Month: May 2021

After Denver swiped homecourt back in a thrilling Game 3 performance, it was imperative for the Blazers to get at least one win at home to tie things up at 2-2 going back to Colorado in Game 4. They managed to do just that, blitzing the Nuggets from the opening tip and following the lead of Jusuf Nurkic, Norman Powell, and CJ McCollum in a rare game where Damian Lillard was an afterthought.

Nurkic was the best big man on the court for either team in Game 4, dominating his matchup with Nikola Jokic. Jokic had just 16 points and nine rebounds on 7-of-18 shooting, looking a touch out of sync against his former teammate who for the first time all series was able to truly get the best of the presumptive MVP. Nurkic had 17 points, six rebounds, and two blocks in 27 minutes of action, posting a ridiculous +32 in those minutes to help the Blazers run away with an easy win.

The scoring load fell to Norman Powell on the night, as he was hot from the opening tip, scoring the Blazers first two baskets on his way to 29 points on 11-of-15 shooting, including knocking down four threes. Powell started by getting downhill and then found his stroke from distance, as he took immense pressure off of Lillard who was getting the focus of Denver’s defensive efforts.

McCollum then helped to finish things off in the third quarter as the Blazers ran out to a 32-point lead at one point, putting to rest any thought of a Denver comeback.

The game was done by the late third, and the Moda Center crowd even had time to serenade Carmelo Anthony with a rousing rendition of Happy Birthday for the legend.

In the end, Denver’s bench pulled things back to look a touch more respectable in a 115-95 loss, but it was simply an overwhelming performance by the Blazers in a much-needed win. The Nuggets shot just 34 percent from the field and 29.5 percent from the three-point line, unable to overcome an off-night from Jokic to stay attached to Portland, who lit it up at a 50 percent clip from the field and 36.9 percent from deep. The series now returns to Denver tied at 2-2, with neither team seemingly able to grab a firm hold on the series for very long, as each adjusts and counters the other.

Last year’s pandemic certainly threw a wrench into new music plans for plenty of performers, including some of the biggest pop stars in the world. And unlike his good friend Taylor Swift, who used the pandemic to churn out both folklore and evermore, Ed Sheeran has been sitting on a big new single that he says will usher in his next era.

In a recent interview with Radio 1’s Jordan North, Sheeran let fans know that he was planning to have a brand new song to kick off his set at his Big Weekend show for the station. “My first single was meant to be ready for now, and I was meant to be playing it at One Big Weekend,” he said. “So it does feel a bit weird playing — starting with ‘Castle On The Hill’ instead of the new tune, but, it’s great, I’m using a band for the first time, and it feels like the next stage.”

The show this weekend will be the first time fans have seen Sheeran perform with a full band, as he explains to the interviewer. “I’ve done band stuff before, but only kind of at the request of TV shows,” Sheeran explained. “I’ve done the loop pedal thing now for fifteen years, ten years professionally, and the last tour that I did… the most people of any tour went to that tour. So I’m kind of like I’ve done that, I’ve done the loop pedal show I need to do something different. What I like about it is what I felt were the weakest bits of the tour are some of the songs that needed a band, like ‘Castle On The Hill’ and ‘Thinking Out Loud’ and the best bits of the tour needed pedal, like ‘Shape Of You’ and ‘Bloodstream.” Now the set feels very on level with each other. It’s kind of a learning experience for me.’”

Sheeran said he’s doing two new songs he’s never played live, “Afterglow,” released at Christmas, and another new one he’s played only at a funeral before. And to the question of expecting a new album soon Sheeran answers: “Yeah, yeah, the new album is coming.” So there you have it. Watch the whole interview above, and look out for new music from Ed Sheeran coming up very soon after this weekend’s performance.

The Dallas Mavericks looked like they were headed for a 3-0 series lead on Friday night when they jumped out to a 30-11 lead in the first quarter against the Clippers, but saw L.A. steadily claw their way back into the game, eventually pulling away for a 118-108 win to suddenly make it a series at 2-1.

That the Clippers got the win in a game where Dallas remained scorching hot from three (20-of-39) and Luka Doncic went for 44 points has to make them feel pretty good going forward. On the other side, the Mavs still have to be happy with the looks they’re creating and the fact that their star continues to dominate, but there is some concern about Doncic’s health moving forward.

During the second half of Game 3, Doncic had a heating pad on his shoulder and was dealing with neck and left arm pain, and after some evaluation on Saturday, he is now listed as questionable for Game 4 on Sunday with a cervical strain (neck strain).

That is obviously worrisome for the Mavs, as they will only go as far as Doncic takes them, particularly with the struggles of Kristaps Porzingis early in this series. Doncic was still able to hit some massive shots down the stretch as he dealt with the neck injury, but it’s certainly not an ideal situation for Dallas or Doncic. It would be fairly shocking if he were to not play in Game 4, but how effective he can be remains to be seen in a game Dallas needs to win to avoid seeing homecourt slip back to L.A.

The Friends reunion special may not have satisfied every fan with new details and more scripted comedy, but it sure did draw a lot of eyeballs on HBO Max. According to reports, the special saw a superhero movie-level audience in its first few days on the platform, rivaling movies like Wonder Woman 1984 as far as the initial audience reached.

As Variety detailed, a third party metrics site measured the Friends reunion compared to other major releases on HBO Max and found it actually came close to the biggest title HBO Max has seen to date. The reunion’s numbers dwarfed major movie releases like Mortal Kombat and even got close to the Christmas Day release of the Wonder Woman sequel.

“Friends: The Reunion” was watched by an estimated 29% of U.S. streaming households on May 27, the first day of its release, as measured by TVision, a connected-TV analytics provider. Viewers of the special on HBO Max were 55.4% female, and more than 50% were in the 35-54 age demo.

By comparison, DC’s “Wonder Woman 1984” reached 32% of U.S. streaming households when it bowed on Christmas Day 2020 on HBO Max, per TVision. According to Nielsen, “WW84” was the most-viewed title across U.S. streaming services for Dec. 21-27, 2020, registering nearly 2.3 billion minutes streamed.

Despite not beating out Wonder Woman 1984, nearly 30 percent of the entire streaming landscape is a huge portion of viewership for a single event in the ever-fragmented landscape. But it’s no surprise the reunion got plenty of eyeballs: that’s why HBO Max was willing to pay millions for the show’s stars to reunite in the first place. Streaming Friends has never been more popular, and anyone who already had HBO Max to do so was obviously going to check out what the special had waiting for them. And whether it was worth the long wait or not, people sure did tune in to find out.

[via Variety]

Lil Yachty has been extremely busy for well over a year now and all that’s added up to the strong comeback he’s made since the release of Lil Boat 3 last spring. More than a year later, Yachty returned with a brand new project, Michigan Boy Boat, an effort that saw him working with some of the best rising and established rappers from the state’s Detroit and Flint areas. A month removed from the mixtape’s release, Yachty continues its promotional run with a brand new video for “Plastic.”

In it, Yachty is accompanied by Icewear Vezzo and Rio Da Yung OG, rappers who both appear on the song, as well as members of his decently-sized crew. The greyscale visual features the group in a fairly laid-back state as they lounge and kick it in a room together. Clips of them recording music and spending time at a strip club also appear throughout the video.

Prior to dropping Michigan Boy Boat, Yachty extended his Lil Boat 3 project with new songs and later shared videos for tracks like “In My Stussy’s” and “Asshole.” He also flexed some freestyle skills in a visual for “Cortex” which came after he was confirmed to appear in the upcoming season of Lil Dicky’s show, Dave which premieres next month on June 16.

You can watch the “Plastic” video above.

At multiple points over the last decade, Future has been given the crown of “toxic king” for things he’s either done outside of music or things he’s said in his songs. The passionate lover that showed his heart on Honest, the rapper’s 2014 album, was quickly replaced by toxicity on his 2017 effort, Hndrxx. Fast-forward to the present and Future once again reached for the “toxic king” crown during his guest appearance on 42 Dugg’s track, “Maybach.”

On it, Future raps, “Tell Steve Harvey I don’t want her / One thing I never seen was a bitch that leave,” which is of course directed at Lori Harvey whom he dated last year.

However, it turns out there was much more to that diss than fans heard on the final version. On the original version of the track, which 42 Dugg shared in a TikTok video, Future not only took a shot at Lori but her current boyfriend Michael B. Jordan as well.

“Must’ve forgot to tell her daddy she begged me not to leave,” Future says after the aforementioned line. “Put baguettes on ya ankles damn near up to ya knees / She didn’t have a choice, but to go f**k a lame after me.”

During a recent interview with The Breakfast Club, 42 Dugg reveals he pushed Future to rap the line because of the attention it would get.

“I told his ass, you need to say that sh*t three more times,” he said. “I was loving it…Future knew too though. He knew what was going on. Future a bad motherf*cker.”

You can listen to the unofficial version of “Maybach” above.

42 Dugg is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Less than a year ago, the Miami Heat effectively bullied their way through the Milwaukee Bucks in five games in Orlando to send the top-seeded Bucks out of the playoffs in Round 2, sparking endless speculation about their future, namely with Giannis Antetokounmpo’s supermax extension on the table. In the offseason, despite that disappointment, the Bucks got Giannis to sign and went to work on reshaping the roster around him, namely by trading for Jrue Holiday to give Giannis and Khris Middleton the point guard threat they needed on both ends.

When the end of this regular season rolled around and the Bucks drew the 3-seed while Miami ended up in the 6-seed, their first round series immediately became the most anticipated of the East and, arguably, of the entire postseason. Heat fans were feeling very confident after how things went in the Bubble, but the Bucks clearly saw this as an opportunity to exorcise some playoff demons. After winning an OT thriller in Game 1, the Bucks won the next three games by a combined 80 points, leaving no doubt who was the superior team in 2021.

For a full year the Bucks Twitter account has heard from Heat fans calling them frauds and talking about how Miami’s owned Milwaukee, and after Saturday’s win, they exacted some revenge by breaking out the receipts from this season in a video trolling Heat Twitter.

It is perfectly played by the Bucks, who waited til the series was officially over to get one last dunk on Miami, turning Heat Twitter’s words against them. The best was the shift after Game 3 to sifting through replies to the Heat’s Twitter account rather than their own from fans wondering if they were really Bubble frauds and questioning their very existence.

Facing elimination after getting absolutely rocked in Games 2 and 3 by the Milwaukee Bucks, the Miami Heat came out with the appropriate energy to start Game 4, looking like the more desperate team and jumping out to an early double-digit advantage as the Bucks looked a bit sleepy for the early tip time. Bam Adebayo and Jimmy Butler got it going finally in their two-man game, Butler was orchestrating the offense beautifully, and Trevor Ariza got hot from three to help Miami open up a big lead early on.

However, even as they started slow, the Bucks never seemed panicked. They steadily reeled in the Heat and arrived at the half down seven despite a dreadful shooting start. The message at the half was clear, keep running the offense, be better with the basketball after being turnover-happy early, and the results will come. It didn’t take long for that to come to fruition, and by the mid-third quarter, Milwaukee was the team in control.

After the Bucks went on a 24-4 run in the third quarter to flip the script and take a double-digit lead of their own, things were spiraling for the Heat, as Udonis Haslem tried to fire up the troops one last time — with Kendrick Nunn seeming like the only one who received the message as he scored eight straight to keep Miami attached.

In the end, though, the Heat just didn’t have the offensive firepower to keep up with the Bucks, who figured out how to attack Miami in the second half, getting Giannis and Middleton going, and once that happened it was an avalanche of points that the Heat had no answers for. Every time the Heat closed the gap to a few possessions, Milwaukee had an answer on the offensive end, as Bryn Forbes continued his hot shooting, Middleton picked it up, and the Bucks just never relented.

Middleton and Giannis each had 20 points, but the somewhat unlikely hero with so much of Miami’s attention staying locked on those two was Brook Lopez, who had a monster 25-point, 8-rebound game to give the Bucks a much-needed spark.

The exclamation point came from Giannis, who capped off his first career playoff triple-double (20 points, 15 assists, and 12 rebounds) with a slick layup and an emphatic dunk in the closing minutes.

The final result was a 120-103 win with the Bucks dominating the second half, allowing just 39 points while scoring 63 of their own. Milwaukee won games against the Heat in just about every way imaginable, and for them to blow them out in a game they shot just 31 percent from three has to make them feel very good going into Round 2. They won a tight, overtime contest where shots weren’t falling. They boatraced Miami twice with incredible shooting and defense, and in Game 4 they got timely shooting but mostly just imposed their will physically in the second half against a team that prides itself on that.

They now get to rest up for a few days and begin preparing for what most expect to be a showdown with the Brooklyn Nets in the second round, although the Celtics picking up a win in Game 3 suddenly makes that series a touch more interesting. That will be a wholly different challenge than Miami, but after the way the Heat ousted them in the Bubble, the Bucks getting a sweep with three straight blowouts to close out the series has to feel very good as they got to exorcise some of their postseason demons.

Last week Twenty One Pilots shared Scaled & Icy, their first album in almost three years, which they’ve been working on since 2019 and which featured no guest features. The album was promoted with an extremely unique livestream show that received critical acclaim. Now, just a week later the duo, comprised of lead vocalist Tyler Joseph and drummer Josh Dun, took their talents to The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.

Stepping onto a stage draped in eye-catching pastel colors, the pair delivered an alluring performance of “Shy Away,” the lead single from their new album. The colorful yet calm set clashed interestingly with the energetic and raucous set they delivered during the late-night show.

The performance is their latest promotional performance for Scaled & Icy. Earlier this month, they teamed up with Chipotle to create their own official burrito, which thankfully proved anything but “scaled” or “icy.” The burrito notably comes without beans, instead being comprised of chicken, white rice, fresh tomato salsa, roasted chili-corn salsa, cheese, romaine lettuce, and queso blanco. It’s priced at $8.65 and logs a total of 1050 calories.

You can watch the late-night performance in the video above.

Scaled & Icy is out now via Fueled By Ramen/Elektra. Get it here.

The Lakers will look to put the Suns on the brink of elimination in Game 4 of their first round series on Sunday afternoon in Los Angeles, but it’s possible they will have to do so without the services of one of their top stars.

Anthony Davis showed up on Saturday’s injury report with a sprained left knee that has him listed as questionable for Game 4, alongside Kentavious Caldwell-Pope who is questionable with the quad contusion that took him out of Game 3 in the second half.

It’s unclear exactly when Davis sustained the injury, as there were a few times late that he came up a big gingerly but he remained in the game throughout. Obviously any injury to Davis is concerning, but that he’s listed as questionable would indicate it isn’t a severe sprain. Hopefully he will be able to go in Game 4, but after winning the last two games, the Lakers could opt to be cautious with their superstar big man. Should he be unable to go, then what is already a critical game for the Suns to win becomes even bigger as the door would be ajar without Davis’ presence for them to swipe a game on the road to take homecourt back.