Month: January 2022

Los Angeles Clippers star Kawhi Leonard may end up playing this season after all.

On TNT Thursday night, insider Chris Haynes reported that Leonard is ahead of scheduling in rehabbing his torn ACL and that a return to the Clippers this season is a “strong possibility.” Per Haynes, Leonard had looked “stronger and stronger” in his rehab, tracking with early reports prior to the season that Leonard was ahead of schedule.

Leonard suffered his injury last season during the Clippers’ Western Conference semifinal matchup against the Utah Jazz. Going into the playoffs, he missed the last eight games of the regular season with that the team called a sprain and was later reported to be a partially torn ACL.

If Leonard can in fact return this year, it could have massive implications on the Western Conference playoff race and in the title picture. Currently, Los Angeles is eighth in the West, putting them in the play-in for the moment, and that’s not just without Leonard, but also Paul George missing time due to an elbow injury. Once George comes back, and if Leonard can return and get back to where he was pre-injury in short order, the Clippers would be a nightmare matchup for a top seed and could shake up the West playoffs in a big way.

The Boston Celtics continued their dubious run this season of being one of the worst fourth quarter teams in the NBA with a collapse at Madison Square Garden that is arguably their worst of the season.

After leading by 25 in the first half and 16 at halftime, Boston saw Evan Fournier erupt for 41 points and RJ Barrett bank in a ridiculous game-winning three at the buzzer to fall to 18-21 on the season. Jayson Tatum was spectacular, with 36 points, nine assists, and six rebounds in the loss, including hitting the game-tying bucket just before the Barrett buzzer-beater, but after scoring just 42 second half points (21 in both quarters), much of the talk after was about a Boston offense that far too often goes off the rails and fails to create good looks in critical situations.

Among those offering the most scathing critiques of their latest performance was head coach Ime Udoka, who called out his team for getting rattled and said, frankly, “we need some leadership” on the court in those situations to calm things down.

It is about as blunt as you’ll get from a coach in this situation, and it’s not hard to see this as an indictment of the Celtics’ two stars, Tatum and Jaylen Brown, through which so much of their offense runs. It’s clear that Udoka is trying to push some buttons to get a better response out of his team and his stars, but to this point, what he’s tried has not worked as the Celtics far too often look stagnant in fourth quarters. Thursday night was no different,

The problem is, these frustrations aren’t new (Marcus Smart called this out in the first month of the season) and we’re now at the midway point with little to show in the way of improvement from Boston in key situations beyond a few glimmers of hope. For a team that hoped to be a contender in the East this season, there’s an awfully long way to go to get there, and getting on the same page from the coaching staff to the players is just the start.

It’s Tucker Carlson vs. Ted Cruz Part 2, and it’s not the greatest spectator sport in the world, but it’s still fairly entertaining to witness these two going at each other. The Fox News host and the much maligned senator from Texas went at it this week when Ted did a very unexpected thing: he truthfully declared that the Jan. 6 MAGA insurrection was a “violent terrorist attack on the capitol.” The C-SPAN footage doesn’t lie, but maybe Ted lies? Don’t put it past him.

Tucker was not thrilled about this turn of events and spoke about his consternation on-air. “Of all the things that January 6 was, it was definitely not a violent terrorist attack. It wasn’t an insurrection. Was it a riot? Sure!” Carlson declared in his hyperbolic way. “It was not a violent terrorist attack. Sorry! So why are you telling us that it was, Ted Cruz?” Well, Ted decided to come on air to answer Tucker’s call, and backpeddling definitely happened. Tucker asked Ted why he told “a lie,” and Ted immediately backed down. “The way I phrased things yesterday, it was sloppy and frankly it was dumb,” the senator declared. And Tucker responded, “I don’t buy that. Woah woah woah! I don’t buy that.”

Via Mediaite, Tucker took that ball and ran with it into the MAGA endzone:

“I don’t buy that. I’ve known you for a long time since before you went to Senate. You were a Supreme Court contender. You take words as seriously as anyone man who has ever served in the Senate. and every word, you repeated that phrase, I do not believe you used that accidentally. I just don’t.”

That wasn’t all. Tucker shut down Ted’s further attempts to grovel:

“Hold on, what you just said doesn’t make sense. So, If somebody assaults a cop, he should charged and go to jail, I couldn’t agree more. We have said that for years. But that person is still not a terrorist. How many people have been charged with terrorism on Jan. 6? Like, why did you use that word? You’re playing into the other side’s characterization that… allows them to define an entire population as foreign combatants, and you know that, so why did you do that?”

Well, Ted Cruz is officially in trouble with Tucker Carlson’s audience. And frankly, he might be more upset about this than he was about cutting that Cancun vacation short last year.

(Via Mediaite)

The Boston Celtics and New York Knicks have met twice at Madison Square Garden this season and both games have produced thrilling comebacks and late game fireworks. In both, the Knicks erased a double-digit lead and followed the lead of Evan Fournier to an eventual win, the first time needing double overtime in the season opener and, on Thursday, getting the job done in regulation.

The Celtics led by as many as 25 in the first half and took a 16-point advantage into the break, but for the third time this season, Evan Fournier erupted against his former employer. This time, Fournier poured in 10 three-pointers on his way to a new career-high with 41 points, dragging the Knicks offense as he caught absolute fire and seemingly could not miss from deep in the second half.

The two teams traded buckets down the stretch, and some shaky free throw shooting from the Knicks gave Boston a real chance to win or force OT. After Julius Randle split a pair of free throws up one, Jayson Tatum, who had 36 points, nine assists, and six rebounds in the loss, tied it up with a beautiful pullup jumper.

With 1.5 seconds on the clock, the Knicks took a timeout and advanced the ball, inbounding it to RJ Barrett, who had an otherwise tough offensive night, but managed to bank in a ridiculous game-winning three to send the Garden into a frenzy.

The last time the Knicks did this, we were provided with the gift of “Bing Bong” and that legendary Sidetalk NYC video. We’ll just have to see if there’s more to come this time around.

Next month will mark a year since Kim Kardashian filed for divorce from Kanye West, who she’d been married to since 2014. Despite some recent attempts from the rapper to reconcile with his ex-wife and hopefully call off the divorce, Kim stood firm on her decision. This left Kanye no choice but to move on, and it’s something he’s very much doing in the new year. On New Year’s Day, Kanye was spotted with actress Julia Fox in New York City as the two had dinner together at the city’s Carbone restaurant. It left many wondering if a new romance was brewing between the two or if things were simply platonic. Well, Julia herself has your answer to that.

In a written piece she submitted to Interview Magazine, she describes her date night night with Kanye. “I met Ye in Miami on New Year’s Eve and it was an instant connection,” she began. “His energy is so fun to be around. He had me and my friends laughing, dancing, and smiling all night.” She goes on to say that they two flew back to New York City to see the Broadway show Slave Play, one they arrived on time for to her surprise.

After the show, the two enjoyed dinner at Carbone, and it’s here that Julia says Kanye directed a photoshoot for her as people dined. After dinner, he surprised Julia with a hotel suite full of clothes that he prepared for her. “It was every girl’s dream come true,” she wrote. “It felt like a real Cinderella moment. I don’t know how he did it, or how he got all of it there in time. But I was so surprised. Like, who does things like this on a second date? Or any date!”

She concluded the piece by writing, “I don’t know where things are headed but if this is any indication of the future I’m loving the ride.”

You can view some of the photos from the shoot above and read the full Interview Magazine piece here.

Jeopardy! champ Amy Schneider has broken records already by becoming the Winningest Woman in the show’s history. Amy’s been having a rough week off camera, given that she was robbed at gunpoint last weekend with her ID and other personal items stolen. She then decided to take a Twitter breather, which she extended due to illness, although Amy assured her followers that “I’m feeling mostly better now.”

The show, obviously, runs taped episodes, so there’s been no shortage of Amy continuing to beat the hell out of her fellow contestants. Ahead of Thursday night’s episode, Jeopardy! saluted Amy for her $950,000 in earnings thus far. She’s not in James Holzhauer per-game territory (no one is, not even Ken Jennings or Matt Amodio), but Amy’s not doing too shabby with an average of $36,538 per game.

Before Thursday’s airing, Amy had racked up 26 wins, and yep she added another one. As of now, she’s added another $27,000 and is sitting at a super comfy $977,000.

Yes, that’s nail-bitingly close to $1,000,000, and tonight’s show was not an easy one, since all competitors gave it their all, but there’s less than another $25,000 to go until a momentous milestone for Amy Schneider. Considering her per-game average, she should be able to easily hit one million if she wins on Friday. She’ll aim defend her title and hopefully more. Go get ’em, Amy!

It’s been a weird week for the Sacramento Kings. Head coach Alvin Gentry was absolutely irate about an officiating decision during Tuesday’s loss to the Los Angeles Lakers and, the next night, the Kings lost at home to the Atlanta Hawks without Trae Young. Neither of those things rose to the bizarre level of an NBA announcement on Thursday evening, though, as the league handed down a $50,000 fine to the Kings organization for “violating league rules prohibiting team owners and executives from interacting with scorer’s table personnel during game play.”

At first blush, one might assume the incident took place amid the strange ending to the Lakers game, but it actually occurred a few days earlier on Jan. 2 in a win over the Miami Heat. According to the NBA’s release, Kings assistant general manager Wes Wilcox “left his seat to confront operations personnel at the scorer’s table about their handling of a clock procedure during a jump ball.” The incident happened in the early portion of the third quarter in what became a 115-113 win for Sacramento, and Wilcox earned a $15,000 individual fine on top of the team sanction.

Amusingly, the NBA’s announcement made sure to note that “the clock procedure at issue was, in fact, administered correctly by the shot clock operator.” In the grand scheme, this isn’t a large fine for the team by any means and, while Wilcox’s individual $15,000 fine might sting more, he has been a high-level executive for several years, including a multi-year stint as the general manager of the Hawks. Overall, though, this is one of those press releases that will make many turn their heads, and the fact that the Kings were involved brings a certain “chef’s kiss” element to the proceedings.

A woman is suing a concert venue after she says she was injured at a 2019 Harry Styles concert. According to TMZ, who obtained documents from the lawsuit, the unnamed woman says she went to the December 2019 album release party for Harry Styles’ sophomore album Fine Line. The event took place at The Forum in Los Angeles, and she says she was pushed to the ground during the show after a huge crowd of attendees surged towards the stage. The woman says she sustained serious injuries after other people crushed her body while she laid on the ground.

Styles himself is not named in the lawsuit, but the woman is suing The Forum, show promoters, and ticketing services which include Live Nation, Stubhub, and Ticketmaster. In her lawsuit, she claims that the venue, its promoters, and ticketing services failed to provide adequate seating, lighting, services, supervision, and crowd control that night. She adds that concertgoers in front of the stage were put in harm’s way as a result of the crowd surge.

It’s unknown how much the fan is suing for as a result of the incident, but TMZ says that she claims her injuries are “chronic and debilitating and are diminishing her quality of life.” TMZ reached out to Madison Square Garden Company, which owned The Forum at the time, for a comment on the matter and a spokesperson says they recently received the woman’s complaint and are now looking into the incident.

Click to download here.

Blockbusted

Writer, podcaster, and author of Down City: A Daughter’s Story of Love, Memory, and Murder, Leah Carroll joins Matt & Vince to talk about Vince’s favorite episode of The Sopranos, season 6a episode 8, “Johnny Cakes.”

Leah is a uniquely qualified guest, as she has a personal connection to an actual Rhode Island mob figure named Nicky Bianco, who introduced her to arugula. That’s the new bar. You cannot be a guest on PYAG unless you have been fed by an actual made guy. If a Gotti made you leek soup, hit us up. If not, just keep enjoying the slop we’re shoveling in your bowl, piggy.

In a bit of a reversal, the Soprano crime family’s most notorious bottom, Vito, is introduced to the titular Rhode Island delicacy by a volunteer firefighter beefcake named Johnny. Vito can receive what Johnny’s feeding him, but can he receive the love and affection he craves? As noted on the pod, this show was made for the modern cynical misanthrope, so don’t count on love setting anyone free.

While Vito is trying to find himself in New Hampshire, our favorite failson, AJ Soprano, is in New Jersey doing the same. Working at Blockbuster has its perks. He had an opportunity study knife fights in movies and utilize the techniques in an assassination attempt on Uncle Junior. But, AJ being AJ, he fumbles the blade before he has a chance to avenge his father. AJ is good guy, in that he is too soft and incompetent to kill someone. Poor guy never even had a chance (to gain his father’s approval through murder).

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-Description by Brent Flyberg.

A week from now, the world will be preparing to press play on Cordae’s sophomore album From A Birds Eye View. It’ll be the DMV rapper’s first full-length release since his 2019 Grammy-nominated debut The Lost Boy. To keep the anticipation and excitement high for his upcoming album, Cordae returns with a sick freestyle over Kendrick Lamar’s 2017 single, “The Heart Part 4.” Cordae drops his take of the song, aptly titled “FABEV Freestyle,” with an accompanying video that finds him enjoying a trip to Paris.

The freestyle itself is an introspective effort as Cordae reflects on his rise to fame in rap. He speaks about once being unsure if he would find success in hip-hop to working with Mos Def in the studio. It’s moments like these that Cordae is grateful for and ones that push him to continuously improve as an artist.

Cordae has yet to reveal to full tracklist for From A Birds Eye View. So far we know the project will be 14 songs and include previously released singles “Super,” “Sinister” with Lil Wayne, and “Gifted” with Roddy Ricch.

You can listen to the freestyle in the video above.

From A Birds Eye View is out 1/14 via Art@War/Atlantic. Pre-save it here.

Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.