Odd things are happening at The Masters, and Ja Morant is doing his thing

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Good morning! Watch out for basketball grenades.

I could start this morning with the headlines from Augusta, which are plenty worthy of conversation.

Justin Rose is once again leading early at a major.

Scottie Scheffler is lurking and looking inevitable .

Jon Rahm is imploding, again .

But we have plenty of time to talk about the big dogs.

The weekend sits in front of us, where holes will get harder and roars will get louder.

No, yesterday was defined by the quirks of a golf major, which made me laugh in completely different ways: Lets hope Round 2 has just as much fun.

Catch up on all the first-round storylines here , including more on Rory McIlroys collapse.

Also, I loved this story on the things announcers can and cant say about the Masters.

I will now keep score at home this weekend.

On to the back nine, er ...

second nine: I am not sure how to properly contextualize the ongoing spat between the mercurial Ja Morant and the NBA.

The Grizzlies guard, suspended twice already for brandishing firearms on social media, came into the leagues crosshairs again last week when he celebrated a 3-pointer by mimicking a firearm blast in the direction of his opponents.

Advertisement The league fined him $75,000 after he defied an earlier warning.

Morant seems unfazed.

Maybe annoyed is a better word.

Instead of retreating, Morant has simply altered his artillery-based celebrations.

In last nights loss to Minnesota, Morant pulled this one out: gotta love it pic.twitter.com/WfWmPlQtNN eric (@EricTweetsNBA) April 11, 2025 It was his second straight game throwing fake grenades.

Is it stupid? Probably yes.

Is it entertaining? Also yes.

McAfee addresses Cornett situation ESPN personality Pat McAfee referenced the case of Mary Kate Cornett yesterday, his first public comments after amplifying a false claim about her weeks ago.

During a live event in Pittsburgh, McAfee said he didnt want to add any more negativity to the situation and that he hopes to provide a silver lining for Cornett somehow.

See his full comments here .

The Mariners may be cursed Seattle is 5-8 to start the season, which is not the worst-case scenario, but consider the news yesterday brought on top of the subpar start: Both Victor Robles and Ryan Bliss, two important contributors, will miss extended time after freak injuries this week.

Robles dislocated his shoulder running into a wall Sunday, while Bliss tore a biceps on a swing Tuesday.

Both will miss multiple months.

More details here .

More news Love The Pulse? Check out our other newsletters .

Golf: The Masters 8:30 a.m.

and 3 p.m.

ET, on Masters.com and ESPN The full national broadcast starts this afternoon, but the tournament is offering coverage throughout the morning on its website.

Soak it in.

More info on TV times here .

NHL: Wild at Flames 10 p.m.

ET on ESPN+ The NHL playoff picture is nearly set, so tune in to watch the division-leading Wild before a playoff run facing a Calgary team with an 8 percent chance to make the postseason.

See all our odds (updated nightly, too).

Get tickets to games like these here .

Another good read as NFL Draft season churns: How the transfer portal has transformed how NFL teams evaluate players.

Quite interesting .

The Frozen Four started last night, and Denvers loss means that Zeev Buium will be on NHL screens soon and hes quite ready for the leap .

Still ruminating on Luka Doncics return to Dallas , where Marcus Thompson II wrote that some things in the NBA are worth more than titles .

Advertisement More NBA drama: Inside the cold war within the Nuggets , which led to this weeks shocking ouster of both coach and general manager.

Read it here .

Scott Dochterman poses a good question as college football spring scrimmages wither away: What if we held preseason games instead? Sean Monahan signed with Columbus to play with his best friend Johnny Gaudreau moreover, so they could raise their kids together.

Hes finally finding joy again after Gaudreaus loss.

Most-clicked in the newsletter yesterday : Our story on the American student who boarded the wrong boat in London and found a soccer fan base for life.

So good .

Most-read on the website yesterday : The Beast, again .

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