Month: June 2021

The Atlanta Hawks knocked off the Philadelphia 76ers on the road in Game 1, landing the first punch in what could be an interesting best-of-seven series in the Eastern Conference. On Tuesday evening, the two teams will take the floor again at Wells Fargo Center, with the pressure shifting back to the top-seeded Sixers.

Much as he has been for the entire playoffs, Trae Young was the story for the Hawks in the opener. Young generated 25 points and eight assists before halftime and settled in with 35 points and 10 assists to lead Atlanta. As a team, the Hawks set franchise playoff records with 74 points and 13 three-pointers in the first half, and they led by as many as 26 points in the game. Things did get dicey for Atlanta down the stretch, though, which could provide optimism for the Sixers in the rematch.

Following genuine uncertainty as to whether he would play as a result of a knee issue, Joel Embiid was tremendous in his return for Philadelphia. Embiid scored 39 points, grabbed nine rebounds and blocked three shots, largely looking like himself in 38 minutes. In fact, the Sixers dominated the minutes when Embiid played, but Philadelphia must find a way to survive with bench units on the floor after they hemorrhaged in Game 1.

The Sixers can do a lot of damage by simply cleaning up two specific areas in the follow-up. Philadelphia shot just 10-of-29 from three compared to 20-of-47 for Atlanta. In addition, the Sixers turned the ball over 19 times, including 12 giveaways in the first 14 minutes as they dug a hole that was too deep to overcome.

From a betting standpoint, Game 1 went Over the total of 219.5 points and Atlanta covered the closing point spread of 4.5 points as an underdog.

Game 2 TV Info

Tip Time: Tuesday, June 8; 7:30 p.m. ET
TV Network: TNT

Game 2 Betting Lines (via DraftKings Sportsbook)

Series Prices: 76ers (-122), Hawks (+100)
Spread: 76ers -5 (-113), Hawks +8 (-108)
Total: Over 223 (-112), Under 223 (-109)
Money Line: 76ers (-210), Hawks (+175)

Game 2 Player Scoring Props (via DraftKings Sportsbook)

Danny Green O/U 8.5 Points (Over -127/Under +100)
Tobias Harris O/U 21.5 (-113/-113)
Joel Embiid O/U 28.5 (-137/+110)
Trae Young O/U 27.5 (-113/-113)
Seth Curry O/U 14.5 (+100/-127)
Clint Capela O/U 12.5 (-113/-113)
Ben Simmons O/U 15.5 (-113/-113)

After a Game 2 in Brooklyn that was downright depressing to watch for just about everyone who isn’t a Nets fan, the hopes of Monday night’s NBA slate rested on the shoulders of the Suns and Nuggets to deliver in Game 1. Thankfully, the first half did more than that as Denver took. 58-57 lead into the break as both teams played some of the best basketball you could hope to see.

Nikola Jokic was terrific with 15 points as he dueled with Deandre Ayton, who had 11 in the first half himself. Facu Campazzo was everywhere for Denver and Aaron Gordon provided them with a much needed lift on both ends.

For Phoenix, it was a complete effort to hang around and fight back after every Denver run. Ayton was excellent in going back at Jokic on the offensive end, while Devin Booker and Mikal Bridges each had strong halves to keep the Suns within one at the break.

The Nuggets opened the third quarter on a big run to open up a lead of as many as 10 and held a 72-63 advantage with just under eight minutes to play.

However, things changed quickly from there, as the Suns ripped off a 16-0 run in just under four minutes of play, spearheaded by Mikal Bridges and capped off by Devin Booker.

Phoenix took a nine-point lead into the fourth, and it was more of the same to start the final period as they extended their lead quickly to 15 as Chris Paul led the Suns bench unit on a massive extended run.

The Suns refused to let up, as the bench unit put a punctuation mark on their efforts with this transition lob to Torrey Craig that blew the roof off of Phoenix Suns Arena.

Denver would finally get some things going offensively midway through the fourth, but by that point the damage was done and Phoenix cruised to a 122-105 win. Jokic cooled off in the second half, finishing with 22 points, nine rebounds, three assists, three blocks, and two steals on 10-of-23 shooting, and there was a case to be made that the best player for all 48 minutes for the Nuggets was Aaron Gordon with 18 points, four rebounds, three steals, and two assists on 8-of-14 shooting. However, no one else could match his energy in the second half for Denver as they got steamrolled after their strong third quarter start. Jokic was a shade off on seemingly every shot, Michael Porter Jr (15 points) got nullified by getting attacked constantly by the Suns on the defensive end, and Austin Rivers and Monte Morris could only muster a combined nine points on 3-of-17 shooting.

Those backcourt struggles against a Suns team with such tremendous depth in that area figures to be the story of the series, and in Game 1 Phoenix overwhelmed Denver with their depth. Booker wasn’t dominant in the same way he was in Game 6 against the Lakers, as he had just 21 points, but he was in control of everything, scoring those points on 8-of-12 shooting and ran the offense beautifully with eight assists. Chris Paul was a bit quiet early but came alive in the second half to finish with 21 points, 11 assists, and six rebounds, while Deandre Ayton had 20 points and 10 rebounds on 9-of-13 shooting. Mikal Bridges was the breakout star for Phoenix, scoring 23 points on 8-of-12 shooting including a 4-of-8 night from deep, with five rebounds, five assists, two steals and a block.

The difference for the Suns was their ability to keep up their efficiency. Their four stars combined to go 33-of-49 from the field in an outrageous shooting night, while the Nuggets just couldn’t keep up with that onslaught. It was a tremendous performance as Phoenix continues to show poise and ability beyond its years — Chris Paul aside — as their young stars step up in big moments and as a team they pounce on every opportunity to pull away from an opponent. That relentless effort is what got them to the second round and in Game 1, it got them a come from behind win to take a 1-0 series lead.

Justin Bieber has been on a roll recently. First there was the string of singles that helped him open up a new era in 2020, including “Holy,” “Lonely,” and “Anyone” all leading up to his early 2021 record, Justice. Although those songs might’ve been the early hits, I still love the late-comer, “Hold On” more, with its glitchy, hyperspeed chorus and heartfelt verses. But then there’s “Peaches,” featuring Giveon and Daniel Caesar, the breakout album track that blazed its way up the charts after the album came out.

For his big return to the Juno Awards stage this weekend, though, Bieber didn’t perform any of these. Instead he went for a deeper album cut, the yearning “Somebody,” which clearly has special significance to the pop star and his now-wife, Hailey. Like the bulk of the songs on Justice, the song is pretty clearly dedicated to her and their relationship. In a frenetic, high-energy performance, Bieber returned to the Junos for the first time in eleven years, dancing around while the lyrics flickered on screens behind him. Rocking a new short haircut after fans were a little perturbed by his loc’d hair, Justin looks the healthiest and happiest he has for a while. Looks like finding that special somebody suits him well. Watch the performance above.

Today’s Republican party is in thrall to conspiracy theories, from QAnon to the many convoluted takes on how their favorite president lost re-election, even to newer ones about how he could take his old job back. (Spoiler: He can’t.) And it comes from the top: According to Vanity Fair, a forthcoming book about Donald Trump’s failed second term alleges that his belief in one wacko idea involving his successor might have caused him to lose in November.

The book is Frankly, We Did Win This Election”: The Inside Story of How Trump Lost, by Wall Street Journal journo Michael Bender, who interviewed over 150 insiders, including Trump himself. It’s common knowledge that he saw Biden as an unworthy adversary. One tale within — that Trump interrupted a policy meeting to vent, “How am I losing in the polls to a mental retard?’” — is hardly surprising.

What is surprising, though, is this: He believed in a harebrained theory that the Democratic Party, realizing their nominee was too old and gaffe-prone to beat Trump, was going to steal the nomination away from him, replacing him with Hillary Clinton or Michelle Obama. The idea came from Dick Morris, an old Clinton staffer-turned-GOP stooge, while others thought that Biden would drop out should Trump bash him too hard.

But there’s more, as Vanity Fair writes:

According to Bender, Trump also felt that his attack strategy had backfired during the first stage of the Democratic primary. “The president, meanwhile, had often complained that his early attack on [Elizabeth] Warren had damaged her presidential bid, which he regretted because he viewed her as an easier opponent than Biden,” Bender writes. “Now he worried that a heavy blitz of attack ads would hasten the secret plot being hatched by Democrats, and his mind raced with who they might select in Biden’s place.”

Some staffers tried to talk him out of this theory, but for naught. Trump even, Bender writes, “cited it as a reason to hold off on heavy spending against Biden earlier in the month.” The 2020 presidential election was one of the nastiest in history, but it certainly could have been even meaner. Imagine the ads that would have run, the viciousness of the debates had Trump not subscribed to so deranged an idea. That could have backfired, too, alienating even more voters than before. But we’ll probably never know how close we came to four more years with Trump.

(Via Vanity Fair)

The Brooklyn Nets took a 2-0 series lead on Milwaukee with a 39-point annihilation of the Bucks in Game 2 on Monday night, as they took a big early lead and never let go. Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving were terrific as usual, but it’s the continued spectacular play of the Nets role players that has them in firm control of this series even with James Harden sidelined with a hamstring injury.

Chief among those is Blake Griffin, who famously joined the Nets on a minimum deal after taking a buyout from Detroit. With the Pistons, Griffin’s knee injury had seemingly sapped the athleticism that had made him a phenom early in his career, as he never returned to the dominant form from 2019 when he almost single-handedly dragged the Pistons to the playoffs — where they got blasted by Milwaukee. This time around, Griffin gets to be a complementary piece rather than a focal point and he’s shining. After a big Game 1, Griffin was a bit more quiet in Game 2 offensively in terms of output, with seven points and eight rebounds, but he continues to stump Giannis defensively and two of his buckets were quite loud.

Blake has turned back the clock since joining the Nets, and threw down a pair of vintage dunks in Game 2, one on a putback and one on a baseline cut to throw it down on Giannis.

The TNT broadcast even pulled up the stats for Blake’s season in which he had no dunks in his 20 games with the Pistons, but has 25 in 33 games played with the Nets.

Throughout the regular season while he’s been with the Nets fans have wondered aloud if Griffin was tanking during the first half of the season in order to secure the buyout from Detroit, but with the way he’s playing in this series against Milwaukee, fans are having a ton of fun with the idea that he was sandbagging to get himself to a contender.

The reality is that Griffin is in a position where he’s being asked not to create looks for himself off the dribble but just catch-and-shoot or catching lobs or pocket passes as a roller and cutter. He certainly seems bouncier and more energized playing in Brooklyn and it’s hard to blame him for that, but it’s not a shocker that he’s still capable of dunking.

Now that he’s capable of still flying the way he did on the putback is something we had to wonder about, but with a clean runway it’s clear he can still soar — even if that stings a bit for Pistons fans to watch.

One of the most streamed shows in America this year is French. Earlier this year, Lupin, an updated and greatly transformed take on the classic gentleman thief character Arsène Lupin, became a surprise staple of the “Popular on Netflix” category. People loved watching the very charming Omar Sy a as Senegalese immigrant inspired by Lupin who steals Marie Antoinette’s jewels in the very first episode. And good for them, because that was just the beginning: Part 2 was already in the can and ready to be dropped in the summer. Now that times is almost upon us, though for now we have a teasing first look.

The clip, just a minute long, finds Sy’s semi-hero racing in a car, preparing to deal with the events that concluded the final episode of part one. If you need a recap, Sy’s Assane Diop learning that his son Raoul (Etan Simon) has been kidnapped by people associated with his longtime nemesis, Hubert Pellegrini (Hervé Pierre). On top of that, he’s the most wanted man in France, with the police on his back.

What will the next five episodes bring us? And how great is it that Sy, who achieved international stardom with the dramedy The Intouchables — later remade in America as The Upside, with him replaced by Kevin Hart — is finally a big star here as well? You’ll get to see him return on June 11.

It took 79 years, but Grace Lee McClure Smith was able to walk on stage and accept her high school diploma on Wednesday. Smith dropped out of Hazel Green High School in Alabama at the age of 16 in 1942 to marry her husband Calvin B. Smith who was then sent off to fight in World War II.

Calvin passed away in 2005, just a few days shy of his 80th birthday.

Even though she never graduated from high school, Grace still kept education close to her heart. She was a bus driver for the Madison County School Systems for over 30 years.

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94-year-old woman graduates from high school after dropping out during WWII https://t.co/Z9DVyuTez8 https://t.co/Jvn9DCcmJp

— Eyewitness News (@ABC7NY)
1622946621.0

“She came back and for more than 30 years, she drove a school bus in Madison County, she served our students and got them safely to school and safely home for 30 years,” school official Tim Hall told CBS affiliate WHNT.

“She was a role model for a lot of kids and she’s always telling the stories,” Erin Wilson, Grace’s granddaughter said according to People. “She may not remember faces, but she will remember names and addresses of where she picked them up and dropped them off.”

So on June 2, 2021, Grace was given an honorary diploma at a special ceremony at Hazel Green where she became Madison County’s oldest high school graduate at 94 years old. Grace didn’t complete her degree, but her decades of service to the district were enough for her to receive a diploma.

She can now count herself among the 302 fellow members of the class of 2021 who also received a diploma that day. She’s probably the only member of the class of 2021 that can boast of having seven children, 16 grandchildren, and 26 great-grandchildren.

“It’s better late than never, isn’t it?” said Grace.

94-year-old Alabama woman graduates high school after putting her education on hold in 1942

www.youtube.com

The ceremony was put together by one of her grandchildren and included officials from the school district including Director of PR Tim Hall, Hazel Green principal Quinn Headen, and superintendent Allen Perkins.

“I feel like I don’t deserve it,” she said. “There’s a lot more people that are much more deserving than me. I’m just doing my job, love it. I love most of it most of the time. Good times!”

Grace may not feel like she deserves it, but she sure does. She gave up her pursuit of education to support her spouse who was sent overseas to risk his life to fight against the Axis powers. Who knows what opportunities she may have missed out in life because she didn’t have a diploma.

As time goes by there are fewer and fewer people still living that understand the true sacrifice that many of the “Greatest Generation” made during World War II. Let’s hope that more people like Grace are shown true appreciation for their sacrifice while there’s still time.

A recent estimate by Pew Research found that approximately 300,000 of the 16 million Americans who served during World War II are still alive. It’s believed that we will lose the last of the veterans between 2040 and 2045.

Despite the (very) early loss of James Harden to a hamstring injury, the Brooklyn Nets picked up a comfortable Game 1 win over the Milwaukee Bucks on Saturday evening. Harden was ruled out for Game 2 but, even without a top-tier player, the Nets had absolutely no trouble taking a 2-0 lead in the series on Monday night. In fact, Brooklyn wasn’t challenged in the slightest, taking a big lead almost immediately and putting on a show with a 125-86 win.

The Nets drew first blood, taking a lead in the early going as the Bucks scuffled offensively to the tune of 7-20 shooting, including 1-of-9 from Giannis Antetokounmpo and Khris Middleton. Brooklyn used a 10-2 run to take a double-digit lead late in the quarter and, while Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving combined for 15 quick points to lead the way, they weren’t alone, with Blake Griffin getting into the action with a throwback dunk.

The Nets led by a 17-point margin at the end of the opening period, taking control of the proceedings. Brooklyn shot 61 percent from the floor, including 4-of-7 from three, and Durant put the punctuation mark on a dominant quarter with a triple on the final possession.

Even with Durant and Irving on the bench to begin the second quarter, the Nets carried over their success to the tune of a 12-2 run dating back to the first period. That gave Brooklyn a 22-point lead after 14 minutes of action, and that eventually grew to as many as 27 points in the first half. Adding insult to injury, Griffin delivered another dunk from the way-back machine.

The Nets led by 24 points at the break, using 21 points from Durant and a 58 percent shooting clip to send quite a message. In contrast, the Bucks shot 43 percent with nine turnovers and, even with a strong half from Jrue Holiday, Milwaukee’s attack didn’t leave a mark on the potentially vulnerable Brooklyn defense.

Most of the third quarter was relatively neutral, with the Bucks playing the Nets to a virtual draw. While that wasn’t enough to make a dent, Milwaukee trailed by 21 with two minutes to go in the third quarter and, theoretically, the Bucks were one run away from making things interesting. Instead, Brooklyn zoomed to a 10-1 run to close the period, building a 30-point lead behind stellar play from Durant, Mike James and others.

There was no remaining doubt as the fourth quarter arrived but, before the stars left the floor for the Nets, Irving provided more fireworks. He scored six points in 18 seconds to push the lead from 27 to 33, and Irving’s buckets came with his trademark flair.

Once the benches emptied for both teams, Brooklyn extended its advantage to as many as 49 points before the final buzzer mercifully arrived. All told, the Nets shot 52 percent from the floor and 50 percent (21-of-42) from three-point range in the blowout win, even without Harden on the floor. Durant led the team with 32 points in 33 minutes, with Irving adding 22 points in support.

For the Bucks, this was a catastrophic performance and one that will almost certainly embolden critics of both the team’s core players and head coach Mike Budenholzer. While it could be explained away as a one-game blip, Milwaukee will now face even more scrutiny before Game 3 arrives on Thursday. The Bucks will be in a virtual must-win scenario in their first home game of the series, and given what transpired at Barclays Center on Monday, the Nets have to feel (very) good about their standing in this matchup.

He was once called “America’s mayor.” But in the last few years Rudy Giuliani has fallen farther than an Edith Wharton heroine. To the towering pile of incriminating and/or embarrassing things he’s done, much of it at the behest of his client Donald Trump (and sometimes involving the MyPillow Guy), add this: There is now audio of him doing what many suspected was real, namely that he tried to badger Ukrainian officials into investigating loony conspiracy theories involving Joe Biden.

The audio, which was obtained by CNN, hails from July 2019, mere months after the nation’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky, took office. In a phonecall between he, U.S. diplomat Kurt Volker, and Zelensky senior advisor Andriy Yermak, Giuliani can be heard aggressively insisting that Yermak’s boss look into possible corruption into Biden, when he was still just a presidential candidate.

“All we need from the President [Zelensky] is to say, I’m gonna put an honest prosecutor in charge, he’s gonna investigate and dig up the evidence, that presently exists and is there any other evidence about involvement of the 2016 election, and then the Biden thing has to be run out,” Giuliani can be heard saying. “Somebody in Ukraine’s gotta take that seriously.”

Throughout the call, Giuliani laid out convoluted conspiracy theories, some of which Volker himself informed him had come from sources that were “simply not credible.” He also accused Biden, when he was vice president under Barack Obama, of corrupt activity involving Zelensky’s predecessor, Petro Poroshenko — claims that have no basis in fact.

At one point Giuliani suggested that making a public statement about a Biden investigation “would clear the air really well.” He added, “And I think it would make it possible for me to come and make it possible, I think, for me to talk to the President [Trump] to see what I can do about making sure that whatever misunderstandings are put aside … I kinda think that this could be a good thing for having a much better relationship.”

The call, which lasted some 40 minutes, occurred shortly before Trump’s own infamous chat with Zelensky himself, which led to his first of two impeachments. The audio undermines the claim that there was “no quid pro quo” that would swap a Biden investigation for U.S. support. Partial transcripts had been made available earlier this year, but this is the first time that audio has gone public.

In the meantime, Giuliani is the subject of an ongoing criminal investigation. The feds even raided his Manhattan home in April, taking him from the city’s former mayor to one of its potential crooks.

(Via CNN)

Many are still buzzing over the Bitcoin conference that was held in Miami over the weekend, but while cryptocurrency continues to be greeted with skepticism in the U.S., one Central American country is taking it next level.

El Salvador will apparently be the first country in the world to officially recognize Bitcoin as legal tender. Nayib Bukele, the president of El Salvador, announced at the Bitcoin 2021 conference that he would introduce legislation to make it official, proposing it as a way to help grow the nation, as well as help the cryptocurrency find stability.

The other legal tender in El Salvador, it’s important to note, is the US dollar. The movie is generally seen as positive for Bitcoin, especially in the wake of the currency taking a big tumble in recent weeks as China announced policy against it. But according to Yahoo, some investors don’t think the decision will much impact the market.

“Crypto is seen as a way of hedging against political turmoil, but it will need to reach critical mass. El Salvador’s move is unlikely to counter China’s given its relative size,” Santiago Espinosa, strategist at the independent investment research firm MRB, said in an interview.

El Salvador has a gross domestic product of $27 billion versus Argentina’s $445 billion or Brazil’s $1.8 trillion. China’s GDP was $14.2 trillion in 2019, according to the World Bank.

It’s a big move in crypto regardless of its impact on the market, as even a designation that it’s an official currency is a big step toward giving it legitimacy. But what impact it has on the currency’s value, it seems, remains to be seen.