and Cleeks GC (-16) leads the teams.

The Maple Leafs flipped the script on Thursday at the Scotiabank Arena, crushing the Lightning, 7-2, to tie the series at one game apiece two nights after an embarrassing playoff opener that saw them booed off their home ice.

Stars of the night: Everyone got in on the fun for the Leafs, who scored their most goals in a playoff game since 1994 and had five players record multiple points.

• John Tavares scored his first career playoff hat trick, which doubled as Toronto's first playoff hat trick in 20 years.
• Morgan Rielly tallied four assists, tying the franchise playoff record for both assists in a game and points by a defenseman in a game.
• The rest: Mitch Marner scored two goals and an assist, William Nylander scored a goal and an assist and Auston Matthews had two assists.

Elsewhere … The Rangers crushed the Devils, 5-1, to take a 2-0 series lead, while the Avalanche (3-2 over the Kraken) and Golden Knights (5-2 over the Jets) won to even their series at 1-1.

The MLS season has nearly reached its quarter-mark, with every team having played seven or eight of its 34-game schedule. Here's a quick look at how things are going so far.

• Undefeated: LAFC (5-2-0) picked up right where they left off, as the defending champs are the lone remaining undefeated team.
• Winless: The LA Galaxy (0-3-4) have yet to win as supporters continue their season-long boycott in hopes of driving change in the front office. Sporting KC (0-3-5) are also winless.
• Hot start: Expansion side St. Louis City SC (6-0-2) have come storming out of the gates in their inaugural season, with the league's best record and goal differential (+11).
• Trading places: The Philadelphia Union (2-2-4) are 10th in the East a year after finishing first, while the New England Revolution (5-2-1) are first in the East a year after finishing 10th.
• Return to form: The Seattle Sounders (5-1-2) are looking like themselves again, sitting third in the West a year after missing the playoffs for the first time ever.
• Stingiest defense: Nashville SC (3-2-3) have allowed a league-best four goals, including shutouts in five of their eight games.

Go deeper: Power rankings (ESPN)

🏀 Sixth Man: Celtics PG Malcolm Brogdon was named Sixth Man of the Year, edging out Knicks SG Immanuel Quickley and Bucks F Bobby Portis. He joins former 18-year NBA vet Mike Miller as the only players to win both Sixth Man and Rookie of the Year.

⚾️ Scherzer suspended: Max Scherzer will serve a 10-game suspension following his ejection for the use of "sticky stuff," which MLB says was likely illegally applied rosin. Scherzer initially appealed the decision but later dropped the appeal after learning it wouldn't be heard by a neutral arbitrator.

🏳️‍⚧️ Anti-trans bill passed: House Republicans passed a bill banning transgender girls from competing in girls' and women's sports in public schools nationwide, but it's not expected to advance past the Democrat-led Senate nor President Joe Biden's desk.

⚽️ Juve's points restored: Juventus' 15-point penalty — levied in January for a potentially shady accounting practice — has been overturned pending a new trial. With those points restored, the club jumped from seventh place in Serie A to third, still 16 points behind Napoli in first.

The future of one of the most decorated pitchers of his generation is suddenly up in the air.

Driving the news: The Diamondbacks designated Madison Bumgarner for assignment on Thursday, cutting bait with the 33-year-old who's been inconsistent at best since signing a five-year, $85 million deal before the 2020 season.

• Arizona will eat the $34 million that's left on his contract through the end of next season.
• Once he clears waivers, he can sign with any team for the MLB minimum ($720,000).

The backdrop: Before signing with Arizona, Bumgarner spent 11 seasons with the Giants where he pitched to a 3.13 ERA across 286 regular-season starts, earning four All-Star nods and four top-10 Cy Young finishes while compiling 37.5 WAR.

• In the playoffs, he was even better, leading San Francisco to three World Series titles (2010, 2012, 2014) while going 8-3 with a 2.11 ERA in 16 appearances.
• His 2014 WS MVP performance, capped by a five-inning save on two days' rest in Game 7, is the stuff of legend.

Yes, but: It's all gone downhill since then. Outside of a few good starts, like his seven-inning "no-hitter" in 2021, his performance in Arizona has been abysmal.

• He had a 5.23 ERA and -0.3 WAR across 69 starts with the DBacks, including a 10.26 ERA and -0.9 WAR in four games this season.

The big picture: This timing makes sense for Arizona. The young club is in first place in the NL West and rightly viewed Bumgarner's albatross contract — and perhaps his questionable antics — as a sunk cost.

With baseball moving faster in the pitch clock era, Twins radio broadcaster Cory Provus is tweaking the way he calls games — and leaning on the teachings of a Hall of Fame announcer to do so.

The backdrop: Provus and his broadcasting partner, Dan Gladden, have long used the copious downtime between pitches and batters to dissect big plays, analyze a trend or tell stories, Axios Twin Cities' Nick Halter writes.

• But now, while he still does the same amount of prep work for a game, he's not using nearly as much of that information "because of how fast things are moving."

The intrigue: Fortunately for his listeners, Provus came up under legendary Brewers announcer Bob Uecker, who taught him that calling games doesn't mean calling every pitch.

What he's saying: "I learned from Bob to let the game breathe a bit and not make it monotonous with constant play-by-play," Provus told Axios.

• Provus added that while he misses some aspects of what longer games afforded him, he thinks the pitch clock has been great for baseball: "This is such a better game right now."

❤️ And most importantly … With night games ending about 30 minutes earlier, Provus has been able to make it home in time to kiss his kids, ages 7 and 9, before they go to bed.

BROOKLYN — The Sixers erased a late deficit to beat the Nets, 102-97, on Thursday, taking a 3-0 series lead and putting them one win away from the second round.

• Tyrese Maxey scored 10 of his team-high 25 points in the final three minutes, including the go-ahead three with 44 seconds left.
• Joel Embiid (14 pts, 10 reb) blocked the would-be game-tying layup with 10 seconds left.
• And James Harden (21 pts, 5 reb, 4 ast) missed the entire fourth quarter after an extremely questionable ejection for a flagrant 2 foul.

Elsewhere … The Warriors beat the Kings, 114-97, behind Steph Curry's 36 points to cut their series deficit to 2-1; the Suns beat the Clippers, 129-124, behind Devin Booker's 45 points to take a 2-1 lead.

Source: Giphy

We've got a full weekend of first-round playoff action coming our way in the NBA and NHL.

• 🏀 Tonight: Celtics (up 2-0) at Hawks (7pm ET, ESPN); Cavaliers (1-1) at Knicks (8:30pm, ABC); Nuggets (up 2-0) at Timberwolves (9:30pm, ESPN)
• 🏒 Tonight: Hurricanes (up 2-0) at Islanders (7pm, TBS); Bruins (1-1) at Panthers (7:30pm, TNT); Stars (1-1) at Wild (9:30pm, TBS); Oilers (1-1) at Kings (10pm, TNT)
• 🏀 Tomorrow: 76ers (up 3-0) at Nets (1pm, TNT); Suns (up 2-1) at Clippers (3:30pm, TNT); Bucks (1-1) at Heat (7:30pm, ESPN); Grizzlies (1-1) at Lakers (10pm, ESPN)
• 🏒 Tomorrow: Golden Knights (1-1) at Jets (4pm, TBS); Maple Leafs (1-1) at Lightning (7pm, TBS); Devils (down 2-0) at Rangers (8pm, ABC); Avalanche (1-1) at Kraken (10pm, TBS)
• 🏀 Sunday: Cavaliers at Knicks (1pm, ABC); Kings (up 2-1) at Warriors (3:30pm, ABC); Celtics at Hawks (7pm, TNT); Nuggets at Timberwolves (9:30pm, TNT)
• 🏒 Sunday: Hurricanes at Islanders (1pm, TNT); Bruins at Panthers (3:30pm, TNT); Stars at Wild (6:30pm, TBS); Oilers at Kings (9pm, TBS)

More to watch:

• ⛳️ LPGA: Chevron Championship (Fri-Sun, Golf/NBC/Peacock) … Taiwan's Peiyun Chien (-5) leads the season's first major after Round 1.
• ⛳️ PGA: Zurich Classic (Fri-Sun, Golf/CBS/ESPN+/Peacock)
• ⛳️ LIV: Australia (Fri-Sat, The CW)
• ⚾️ MLB: Dodgers at Cubs (Fri. 2:20pm, MLB); Blue Jays at Yankees (Fri. 7pm, Apple TV+); Astros at Braves (Fri. 7:20pm, Apple TV+); Rockies at Phillies (Sun. 12pm, Peacock); Mets at Giants (Sun. 7pm, ESPN)
• ⚽️ FA Cup semifinals: Man City vs. Sheffield (Sat. 11:45am, ESPN+); Brighton vs. Man United (11:30am, ESPN+)
• ⚽️ Women's Champions League: Chelsea vs. Barcelona (Sat. 7:30am, YouTube/DAZN); Wolfsburg vs. Arsenal (Sun. 9:30am, YouTube/DAZN) … Semifinals, first leg.
• ⚽️ MLS: 14 games (Sat-Sun, Apple TV) … Six are free to watch.
• ⚽️ NWSL: Six games (Sat-Sun, Paramount+)
• 🥊 Boxing: Gervonta Davis vs. Ryan Garcia (Sat. 8pm, Showtime/DAZN PPV) … The undefeated fighters square off in Las Vegas.
• 🏈 XFL: Week 10 (Sat-Sun, ESPN/ESPN2/ESPN+/ABC) … Final week of regular season.
• 🏈 USFL: Week 2 (Sat-Sun, USA/Fox/NBC/FS1)
• 🎾 Tennis: Barcelona Open, ATP and Stuttgart Open, WTA (Fri-Sun, Tennis) … Finals on Sunday.
• 🏁 NASCAR: Talladega Superspeedway (Sun. 3pm, Fox)
• 🏒 U18 Men's Hockey Worlds: Group stage (Fri-Sun, NHL)

Fernando Tatis Jr. returned from his 80-game PED suspension on Thursday, playing his first game since 2021, when he finished third for the NL MVP.

• Question: Who won NL MVP that year?
• Hint: Bats lefty

Answer at the bottom.

There's an unwritten rule in the NBA that you can't wear an opponent's signature shoe, which has become somewhat problematic for Grizzlies' shooting guard Desmond Bane.

The backdrop: After Bane returned from a midseason toe injury, the only pair of shoes that felt comfortable were the Nike LeBron XX's.

• Not only are Bane's Grizzlies and LeBron's Lakers facing off in the first round, but the two have a history of jawing at each other.
• And in Memphis' Game 2 victory on Wednesday, Bane's teammate Dillon Brooks added his own chapter to the beefing-with-LeBron saga.

What to watch: Game 3 is tomorrow night in LA, where Bane and his rule-breaking sneakers will try to take a 2-1 lead over the Lakers.