Month: May 2021

Boston Celtics fans were the talk of the NBA for much of last week, as their return in full throat at TD Garden with Kyrie Irving taking the floor with the Brooklyn Nets was highly anticipated. Much of that anticipation wasn’t for very great reasons, and after a Game 4 loss on Sunday night, we saw more unfortunate fan behavior from fans on Causeway Street.

Boston, sans Kemba Walker and Robert Williams, struggled to keep pace with a fully-optimized Nets team, falling further behind in the series after a 141-126 Game 4 loss at the Garden to put the Celtics on the brink of elimination. After the game, and after a week of discussions about racist and abusive behavior from fans in Boston and across the NBA, cameras caught a water bottle thrown at Irving’s head as he left the Garden floor.

The bottle appears to have missed Irving, but both the TV broadcast and other Nets players and staff leaving the floor immediately took notice of the bottle and, hopefully, the person who threw it. Throwing anything at a player is grounds for an ejection from a venue at the very least, and given the attention Irving’s return to Boston after a tumultuous tenure with the Celtics, this is absolutely unacceptable.

Planes, Trains, and Automobiles is a wildly underrated holiday classic, which is to say that it doesn’t get its own channel for 24 hours straight on a major holiday. But it should, and perhaps Emma Stone recreating one of its iconic moments on live TV will do something to move the needle toward a more just world.

Stone appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live! to promote Cruella on Thursday night, and part of the remote interview featured her coaching Kimmel through recreating a scene from Planes, Trains and Automobiles. The bit, which takes place at an airport with a harried Steve Martin trying to get back to Chicago for Thanksgiving. The John Hughes film features a standout performance from John Candy, but Martin losing it on a rental car agent in St. Louis is one of the iconic moments most remembered from the film.

It’s this rant Stone apparently knows by heart, an expletive-filled list of cars Martin’s character is willing to pay for in order to get back to Chicago in time for the holidays after a long series of mix-ups has left him at wit’s end. It’s especially funny considering that Stone was apparently eight when she first learned to use all those f-bombs, but the movie clearly left an impact on her.

Stone’s rant went a bit viral in its own right, but on Twitter it was Martin who hesitatingly called himself “honored” that Stone knew the whole thing.

Hollywood can’t help itself when it comes to sequels, so if Martin ever were interested we now know at least one person who would love to get involved in following up the 80s Hughes classic.

The Inside the NBA guys don’t always disagree with one another. This is part of what has made it such a successful show over the years — not only are there heated discussions by the various members of the show, but it never seems like it is forced, which can happen really easily in the embrace debate-era of sports punditry.

Our latest example of this came on Sunday night at halftime of the game between the Brooklyn Nets and the Boston Celtics. After watching Nets guard James Harden score 17 first-half points as part of a 73-point half for Brooklyn, Charles Barkley heaped praise on Harden, calling him “the best 1-on-1 player I may have ever seen.” Shaquille O’Neal very much did not like this, to the point that he dang near walked off the set entirely.

Now, Barkley made sure to say he does not think Harden is a better basketball player than Michael Jordan or Kobe Bryant, but that did not seem to deter Shaq. The thing that helps Barkley’s case is that he based it in the variety of ways Harden can score — shooting threes, getting to the rim — and praised him for his knowledge of how games are called, both of which are extremely fair points.

Still, Shaq did not enjoy this, and Kenny Smith almost joined him in leaving the set altogether. But Ernie Johnson told both of them that they only had one more segment left, so cooler heads eventually prevailed.

The Los Angeles Lakers can breathe a small sigh of relief. According to multiple media reports, Anthony Davis managed to avoid a serious injury when he went down with a groin strain on Sunday afternoon against the Phoenix Suns, although it is unknown if he’ll be healthy in time to suit up for Game 5 on Tuesday.

According to Shams Charania of The Athletic and Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN, Davis will be out on a day-to-day basis following the injury.

Considering what Davis being hurt for an extended period of time would mean for the team — both during these playoffs and with next season beginning on time in October — avoiding anything serious is gigantic. Having said that, L.A. has a job to do against the Suns, which looked fantastic once Davis went out of Game 4 en route to a win.

That’s where the worse news comes in: Both Charania and Wojnarowski report that it is not clear whether or not Davis will be healthy enough to take the floor for Game 5 on Tuesday evening in Phoenix.

The Lakers lost on Sunday, 100-92, and while Davis struggled when he was on the floor, his lack of presence for the second half was noticeable. Now, he’s in a race against the clock to get his body to a place where he’ll be able to play and be effective in Game 5.

HBO Max won big on its Friends reunion, getting huge ratings and a lot of attention from the streaming audience over the last week. But despite all its star power — both in the six cast members and various appearances from Justin Bieber, Lady Gaga and others — the special initially failed to capture the internet’s attention in a major way: it failed to spark a significant meme.

That changed this weekend, however, as a still image from the special and one of the former Friends got a lot of attention on social media. In a very, very specific way. The Friend in question is Joey, or more specifically Matt LeBlanc. Many online couldn’t help but notice a particular position he took while sitting on the couch in some scenes, including when the group was back in a recreation of the original set playing a trivia game.

For many, he seemed like an adult at a family party. More specifically for a large group, an Irish uncle at a family gathering. Which is why that image was soon used as a meme on social media, with people adding “Irish uncle” sayings and phrases to make a very specific meme format go viral.

There were a lot of dads and uncles described here.

A lot of other people, many who do not have Irish uncles, also found the photo very relatable.

It was a very loving meme, all things considered. And after watching him for years on TV, who wouldn’t want LeBlanc to be part of the family?

Chris Paul came up huge in Game 4 of the Phoenix Suns’ series against the Los Angeles Lakers. Despite a shoulder injury that has limited his ability to put his fingerprints all over a game in the unique way that he does, Paul was excellent, leading the team with 18 points, nine assists, three rebounds, and three steals en route to a 100-92 win. With the victory, Phoenix tied the series up at two games a piece and took back homecourt advantage from L.A.

As for why Paul played so well, it turns out a potential reason was the most powerful motivating force that Paul can channel into greatness: spite. After the game, Paul spoke to Rachel Nichols of ESPN and revealed that Suns head coach Monty Williams told him that the team planned to sit him for the game due to his pesky shoulder. Paul, in turn, responded in the most Chris Paul way imagineable.

“Met with coach before the game, told me he was gonna sit me,” Paul said. “Told me he was gonna sit me tonight. I told him, ‘Hell naw, just give me a couple minutes, see what I can do.’”

The series very much is not won yet for the Suns, but if this is how Paul is going to react to being told he’s being held out due to his bad shoulder, perhaps Williams should tell him this before every game.

Seattle Storm head coach Dan Hughes is one of the most accomplished coaches in the WNBA. He’s the kind of highly-regarded coach who can really get away with calling it quits whenever he wants. Having said that, even the Storm must have been surprised when Hughes decided to say he was calling it a career right in the middle of his fourth season with the team.

On Sunday, Hughes abruptly retired from the WNBA, stating that the rigors of being a head coach had become too much for him. He still plans on being an assistant coach for Team USA, but his time with the Storm is coming to a surprising end. Storm assistant Noelle Quinn was promoted to head coach in Hughes place.

Hughes’ retirement comes as a bit of a surprise. Even at 66 years old, it’s rare to see a coach as successful as he’s been suddenly calling it a career, especially when the Storm are off to a scintillating 5-1 start this season and lead the Western Conference. Of course, only Hughes knows when it’s time to retire, and if he says now is the best time, then the only thing the Storm can do is respect his decision.

Hughes will retire as the third-winningest coach in WNBA history. He spent 20 years as a coach in places like Charlotte, Cleveland, San Antonio, and Seattle, and in 2018, he was at the helm as the Storm won a WNBA championship.

Joe Lara, who played Tarzan on TV in the 1990s, died in a plane crash in Tennessee over the weekend. Lara’s wife, Gwen Shamblin Lara, was the leader of a controversial church whose private plane went down in Percy Priest Lake east of Nashville on Saturday with him on board. By Sunday, the search and rescue mission was deemed one of recovery, and TMZ reported Sunday that seven bodies had been recovered amid a long stretch of debris.

Lara played Tarzan in the CBS movie Tarzan in Manhattan in 1989 and reprised the role in 1996 for Tarzan: The Epic Adventures, though he had not acted much since the early 2000s according to IMDB. His last credit was for a soap opera role in 2018’s Summer of ’67.

The Tennessean reported on Sunday about the crash, which killed both Joe and Gwen along with several members of his wife’s church. Sadly, no one on the plane was officially registered to fly it with the FAA, though Lara and another passenger had prior flight experience.

According to the Federal Aviation Administration website, no one on that flight was qualified to fly the plane. Joe Lara, 58, had a pilot’s license, but had not updated his medical certification since 2017. The medical certification is required every two years.

…

A recording of the communication between the control tower and the pilot, captured on LiveATC.com, revealed an alarm going off in the cockpit of the plane seconds before it crashed, suggesting a mechanical failure in the aircraft, which was built in 1982.

The news story about the crash focused more on Shamblin and her controversial weight-based teachings, which led to a number of public issues over the years. It’s unclear just yet what caused the crash, or who was flying the plane, at this time.

[via The Tennessean]

The Phoenix Suns have taken back homecourt advantage in their first-round tilt with the Los Angeles Lakers. Phoenix walked into Staples Center on Sunday afternoon facing a potential 3-1 series deficit with a loss, but instead, an egalitarian scoring effort helped the Suns pick up a crucial 100-92 win.

Similarly to the day’s earlier game, a tight first half gave way to a team catching fire out of halftime. The two teams went into the locker room with the Suns up, 54-50, but Phoenix came out and blitzed L.A. in the third quarter, winning the frame by 12 points and doing more than enough to withstand any Laker push in the fourth. Of course, it must be mentioned that due to an injury, Anthony Davis did not play in the second half.

Still, the defending champions did not stop fighting, and it took a balanced approach from the Suns to put them away. Chris Paul, who looked the best he’s looked since hurting his shoulder in Game 1, led the way with 18 points, nine assists, and three steals.

But beyond him, five other Suns players scored in double-digits: Jae Crowder (17 points, seven rebounds, four assists, two steals, a block), Devin Booker (17 points, seven rebounds, five assists), Deandre Ayton (14 points, 17 rebounds), Cameron Payne (13 points), and Mikal Bridges (11 points) all had important contributions to the cause, helping push Phoenix across the finish line in what was effectively a must-win game.

L.A., unsurprisingly, relied heavily on the individual brilliance of LeBron James. He did everything he could, scoring 25 points with 12 rebounds and six assists, but wasn’t able to shoulder all of the load burdened onto him by Davis getting hurt.

Beyond James, Marc Gasol provided a much-needed spark off the bench with 12 points, eight rebounds, and three blocks, and it begs the question whether he has earned the lion’s share of the playing time at center, particularly if Davis misses an extended period of time and the team needs a calming presence alongside James. Kyle Kuzma pitched in 11 points off the bench, while Alex Caruso scored 10 and provided the pesky defense that has become his calling card.

The two major questions facing Los Angeles heading into Game 5 involve the health of a pair of crucial players. Prior to the game’s tip, starting guard Kentavious Caldwell-Pope was ruled out with a knee contusion, and it’s unclear what his status will be for Game 5. Then, just before halftime, Davis went down with a groin strain. Like Caldwell-Pope, it is not known how this will impact his availability going forward in the series, but to state the obvious, not having Davis would be a gigantic blow for Los Angeles.

The series will now shift back to Phoenix. Game 5 between the Suns and the Lakers is scheduled to tip off at 10 p.m. EST on Tuesday, June 1, with the game being broadcast on TNT.

The Boston Celtics entered the 2020-21 season expecting to be among the best teams in the Eastern Conference. Unfortunately for them, that has not happened. A mix of injuries and some disappointing play throughout the year has caused the Celtics to enter the playoffs as the 7-seed, and now, they find themselves heavy underdogs ahead of Sunday night’s Game 4 against the Brooklyn Nets — although thanks to a 50-point outburst from Jayston Tatum, they did manage to win Game 3.

Boston may need an even better performance from Tatum in Game 4 to level the series. According to Celtics coach Brad Stevens, guard Kemba Walker and big man Robert Williams are unlikely to play. Walker is still dealing with a knee injury that he has been playing through all season and supposedly re-aggravated it in Game 3. Williams, meanwhile, is dealing with an ankle sprain he suffered in the first half of Game 3.

Walker struggled in the Celtics’ Game 3 win, so it’s not like he has been playing lights out basketball, but the threat of what he can do is enough to keep the Nets defense honest. Without him, the Celtics will need to rely on other threats to keep Brooklyn’s defense from focusing all of its attention on Tatum — this may need to be one of those games where Marcus Smart gets hot from 3-point range to keep the offense going. Williams has become a player the Celtics have relied on in big situations, and we can expect Tristan Thompson’s role to only increase if Williams can’t go.