Xavi Hernández said on Thursday that he has unfinished business at Barcelona after backtracking on his decision to step down as head coach at the end of the season.

Xavi announced in January that he would leave the job in the summer, despite having a contract until 2025, but sources told ESPN on Wednesday he had agreed to stay on after defeats to Paris Saint-Germain and Real Madrid in the past week effectively ended Barça's hopes of silverware this season.

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Speaking in a news conference on Thursday, he said the support of the club and a desire to finish the project he inherited in 2021 were among the reasons for his U-turn.

"I love Barça and I always try to do what is in the club's best interests," Xavi said.

"In these three months [since announcing my departure], I have noticed the support from the president [Joan Laporta], the board of directors and [sporting director] Deco.

"The support of the players and the fans -- who have encouraged me on the street and filled the stadium -- has also been important in deciding to reverse my decision.

"We probably won't win any trophies this season, but this is a winning project. We have to continue with it and we have to keep working hard. I feel we have the capacity, the energy and the motivation to keep going.

"In January, I thought a change was needed, but I think this is the best decision now. It think it brings stability and I am happy, above all for the backing I have received from the club.

"Many people have made me see that this project is not finished. I am staying to keep winning. We will correct the small details that have cost us this year and we believe next season we will be closer to our objectives."

Xavi insisted that his decision to step down in January after a 5-3 loss to Villarreal was not based on "ego" and that he genuinely thought it was what the club needed at the time.

One of the reasons he gave in January was the intense pressure that surrounds the club and, while he admitted that will not change at the first sign of trouble next season, he accepted it is part of the job.

"Next season, if there is a bad run, we will have to deal with it again," he added.

"But the pressure and the environment surrounding the club were not the main reasons [for leaving]. I know this club and would not have taken the job on if that was a problem.

"My opinion of the environment surrounding the club is that it will continue to be cruel and unpleasant in adverse situations. But I told the president I am motivated and that the project is not over."

Xavi also denied that he had enforced any conditions related to his backroom staff or summer signings on the club to stay, while he hit out at reports the club had decided to stick with him solely because he was demanding to be paid the rest of his contract otherwise.

"That's absolutely not the case and comes from people who want to do damage to me as a person," he said. "Laporta and Deco know -- and I also said in public -- I would give up that money and that it could go towards the next coach."

Speaking alongside Xavi, Laporta said the club requires "stability" and that it was a "unanimous" decision for Xavi to stay on.

The Barça president added that the club had not spoken with any other coaches in the meantime as they always hoped Xavi would change his mind.

Pressed on a comment he made in the past about "losing bringing consequences," he said those consequences don't have to be drastic and that the required changes would be led by Xavi and Deco this summer.

Barça embarked on a 13-game unbeaten run after Xavi's announcement in January, but that streak ended when they lost to PSG in the Champions League quarterfinal last week.

That defeat was followed by a 3-2 El Clásico reverse against Real Madrid, leaving them 11 points behind the LaLiga leaders and facing a trophyless campaign.

Xavi, who made over 700 appearances for Barça as a player, took over from Ronald Koeman in 2021, leading the team from ninth to second LaLiga and then winning the club's first league title since 2019 last year in his first full season in charge.

On Sunday, Barcelona lost to Real Madrid in the 256th edition of El Clásico. It was a close game -- Barça twice took the lead, only for Madrid to roar back and win 3-2 on Jude Bellingham's injury time goal -- and it's always been too close to call between the two biggest teams in LaLiga.

Madrid have won 104 meetings between the two sides and Barça 100, with 52 draws. Carlo Ancelotti's side look all-but-certain to wrestle back the league title from Barça, who were crowned champions last year. Los Blancos are 11 points clear of their rivals at the top of the league with six games to play as they chase a 35th championship; Barça, by contrast, have won 27.

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Off the pitch, however, a chasm has grown between the two. This summer, Madrid are expected to follow up the arrival of midfielder Bellingham, who signed from Borussia Dortmund for an initial 103 million, by finally completing a deal to bring in France and Paris Saint-Germain forward Kylian Mbappé, who would arrive as a free agent though with a sizable salary and signing-on fee.

Barça, meanwhile, are in dire financial straits: such is the state of things that they're not even sure if they can register contract extensions for existing players due to LaLiga's financial rules, let alone bring in new players this summer. It has been a familiar story in recent years, with player registrations often completed as late as the eve of a new season due to budget impositions from the league.

The most recent figures revealed that the Blaugrana's league-imposed annual spending cap for wages and the amortisation -- the cost of a transfer is divided by the length of the contract to apply a book-keeping value to each signing -- of transfer fees has been cut to 204m. They are in excess of that amount by over 200m -- according to LaLiga's calculations -- and must work to get that figure down until they're able to operate freely again in the transfer market.

By contrast, Madrid's limit stands at an impressive 727m.

Barça's success last year and their run to the Champions League quarterfinals, where they were eliminated by PSG, has come on the back of asset sales, famously dubbed "palancas" ("levers" in English) that funded signings worth over 150m in 2022. Despite the sales of things like domestic television rights and a stake of in-house production company Barça Studios, they remain in a delicate financial position.

"The palancas are a case of bread today, hunger tomorrow," one source said.

ESPN spoke to various people with in-depth knowledge of Barça's finances to find out how bad the situation is, whether it has improved under president Joan Laporta and what can be done to steer the club back in the right direction. Could they pull more palancas? Will they have to transfer some of their best players? Will this fan-owned entity eventually have to consider selling a stake in the club to outside investors?

Barcelona declined to comment to ESPN for this story.

'Monstrous' debt

The more people you speak to, the more complicated the financial web becomes at Barça. Most, however, agree on the reasons the Catalan club find themselves in such an extreme situation: a wage bill that ballooned after winning the Champions League in 2015, the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic and mismanagement at board level.

Another factor this season is also the move to the 55,000-capacity Olympic Stadium in Montjuic during the redevelopment of their permanent home The stadium now called the Spotify Camp Nou is the largest in Europe, holding 99,000 spectators. This has naturally had an impact on ticketing and matchday revenue streams. "Barça had a wage bill closer to 700m and Madrid around 400m [pre-pandemic]," Marc Ciria, a financial adviser who plans to run for the Barça presidency in the next election, told ESPN. "Multiply that over time, and there you see [the difference between the two clubs]."

Jaume Roures, a Catalan businessman and former CEO of Spanish multimedia group Mediapro, has twice helped Laporta with Barça's financial picture, first by contributing to the bank guarantee needed for him to become president, and later buying 24.5% of Barça Studios (the club's in-house media wing) as part of those 2022 asset sales. He has since relinquished that stake.

"The management at Barça has historically been very bad," Roures told ESPN. "When PSG signed Neymar for 222m [in 2017], Barça registered 32m in profit. The debt was already monstrous then. In any company, if you receive 222m [still the world record for a transfer fee] and have only 30m in benefits, you get fired.

"Admittedly managing a football club is not the same as any other business, [due to] the pressure you are subjected to and the emotions you are handling. Madrid, though, between [club president] Florentino [Pérez] and [CEO José Ángel] Sánchez, have had a little more luck and at the same time, they've been capable of building a good team. Bellingham and Mbappé have years ahead of them. They are not just players for a couple of seasons."

It is difficult to gauge the exact scale of the financial crisis Barça are in. Ciria says it is "very serious" because costs still outstrip revenue, while the club's debt is in the billions. Including the financing for the redevelopment of Camp Nou -- Ciria thinks this should have been delayed, while Roures would have preferred a new stadium on a site within a mile of their current ground -- where Barça usually play their home games, Ciria estimates it is close to 3 billion.

Roures adds the biggest problem is the interest they have to pay on the loans and credit they have taken out. Per Barça's official accounts for the year ending June 30, 2023, they have liabilities totalling 2.7bn, which includes short- and long-term debt as well as the financing for the new stadium.

Laporta, who recently celebrated three years in his second distinct term as president, inherited the disorder from the previous board. His first move was to take out a 600m loan from Goldman Sachs to help spread out debt repayments. Next came the palancas, which saw Barça sell a 25% stake in their LaLiga television rights and 49% of Barça Studios in 2022. A league source says, per the club's accounting, those asset sales were worth 808m in 2022-23 and around 300m in 2021-22. That money was mainly used to increase the club's spending limit with the league, allowing them to sign Robert Lewandowski, Raphinha and Jules Koundé for a combined 150m. Yet Ciria believes more should have been done to reduce the debt at that time.

"It is worse," Ciria says when asked to compare the situation in 2024 against when Laporta took office. "Because now we have sold assets, we haven't had the sporting success we expected and in addition, the loan and credit repayment dates are much closer.

"Look, in 2021, we were looking at bankruptcy. That situation was solved, so in 2022-2023 things were better, but now, the financial obligations are bigger, there are fewer assets and therefore, objectively, if this was a company, we would say that Barça are weaker in terms of tackling a crisis now than [they were] in 2021."

What is Barcelona's spending limit?

Last summer, Barça's headline signing was Ilkay Gündogan, who arrived as a free agent (with no transfer fee required) from Manchester City. There was no money available to sign the defensive midfielder that manager Xavi Hernández had demanded, with former Barcelona youth player Oriol Romeu arriving instead as a stopgap for 3.5m from Girona -- a move the player himself helped fund. The financial problems off the pitch are very much holding back planning on it.

Even in 2022, the summer of the palancas, it was only on the eve of the season that Barça were able to register the majority of their signings. That is because Spanish clubs must adhere to LaLiga's spending cap, which is roughly determined by the difference between a team's revenue minus non-sporting outgoings and debt repayments. The final figure accounts for the maximum amount clubs should spend on wages, bonuses and amortisation payments on transfers across a season.

Barça's limit has been more up and down than a roller coaster. It dropped to a negative number during the pandemic, rose back up to around 600m after asset sales and has now been reduced again to just over 200m. Sources told ESPN that Barça are currently spending over double that cap, somewhere between 400m-500m, and therefore they remain subject to significant financial scrutiny. It means they can keep the players they have, but are only allowed to spend a percentage of what they save in salaries or raise in transfer fees, with the percentage varying depending on how big the saving is.

"Looking at Barça's evolution, [spending has] dropped to 500m-ish, so it's going down," a league source told ESPN. "They're building a new stadium and will have more income. So they're doing what they have to do to get out of where they were.

"Looking at costs, infrastructure projects and capacity for growth, they'll sort out the situation. Another thing is the immediate impact. They have to be 'in quarantine' while they sort that out. Having a debt isn't bad if it's controlled within parameters. Looking at Barça's project, they'll pay the debt with the new income."

European football's governing body UEFA, meanwhile, fined Barça 500,000 last July for wrongly reporting profits in the 2022 financial year that were not considered as relevant income. UEFA has not said precisely what the profits wrongly reported by the club related to, but sources suggested to ESPN it was Barça's inclusion of the sale of future TV rights as profit in their 2022 accounts.

Where Barcelona can make money

Progress in the Champions League has provided an additional income boost. For reaching the quarterfinals, Barça will receive around 50m in prize money, plus more from the television pool and the ticketing and match day revenue from knockout games at the Olympic Stadium. Some tickets for last week's game against PSG were being sold via official channels for as much as 500; however, their European exit has denied them a place at the inaugural Club World Cup next year, which would have delivered an additional payday.

Barça will also look to move on members of the squad who do not play regularly and players who have spent these season out on loan. Sergiño Dest (on loan at PSV Eindhoven) and Ansu Fati (with Brighton & Hove Albion this season) are among those stars who could help them raise a transfer fee by leaving the club on a permanent basis.

In recent years, the club have also opted to add midseason and postseason friendlies to an already hectic schedule, playing in Australia, Japan and the United States. Each game has pocketed the club around 5m. They will return to the U.S. for preseason this summer -- with a Clasico scheduled at the MetLife Stadium, New Jersey -- but a possible postseason friendly is complicated by the fact that Euro 2024 and the Copa América both take place in June.

Therefore, the reality is that tougher decisions will have to be made.

The quickest way to raise capital would be through player transfers. Sources say the club would prefer not to lose important squad members, while players are also reluctant to move on. Other options are being pursued first. There is still the possibility of more asset sales; they could sell more television rights or a stake in Barça Licensing & Merchandising (BLM), the club's merchandising arm.

"I am aware that the club are trying to sell more [LaLiga] television rights," Ciria claims. "They have sold 25% and can sell up to 24% more, which would be worth around 600m. Instead of making 1bn over 30 years, you get that 600m now and the investor makes 1bn. With 25% sold, the club lose about 40m per year, so if they sold 49% in total, it would be 80m lost in revenue each season.

"Another option is transfers, letting two or three top players go. [Ronald] Araújo, Frenkie de Jong and Fermín [López], for example, and you raise 200m.

"Selling BLM or a stake in it would be a last resort, but remember if the board's mandate ends with losses, they have to cover that themselves [per the club's legislation], so they are going to sell whatever, right? BLM is a project that could bring in 400m. So [the message should be] 'don't touch, don't sell.' It's so productive. It's the best strategical wing at the club in terms of making money."

The silver lining to Barça's financial situation has been the emergence of young players from the academy, including Gavi, Lamine Yamal and Pau Cubarsí. Sources insist that offloading the club's brightest young prospects won't be necessary, with other operations also being explored.

One of those is the changing of the kit supplier. Nike produces Barcelona's shirts, but the relationship between the club and the American firm is tense. Barça have reportedly tried to push the cost of the deal up and have even threatened to unilaterally break the contract, which runs until 2028. In the meantime, they sought a brand who would not only pay them more annually, but who would pay them a lump sum now to provide an immediate revenue boost. Club president Laporta even threatened to bring production completely in-house, a decision several sources said would be "risky" -- for now, sources expect the link with Nike to continue.

However, at the crux of Barça's problems is Barça Studios. The club sold 24.5% stakes in the in-house production company to Roures' business Orpheus and Socios.com in 2022 for 100m each. It's unclear how much of that money was ever paid. In 2023, Libero (along with several partners) bought a 29.5% stake in Barça Studios, now rebranded as Barça Vision, for 120m. As part of that deal, Roures says Orpheus were completely bought out.

Libero, though, never fronted up the initial 40m payment, per sources, which left Barça's financial predictions for the 2023-24 season short. It is not just the missing payment that is the problem; the valuation of the company, now officially associated to the club and included on their accounts as benefits, is 400m, 51% of which pertains to Barça. Therefore, some sources say a failure to find a replacement buyer for Libero before June 30, when the current financial year concludes, could create a shortfall north of 200m. Ciria says he believes Barça are seeking a buyer in Saudi Arabia, while Roures says the club are optimistic of solving the problem before June 30.

"There are over two months to go and a lot happens in football in that time -- especially at a club of this dimension," he said. "When we reach June 30, I will begin to worry if there is no news."

Roures added that Barça Vision is now part of a bigger company that Barça hope will be listed on NASDAQ through a Special Purpose Acquisition Companies (SPAC). That company is valued at 1bn and includes everything Barça do related to in-house production, Web3 (a speculative next version of the internet), NFTs and everything in the digital sphere. Without the Libero payment, though, the NASDAQ listing has been delayed and Barça have been handed an extension to find another investor. It is all so layered and complex that even Eduard Romeu, who recently stepped down as the club's economic vice president, alluded to it as "financial engineering."

"For me, the possibility that Barça, even though through a SPAC, appear on NASDAQ with a valuation of 1bn is important," Roures explained. "It puts the Barça brand on a level where no one in the world of sport is. As it's through other investors and shareholders, there is also very little risk. It would be a great operation for the club, even more so in this delicate financial situation."

Could the club deviate from 'socio' model?

Barcelona remain 100% owned by the members, known as "socios," who pay an annual quota. If all of the above fails, the elephant in the room is selling off a part of the club. It is a taboo subject among most socios, who are unlikely to ever allow it to happen, given Barça's unique position as a fan-owned entity. Socios have voting rights and a controlling voice in the direction of the club, setting them apart from their rivals. They weigh in on club matters like electing the president, as well as having a vote on other big issues and operations.

Roures is one of the few people who is willing to say it is what Barça should do, going so far as to suggest it is now the only solution to their quandary.

"I propose that the club, maintaining the ownership structure with the members, must sell a part to the stock market," he said. "I say that for various reasons. Firstly, with a sale of 25%, Barça can bring in 1bn or more. With that, you clear debt and look at the future in another way.

"But, in my vision this carries an added advantage, which is related to the control of the management. Football clubs in general, those owned by members, not just in Spain, are businesses, but very specific businesses. Football feeds off emotions. It makes it difficult to run things adequately. When Laporta was elected in the financial situation the club was in, in a normal company, you reduce costs in all areas, have a spell of little spending, optimise revenue, fire people ... they are all things done in traditional companies.

"If you have 20%-25% on stock market, not sold to investors, on the stock market, the stock market obliges active and transparent management. There have to be monthly updates, an end of year an audit ... You have to be very transparent. I think this mechanism would be good for Barça and a club of these characteristics.

"I think it's the only solution. If we are not capable of resolving the debt issue, however well things go, in three years Barça will have problems managing the monumental debt they have."

Most sources and socios ESPN spoke to are fiercely against selling part of the club in any circumstances. "As the rest of Europe's clubs are sold off, there are very few that maintain the idiosyncrasy of being fan-owned," Ciria said.

"At Barça, you have the social element, the country [the Spanish region of Catalonia] and the sporting factor. Social? Supporters' clubs, fans around that world that represent and feel Barça, around 400 million people. Country? You will not find another institution in Catalonia like Barça. Sporting? Our own DNA and understanding of football. All that, if you sell off the club, in my option is lost."

With everything that's going on with Barcelona at the moment -- still reeling from their loss in El Clasico at the weekend and their manager doing a U-turn over his decision to leave this summer, all amid their continued financial peril -- the last thing they would want is be involved in anything that would help LaLiga rivals Real Madrid's hopes of winning the Champions League this season, even inadvertently.

But that is what happened when their upcoming match against Valencia was moved by the Spanish league in a bid to help Los Blancos to win a 15th European crown.

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Barça were due to host Valencia on Saturday lunchtime but will instead welcome Los Che to the Olympic Stadium on Monday (stream LIVE at 3 p.m. ET on ESPN+) in a fixture change that was made after last week's Champions League quarterfinals.

It was one of six games from this round of fixtures in the Spanish top flight that have been switched to accommodate Madrid's desire to play on Friday, to maximise their preparation time for Tuesday's semifinal first leg away at Bayern Munich. Madrid's request was granted, with LaLiga moving their trip to Real Sociedad forward 24 hours, from Saturday to Friday (stream LIVE at 3 p.m. ET on ESPN+).

The knock-on effect was that the Spanish league decided that meant they had to move another five kick-off times: Barça vs. Valencia, Atlético Madrid vs. Athletic Club, Alavés vs. Celta Vigo, Almería vs. Getafe and Las Palmas vs. Girona.

Barça are very rarely given the Monday night slot in LaLiga due to their involvement in European competitions, but their elimination at the hands of Paris Saint-Germain last week enabled the league to push Valencia's visit back. As many Valencia fans had already arranged to be in Barcelona for the weekend, their club will provide bus travel for supporters as well as giving them the option to return their ticket. Around a hundred tickets were returned and put back on sale this week.

Bayern, meanwhile, will play Eintracht Frankfurt in the Bundesliga on Saturday (stream LIVE at 9:30 a.m. ET on ESPN+), giving Madrid slightly more time to get ready for the match at the Allianz Arena next week.

Elsewhere in Germany Borussia Dortmund will also play on Saturday, at RB Leipzig (stream LIVE at 9:30 a.m. ET on ESPN+), before hosting PSG next Wednesday in the other semifinal.

PSG will also play on Saturday but they will have a free weekend ahead of the second leg, at the Parc des Princes on May 7, after receiving help from Ligue 1. Their game against Nice has been rescheduled for May 15, giving them a full week to prepare for the return match against Dortmund.

Luis Enrique's side received the same treatment before their second leg against Barça, benefitting from a weekend off to turn around a 3-2 first-leg defeat and advance to the last four after a 4-1 win in Catalonia. Barça, meanwhile, had won the first leg after a nine-day break due to the Spanish top flight taking the weekend off before the quarterfinal first leg due to the Copa del Rey final being played.

So with Barça both benefitting from having more rest by winning the first leg, and then losing the second leg after PSG had enjoyed a longer break themselves, they will know very well just how valuable their fixture change could prove for Real Madrid's European hopes.

Team Penske was dealt a humiliating disqualification Wednesday when reigning Indianapolis 500 winner Josef Newgarden was stripped of his victory in the IndyCar season-opening race for manipulating his push-to-pass system.

Penske teammate Scott McLaughlin, who finished third in the opener on the downtown streets of St. Petersburg, Florida, also was disqualified. Will Power, who finished fourth at St. Pete, was not disqualified, but he was docked 10 points.

Additionally, all three Penske entries were fined $25,000 and forfeited all prize money associated with the race. Power has not been accused of any wrongdoing.

Roger Penske owns the race team, the IndyCar Series and Indianapolis Motor Speedway, host of the Indy 500.

"Very disappointing," Penske said in a text message to The Associated Press. "I am embarrassed."

The reverberations were immediate throughout the paddock.

"I've emulated Roger Penske for many years on and off the track, so today's news is quite a disappointment for me," rival team owner Chip Ganassi told the AP. "This is a blemish on his team, their organization and the series. Very disappointing as a fellow owner and competitor in the series."

The disqualifications gave the victory to Pato O'Ward, who finished second. It is the first win for McLaren's IndyCar team since 2022.

Although Newgarden is accused of cheating in the March 10 opener, IndyCar said the manipulation wasn't discovered until Sunday morning's warmup in Long Beach, California -- nearly two months later.

"The integrity of the IndyCar Series championship is critical to everything we do," IndyCar president Jay Frye said. "While the violation went undetected at St. Petersburg, IndyCar discovered the manipulation during Sunday's warmup in Long Beach and immediately addressed it ensuring all cars were compliant for the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach.

"Beginning with this week's race at Barber Motorsports Park, new technical inspection procedures will be in place to deter this violation."

A review of the data from the St. Petersburg race showed that Team Penske manipulated the overtake system so the three Penske drivers could use push-to-pass on starts and restarts. According to IndyCar rules, the use of the overtake isn't available until the car reaches the alternate start-finish line.

Team Penske president Tim Cindric said in a statement that the "push-to-pass software was not removed as it should have been, following recently completed hybrid testing in the Team Penske Indy cars."

"This software allowed for push-to-pass to be deployed during restarts at the St. Petersburg Grand Prix race, when it should not have been permitted," Cindric continued. "The No. 2 car driven by Josef Newgarden and the No. 3 car driven by Scott McLaughlin both deployed push-to-pass on a restart, which violated IndyCar rules. Team Penske accepts the penalties applied by IndyCar."

Newgarden, a two-time IndyCar champion and the reigning Indianapolis 500 winner who is in a contract year with Penske, fell from first in points to 11th with the disqualification. Ganassi driver Scott Dixon, winner Sunday at Long Beach, is now the points leader headed into this Sunday's race at Barber Motorsports Park in Alabama.

McLaughlin, in a lengthy statement posted Wednesday night on social media, said he was unaware of the glitch in the software and used "a single, very brief, (1.9 second) deployment" of push-to-pash in a routine part of the circuit.

"I hit the button out of habit, but I did not pass any cars nor did I gain any time advantage," he said. "The data, which IndyCar has, confirms all of this information. While I accept the penalty, I want to be clear that I did not gain an advantage over my competitors."

"A mistake was made," McLaughlin said. "I have the highest level of integrity and it is important to protect both my own reputation and that of the team."

It's the second cheating offense this season for Team Penske. Joey Logano was fined $10,000 and docked his second-place starting position for a NASCAR race at Atlanta earlier this season because he was wearing an illegal glove during his qualifying run.

It is assumed that Logano wore the same illegal glove -- which had clear aerodynamic-deflecting alterations that made it look as if he were wearing part of an amphibious costume -- when he won the pole for the Daytona 500 one week earlier.

The black glove for Logano's left hand had webbing made of an unspecified material in between every finger. The theory was that Team Penske had the glove altered in order for Logano to place his hand out his window as an aerodynamic blocker during qualifying.

Penske was livid after the Logano infractions.

"I didn't like that at all," Penske told the AP at the time. "It's not good. Period. I told him. He's the leader of the team. Look, we are under so much scrutiny, and the last thing we need to do is have any noise like that. It's not good for us. It's not good for him. We'll take our punches."

Toronto Maple Leafs coach Sheldon Keefe called it "unbelievable" what Boston Bruins forward Brad Marchand was able to do in the visiting Bruins' 4-2 win in Game 3 of their first-round Stanley Cup playoff series on Wednesday.

Keefe was asked about an apparent non-call for interference that happened in the first period, when Marchand tripped up Leafs' forward Tyler Bertuzzi before Boston forward Trent Frederic tied the score 1-1. Boston went on to secure a victory and take a 2-1 lead in their best-of-seven series.

"He gets calls," Keefe said of Marchand. "It's unbelievable, actually, how it goes. You've got to play through that stuff. I don't think there's another player in this series who gets away with taking out Bertuzzi's legs the way that he does. It's an art and he's elite at it."

Marchand was a significant factor throughout the contest for Boston, finishing with two goals and one assist and depositing the winner midway through the third period.

Toronto took a 1-0 lead when rookie Matthew Knies scored his first goal of the series in the first period. Frederic's salvo appeared to be aided by a lack of an interference call on Marchand against Bertuzzi, and Knies acknowledged how the Leafs must adjust to manage Marchard's presence.

"He wants to get under our skin," Knies said. "He wants to influence the refs, so I think we've just got to be composed and not kind of get into that bulls---. Just play hard and make him [not as] effective."

That's easier said than done. Marchand also drew the Leafs' ire when he took down forward Auston Matthews behind the net without a call. And Marchand got involved again with Bertuzzi in the offensive zone right before pocketing the empty-netter to seal Boston's win.

It was a bitter end for Toronto in multiple ways. The Leafs fell behind in the second off Jake DeBrusk's third score of the series. Toronto's Morgan Rielly responded to knot the score at 2-2 in the third, but just 28 seconds later Marchand fired home his go-ahead dagger.

"You've got to recognize he's a world-class player, both in ability and how he plays, in the gamesmanship and everything," Keefe said of Marchand. "It's world class, and he's been in the league long enough, as you can see. ... We have to manage our way through that, avoid putting ourselves in situations where he can put us in those spots. And as far as his game is concerned, I think we've managed that pretty well, for the most part. Obviously, tonight, we make a mistake at a key time that allows him to get the winner."

Now it's on Toronto to respond when the two sides meet again in Game 4 on Saturday. The Leafs have lost five straight playoff contests at home. Another defeat at home means they could face elimination in Boston in Game 5.

EL SEGUNDO, Calif. -- The Los Angeles Lakers reconvened on Wednesday for the first time since their Game 2 collapse Monday against the Denver Nuggets.

As crushing as the Denver's 20-point comeback might have felt in the moment, LeBron James said that Wednesday's film session let the Lakers see some encouraging signs.

"We generated some great shots," James said. "We missed a lot of shots at the rim that we've been making throughout the course of this season."

James was 4-for-11 at shots at the rim, tied for the most layups and dunks he's missed in a playoff game since joining the Lakers, according to ESPN Stats & Information research.

"The film session was very revealing with which side of the ball we struggled at," Lakers coach Darvin Ham said. "We were great defensively. Offensively, there was a lot of shots we wish we could have back."

Ham said he likes using film sessions to grow as a team because it removes the "postgame emotions" that can skew the perception of what occurred.

To that end, Ham was asked about Anthony Davis' comments on Monday that were perceived as an indictment of the coaching staff by some when the Lakers center said, "We have stretches where we just don't know what we're doing on both ends of the floor."

Ham figured Davis' comments came in the heat of the moment and defended his coaching staff.

"I mean, I just think sometimes when plays don't turn out the way you think they should, then the frustration sets in a little bit," Ham said. "But I don't think it's [from] us not being organized. I think I have incredibly talented coaches all along my staff. We pride ourselves, whether it's a practice, a shootaround, a film session, a game or whatever, we pride ourselves on being highly efficient and organized. I just chalk that up to being frustrated. It's an emotional game, the way it ended and all of that.

"But I'll agree to disagree on that one."

No one can disagree with the tough position that the Lakers are in.

Down 0-2 against a team that's now won 10 straight against them and happens to be the defending champions, Thursday's Game 3 is what the Lakers' 2023-24 season comes down to, pretty much.

After building a 12-point lead in Game 1 and a 20-point advantage in Game 2, Ham said there is plenty to build on despite the losses.

"You have to understand why you failed at something," Ham said. "It's not just, 'We failed, let's scrap the whole plan and go this way.' No. You have to understand why things went the way they went."

That said, the most important thing for the Lakers is to prove they can hold a lead over Denver with the clock ticking down in the fourth quarter when the outcome is being decided.

"It's all about sustainability," James said. "It doesn't matter what you can do throughout the first 47 minutes. You got to close the game, which we didn't do. We got to do a better job of that. But some of the things that we've done over the first couple games, we're very excited and happy about those.

"But we got to do a better job of closing it."