Greg Norman has hinted at a women's series being introduced by LIV Golf.

Norman, chief executive officer of LIV Golf, confirmed he has had discussions with players from various tours to gauge interest, and said there has been plenty of it.

The Saudi Arabia-backed tour began a men's series last year, with the inaugural event taking place in London, with high-profile players such as Brooks Koepka, Phil Mickelson, Cameron Smith and Bryson DeChambeau leaving the PGA Tour to take part.

"[A women's tour] is a discussion we have internally on a regular basis," Norman said ahead of LIV Golf's first Australia-based event in Adelaide.

"I have personally had discussions with individual LPGA Tour players, LET Tour players, Ladies European Tour. They love what our product is showcasing. They ask all the time, 'How can we get involved?' We'd love to see a LIV ladies series."

The creation of LIV Golf caused a rivalry to develop in the sport between it and the PGA and DP World Tours, with the latter recently winning a legal battle against members who played in LIV Golf tournaments over a dispute around imposing fines for playing in competing events.

Much of the controversy stems from being backed by the Saudi Public Investment Fund, but Norman said it is not his job to question the human rights record of the Saudi government.

"Why not? Because I am the chairman and CEO of LIV Golf Investments, and that's where I focus, I focus on golf, I stay focused on golf," he said.

"My job is to build out LIV and the product and the platform we have on the global front.

"Golf is a force for good. I've built golf courses in third-world countries, in communist countries. So golf is a force for good, it goes everywhere with the right platform."

Steve Kerr said he will continue "to bat" for Draymond Green after being "extremely surprised" by the one-game suspension handed out to the Golden State Warriors star over a stomping incident.

Green was ejected from Game 2 of the Warriors' playoff series against the Sacramento Kings when he was seen lashing out at the ribs of Domantas Sabonis, who appeared to grab at Green's legs when falling to the ground.

Initially it was reported that Green would be unlikely to be banned for the incident but the NBA league office confirmed he will sit out Game 3 of the first-round playoff series, which the Warriors are trailing 2-0 in.

Asked about his initial reaction to the news, head coach Kerr said: "I was extremely surprised and then immediately into 'Alright, what's next? How do we win the game?'

"There's no time to spend worrying about it or thinking about it or complaining about it, it doesn't matter, we know what the league decided to do, we have to respond accordingly and go out there and win the game."

Green's suspension was in part due to his past history when it comes to ill-discipline.

Back in the 2016 Finals, he was suspended after accumulating too many fouls in a Game 4 clash that ended with Green hitting LeBron James in the groin, having already been ejected earlier in the playoffs against the Oklahoma City Thunder. He was also ejected in Game 1 of last season's second-round series versus the Memphis Grizzlies.

In 2018, Green was suspended by the Warriors following an altercation with Kevin Durant, and spent time away from the team earlier this season after punching teammate Jordan Poole.

"He's the ultimate competitor. Everybody knows he's going to occasionally tip over the edge and his emotions get the best of him. That's part of it," Kerr said when asked about Green's past misdemeanours counting against him.

"There's no stopping it. You're not going to be able to put your arm around him and say, 'OK, let's move forward'. It doesn't work that way.

"It's not anything we can control. Draymond is incredibly passionate and competitive and fiery and he's helped us win more championships, I've said it many times – we don't have a single championship without Draymond Green. That's the truth. He crossed the line over the years, but that's part of it. We will go to bat for Draymond."

Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta concedes it is still too early to determine if William Saliba will be able to feature again this season.

The France centre-back has been absent for all of Arsenal's past four matches after sustaining a back injury in the first half of the Europa League last-16 second-leg draw with Sporting CP last month, which resulted in the Gunners' elimination on penalties.

There had been hope Saliba's recovery was advanced when seen on an exercise bike at training earlier this week, but it would appear such optimism was misjudged.

Saliba will definitely not face Southampton at Emirates Stadium on Friday, and now it would seem there is a chance he does not play again this season for the Premier League leaders.

And with their lead over Manchester City just four points having played a game more, the Gunners need all the help they can get.

"No big news, the picture hasn't changed from last week. Regarding William, we still need to wait a bit more. He's not progressing as quick as we hoped," Arteta told reporters.

"It's delicate and we want to be very certain when we push him that he is ready to absorb the load and the risk that we will take.

"At the moment it's not possible to do."

Arteta was then asked if Saliba could potentially miss the remaining weeks of the season, with the coach unable to put supporters' minds at ease.

"I don't know. It's a bit early to do [come to those conclusions]," he continued.

"Probably next week we will have more certainty. There is some evolution – he's doing more activity, but he's not ready yet to throw him on to the pitch at the level our sessions demand to compete in this league."

Arteta also had a disappointing update regarding Oleksandr Zinchenko.

The Ukraine international was absent for last weekend's 2-2 draw with West Ham due to a groin strain and, despite reports suggesting he was likely to be fit to face Saints, those claims now look wide of the mark.

"We will see with that one as well. It's not certain," Arteta added. "It's a muscular injury and it needs some time to heal, and we are not there yet."

Arsenal's next game after the visit of Saints is a trip to Manchester City on Wednesday, a game that could well decide the fate of the title.

Los Angeles Lakers superstar LeBron James may be the most recognisable figure in the NBA, but the Memphis Grizzlies' Dillon Brooks is enjoying showing his rival no respect.

The Grizzlies beat the Lakers 103-93 on Wednesday in Game 2 of their first-round playoff to tie the series, with Brooks and James competing at close proximity.

Brooks exchanged heated words with James in the third quarter after his fourth foul allowed the NBA's all-time leading scorer to sink a couple of baskets to reduce the Grizzlies' lead to 14.

James apparently called Brooks "dumb" for his antagonistic approach, which the 27-year-old snapped back at.

Brooks, who is regarded as one of the NBA's fieriest wing defenders, suggested James' behaviour showed he was wilting under pressure a little earlier than expected.

Speaking of his confrontation with the 38-year-old James, Brooks said: "I don't care – he's old. You know what I mean? I was waiting for that.

"I was expecting him to do that Game 4, Game 5. He wanted to say something when I got my fourth foul.

"He should have been saying that earlier on. But I poke bears. I don't respect no one until they come and give me 40."

James has never posted 40 points in 13 games against Brooks, reaching 28 on Wednesday as the Lakers fell well short.

But more opportunities will arrive as the series progresses, and Brooks – who managed just 23 minutes on court due to his persistent fouling – is seemingly looking forward to more tussles.

"I said, 'Oh, finally you want to talk,' then we started to get into a conversation," Brooks continued.

"I just let him know that, 'You can't take me one-on-one. You haven't.' You go look at the film; he doesn't really take me one-on-one until that moment.

"Then when he got subbed out, he was tired. So I did my job."

There was a cutting tone to much of what Brooks said about James, though some of his comments were undercut with a hint of respect.

"He's not at the same level that he was when he was on Cleveland winning championships, Miami," Brooks added.

"I wish I got to see that. It would have been a harder task, but I'm playing with what I've got.

"Just wear and tear on him throughout a seven-game series and see if he can take it. See if he wants to play the one-on-one battle or if he wants to be out on the sidelines shooting the basketball."

The Grizzlies and Lakers will contest Game 3 of the series on Saturday at the Crypto.com Arena.

Boston Bruins head coach Jim Montgomery said his side learned an important lesson after losing Game 2 of their Stanley Cup first-round series to the Florida Panthers 6-3.

The Panthers split the opening two games in Boston where the Bruins boasted a 34-4-3 record during the regular season, with the series now headed to Florida for Games 3 and 4.

Florida scored four third-period goals to blow the game open after it was locked at 2-2 heading into the final 20 minutes.

The Bruins came into the playoffs fresh from setting NHL records for most wins and points in regular season history.

The defeat marked the Bruins' first in their past 10 games and only their second loss at home this season by more than one goal.

"The number one lesson you learn is how hard it is to win in the playoffs," Montgomery told reporters.

"Florida did a good job. I thought they had a real good gameplan. We got to look at the tape, we've got to get better, we've got to execute better.

"For a team that's been really good in the third period for a long time, it's an opportunity for us to learn from that."

Montgomery labeled the turnovers his side gave away as "catastrophic", while he lamented their inability to regain their composure when they went 4-2 down in the third period.

"I didn’t think we re-grouped and reset," he said. "Most of the year we've been able to reset and go back to our go to our game.

"We didn’t go back to our game at 4-2. I thought we got back to our game in the first two periods."

The win means the Panthers have home-ice advantage ahead of Games 3 and 4 in Florida, although head coach Paul Maurice was not getting carried away.

"You can’t get too far behind anybody. Certainly not a team like the Boston Bruins, the season they’ve had," Maurice said.

"We’d be more than happy to play seven of them, grind it out. Play as long as we can for as hard as we can."

Aaron Judge robbed Shohei Ohtani of a homer before delivering a blast of his own as the New York Yankees downed the Los Angeles Angels 3-2 on Wednesday.

Gleyber Torres hit a walk-off sacrifice fly in the 10th inning, after the Angels had squared the game up following Judge's first-inning two-run shot.

Judge was at the heart of everything early, robbing Ohtani of a first-inning homer with a leaping ricochet catch on the wall at center field after the ball hit the heel of his glove and bobbled into his throwing hand.

The reigning AL MVP then launched a two-run blast into the left-center bullpen at the bottom of the first to open up a 2-0 lead. It was Judge's sixth homer of the 2023 season.

Judge produced another moment of magic in the field in the eighth inning with a diving one-handed grab at right-center field to save a go-ahead run from Brandon Drury.

Ohtani had a frustrating game, going none-for-four and stranding three runners with inning-ending strikeouts in the fifth and seventh innings.

The Angels reeled in the Yankees' early lead with Taylor Ward's fifth-inning RBI, before Gio Urshela's two-out RBI single in the eighth.

In the 10th, Urshela lined out to right with Mike Trout stranded on third with two-out, before Torres' walk-off sac fly to center-right field with bases loaded, driving in Isiah Kiner-Falefa.

Soto shines as Braves' run ended

Juan Soto continued to emerge from his early-season slump with a 431-foot blast to right-center field in the San Diego Padres' 1-0 win over the Atlanta Braves.

The result snapped the Braves' eight-game winning streak, with the Padres improving to a 9-11 record with Fernando Tatis Jr set to return from a long-term suspension on Thursday. Joe Musgrove's return from injury is close too.

Soto, who was hitting .175 with three home runs from 19 games coming in, delivered the decisive blast the fourth inning while Nick Martinez threw six strikeouts across seven scoreless innings, allowing three hits.

More milestones for free-wheeling Rays

The Tampa Bay Rays' outstanding early season form continued with an 8-0 victory over the Cincinnati Reds setting more records, having started the year with a 13-game winning streak.

The Rays blasted six first-inning runs with Yandy Diaz setting the tone with a lead-off homer, setting a modern era record for differential after 19 games (+83), having scored 133 runs and allowed 50, beating the previous mark held by the 1905 New York Giants (+79).

Tampa Bay also became the first team n the modern era to have four shutouts of eight-plus runs in their first 19 games of the season, as Drew Rasmussen had seven K's across five scoreless innings. It was the team's sixth shutout in 19 games.

Three-time Cy Young Award winner Max Scherzer could face a 10-game suspension after being ejected from the New York Mets' 5-3 win over the Los Angeles Dodgers after checks for a sticky substance.

The Mets right-hander pleaded his innocence with the umpires checking the pitcher's hand and glove for a sticky substance on three separate occasions, eventually tossing him from the game prior to the fourth inning.

Under MLB rules, if a player is deemed to have violated the rules on sticky substances, they will receive an automatic 10-game ban, which can be appealed.

Scherzer was left bewildered by the decision, yelling "it's rosin" upon umpire Phil Cuzzi's call to eject him from the game, before reluctantly exiting.

"I'd have to be an absolute idiot to try to do anything when I'm coming back out for the fourth," Scherzer told reporters. "He said my hand is too sticky, and I said, 'I swear on my kids' life that I'm not using anything else. This is sweat and rosin, sweat and rosin.'

"I don't get how I get ejected when I'm in front of MLB officials doing exactly - exactly - what you want and being deemed my hands too sticky when I'm using legal substances, I do not understand that."

In the umpires' pool report, plate umpire Dan Bellino said the stickiness of Scherzer's hand worsened from the initial second-inning inspection to the third inspection in the fourth inning when he was ejected.

"As far as stickiness, this was the stickiest it had been since I've been inspecting hands, which goes back three seasons," Bellino said.

Cuzzi added: "I said this to Buck and to Max, it really didn't matter to us what it is. All we know is that it was far stickier than anything that we've felt certainly today and anything this year, and so in that case, we felt as though he had two chances to clean it up, and he didn't."

Scherzer became only the third pitcher to be ejected for violating the updated foreign substance policy, after Seattle's Hector Santiago and Arizona's Caleb Smith, both in 2021. Both copped 10-game bans.

Giannis Antetokounmpo has been ruled out of Game 2 of the Milwaukee Bucks' first-round playoff series against the Miami Heat due to a bruised lower back.

Antetokounmpo exited the Game 1 loss with a lower back contusion after landing heavily when driving to the basket and charging into Heat's Kevin Love. He initially tried to play on but was ruled out at half-time.

The Bucks had listed the MVP candidate as doubtful on Tuesday after an X-ray and MRI scan both came back clean, later updating that to questionable.

Bucks head coach Mike Budenholzer confirmed prior to Wednesday's Game 2 that Antetokounmpo would be unavailable.

"[We were] hopeful that he would play and also aware that he might not," Budenholzer told reporters. "The guys are ready. The group's focused and in a good place."

Antetokounmpo's status will be critical for the Bucks during the series, but Budenholzer remained optimistic that he will return soon.

"He's continued to improve, but organizationally and talking and working with him and the sports performance group, the decision was made," Budenholzer said.

"He's out. The guys that are ready and the guys that are available are good to go. We'll continue to monitor him and expect for him to improve and still continue to be optimistic that soon he'll be ready to play."

The Greek forward averaged 31.1 points and 11.8 rebounds per game during the regular season, sitting in the NBA's top five for both categories.

Ja Morant was listed as "out" by the Memphis Grizzlies for Game 2 of their first-round playoff series against the Los Angeles Lakers.

Morant left the court in Sunday's Game 1 defeat to the Lakers at FedExForum in the fourth quarter after trying to break his fall on a drive with his right hand, with his wrist bending unnaturally.

An MRI on Monday revealed a re-aggravation of soft tissue in his hand, having previously suffered an issue against the Milwaukee Bucks on April 7.

According to multiple reports, the Grizzlies listed Morant out prior to the start of Game 2 in Memphis on Wednesday, citing "right-hand soreness".

The 23-year-old was in excellent form in the regular season, averaging 26.2 points and 8.1 assists per game from 61 appearances.

The Grizzlies are already missing key players Steven Adams and Brandon Clarke for the whole of the playoffs, and will be hoping Morant can return as soon as possible.

Tiger Woods faces another rehabilitation process after the 15-time major winner underwent surgery on his ankle.

Woods went under the knife for a procedure to address post-traumatic arthritis in his talus bone, which makes up the lower part of the ankle joint.

The 47-year-old, who suffered severe injuries to his leg in a car crash in Los Angeles in 2021, withdrew from The Masters seven holes into his third round this month after battling to make the cut.

Though no timeframe was placed on his recovery, Woods' participation at the second major of the year – the US PGA Championship – is now in doubt.

A statement on Woods' social media channels read: "Earlier today [Wednesday], Tiger underwent a subtalar fusion procedure to address his post-traumatic arthritis from his previous talus fracture.

"It was performed by Dr Martin O'Malley at HSS Sports Medicine Institute in New York.

"He has determined the surgery to be successful. Tiger is recovering and looks forward to beginning his rehabilitation."

Pep Guardiola felt "exhausted" Manchester City showed they are streetwise in the Champions League as they reached the semi-finals with a 4-1 aggregate win over Bayern Munich.

Eight days after winning the first leg 3-0 at the Etihad Stadium, the Premier League champions drew 1-1 at Allianz Arena to set up a tie against holders Real Madrid.

Erling Haaland missed a first-half penalty, but scored his 48th goal of the season after the break to put City ahead the night.

Joshua Kimmich denied City an 11th successive victory late on after a second harsh penalty award of the game – Manuel Akanji punished for what was adjudged to be handball.

City are in the hunt for a Champions League, Premier League and FA Cup treble after advancing to a third successive European semi-final.

Guardiola, who took charge of the Premier League champions for a 400th time when he came up against his former club Bayern on Wednesday, feels their experience is standing them in good stead.

He told BT Sport: "We struggled in the first half. [Dayot] Upamecano broke all the lines down our left side and we struggled with [Kingsley] Coman.

"We were fortunate before the penalty miss, they had one or two chances and anything could happen but we defended really well.

"The finishing from Erling was really, really good. He is so young. The experience that we have in this competition, the players feel it a lot, they want to do it really well. The second half was much, much better since minute one."

City face Championship side Sheffield United in an FA Cup semi-final on Saturday and Guardiola is concerned fatigue will be an issue.

He added: "We are exhausted. I don't know how we recover to play against Sheffield United [in the FA Cup semi-final].

"Now is a tough moment for the game on Saturday, but we have to play then as [Manchester) United play in the Europa League [so play Brighton and Hove Albion in the FA Cup on Sunday]."