Month: April 2024

Anthony Edwards led the Minnesota Timberwolves to their first playoff series win in two decades on Sunday night, as the 22-year-old superstar erupted for 40 points in Game 4 in Phoenix to polish off a sweep of the Suns.

He had 31 of those points in the second half, as he helped will his team to a comeback win despite a monster night from Devin Booker (49 points) and Kevin Durant (33 points) on the other side. Edwards performance in this series was nothing short of spectacular, and he made a clear statement that his time is now by dispatching the Suns and one of his idols, Kevin Durant, in the process.

After the game, Durant and Edwards shared an embrace and some words, with KD offering him his respect and some well wishes as Edwards looks to lead the Wolves on a deep playoff run. In his postgame interview with the Inside the NBA crew, Edwards got asked by Kenny Smith about what beating KD means to him, and while Edwards made sure to lead with how much respect he has for KD, he also said he’ll have plenty of trash talk for him this summer when they’re on Team USA together.

It’s a delightful answer from Ant, who relished the chance to talk some trash to his favorite player in this series, and Durant couldn’t help but enjoy it himself. Edwards is clearly part of the next generation of superstars in the NBA, and this series certainly had the feeling of a changing of the guard. KD might not be ready to fully cede his spot, but he’ll have to hear about this one all summer in Paris from Ant.

For the first time since 2004, the Minnesota Timberwolves have won a playoff series. On Sunday night, the Wolves picked up a 122-116 win over the Phoenix Suns to punch their ticket to the Western Conference semifinals with an emphatic sweep, making them the first team to take care of business in the playoffs this year.

The story of the game was Phoenix’s inability to get anyone other than Kevin Durant and Devin Booker going. The two stars were from the opening tip, absolutely magnificent in trying to get their team to fight another day — Booker had a game-high 49 points, while Durant put up 33.

Both players had the sorts of performances that should have helped Phoenix pick up an emphatic win. Instead, the Suns couldn’t get anyone else going (Bradley Beal, in particular, struggled as he only scored nine points and fouled out). Neither team was able to get a ton of breathing room on the other — the game had 23 lead changes and 21 ties, while the largest lead either team had was only six points.

But as the saying goes, cometh the hour, cometh the man. And in this series, from the very beginning until the very end on Sunday night, Anthony Edwards was the man. Edwards was a monster, particularly down the stretch, as he emphatically announced to anyone and everyone who might have had doubts that he is clearly one of the best basketball players in the world.

On the night, Edwards was brilliant, going for 40 points on 13-for-23 shooting from the field and 7-for-13 shooting from three with nine rebounds, six assists, two blocks, and a steal. He was especially great late in the game, as he made big shot after big shot that helped Minnesota gain control of how things were going. He also made two of the best plays you’ll ever see — one was a block where he enveloped an attempt at the rim by Devin Booker, the other was a ridiculous one-handed slam that will be on highlight reels for years.

In a bit of a surprise, Edwards was deputized by Karl-Anthony Towns in a big way. While he’s gained a reputation for struggling in the postseason, Towns had perhaps the best game of his playoff career in an elimination game, as he put up 28 points on 10-for-17 shooting and 10 rebounds.

Now, the Suns will go into what should be a fascinating offseason, because as we saw this season, the idea of this team just did not work. And while that happens, the Timberwolves will be sitting at home and resting up before their conference semifinal matchup against either the Denver Nuggets or the Los Angeles Lakers.

The Minnesota Timberwolves have had an incredible season, with everything coming together in the second year with this roster as constructed. Anthony Edwards has become a full-fledged superstar, Rudy Gobert has put forth one of his best seasons defensively, Karl-Anthony Towns has slid back in to the lineup after a lengthy absence to provide a lift, and the veterans and younger players all have been able to emerge and thrive in their roles.

A lot of the credit for that ability to get everyone on the same page and navigate the potential pitfalls of having unique personalities goes to Chris Finch, who has done a masterful job in getting the Wolves into the upper echelon of the Western Conference. Monday night should’ve been one to celebrate for Finch, as Minnesota found a way to polish off a sweep of the Suns despite Devin Booker and Kevin Durant both going nuclear shooting the ball.

Unfortunately, the tense closing minutes of the fourth quarter saw Finch go down with an apparent knee injury and get helped to the locker room after Mike Conley got fouled by Devin Booker and ran into his coach on the sidelines.

Finch was unable to avoid the collision and it seemed as though Conley’s knee crashed into the side of Finch’s putting the Wolves coach in considerable pain. Hopefully Finch will be alright, but it didn’t look very good and we’ll have to wait for an official update on what injury he suffered and whether it impacts his ability to be at the head of the bench for the Wolves as they continue their playoff run into the second round.

Finch was shown on crutches after the game, and the team announced he suffered a ruptured patellar tendon in the collision.

For the sixth year, Lyrical Lemonade’s signature festival is gearing up to deliver rap fans in the Midwest’s annual fix. Between June 14 and 16, Seat Geek Stadium in Bridgeview, Illinois will serve as the official home for Summer Smash 2024https://uproxx.com/music/summer-smash-2024-lineup-travis-scott-playboi-carti/.

With Illinois native Chief Keef named as one of the multi-day festival’s headliner, crowds ares sure to swarm the venue. Continue below for ticketing details, lineup information, and more.

How Much Are Tickets For Lyrical Lemonade’s Summer Smash 2024 Lineup?

There are three ticketing tiers (general admission, VIP, and Diamond VIP) for Lyrical Lemonade’s Summer Smash 2024. General admission passes for the weekend will run you $385. VIP passes, on the other hand, are $655. While Diamond VIP passes are quoted at $1,575. Each group’s listed price includes all taxes and fees. For $125, you can secure a 3-day parking pass for Seat Geek Stadium’s designed lot.

It is important to note that the festival doesn’t appear to offer single day passes at this time. So, weekend passes for each ticket group (general admission, VIP, Diamond VIP) as well as parking passes are on sale now. Find more information here.

Lyrical Lemonade’s Summer Smash 2024 lineup

Outside of the festival’s headliners Cactus Jack (Travis Scott with Don Toliver, Sheck Wes, Sofaygo, and Chase B) on June 14, Playboi Carti on June 15, and Chief Keef on June 16 there are several notable acts. Ticket holders can look forward to performances by Big Sean, JID, Denzel Curry, Kodak Black, Destroy Lonely, Flo Milli, Lil Tecca, Mick Jenkins (performing The Waters), Ski Mask The Slump God, Cash Cobain, TiaCorine, Ken Carson, Waka Flocka Flame, YG Marley, and Lil B to name a few.

Lyrical Lemonade’s Summer Smash 2024 poster

The Indiana Pacers are one game away from the second round of the playoffs after winning their third consecutive game over the Milwaukee Bucks, taking Game 4 thanks to a hot shooting night that led them to a XXX-XXX win.

The Bucks came into the game shorthanded, with Damian Lillard (Achilles strain) and Giannis Antetokounmpo (calf strain) both out for the night, and things went from bad to worse in the early going when Bobby Portis got tossed after getting in a scrap with Andrew Nembhard in the first quarter.

Even with Portis adding to their roster crunch, the Bucks were able to hang around thanks to Brook Lopez turning the clock back to his Nets days and Khris Middleton continuing his strong play from Game 3. The Pacers could only open up a 67-64 lead despite a strong offensive half, as the defense wasn’t able to string together stops.

Indiana opened things up in the third quarter, though, as they continued to rain threes down on the Bucks. Tyrese Haliburton broke out of his shooting slump (5-of-12 from three) and Myles Turner (7-of-9 from deep) was sensational to lead the way offensively, but the Pacers also finally started to get some stops on the defensive end to open up a 17-point lead.

During that run, Turner authored the highlight of the night when he threw down a wild finish on Brook Lopez that caused an eruption in the arena.

Despite all of that, the Bucks continued to fight, chipping away to get the lead back down to six in the early fourth quarter thanks to the continued efforts of Middleton (who aggravated his left ankle but quickly returned to the game) and Lopez.

Ultimately, the Bucks just did not have the firepower on the night to keep up with a hot shooting Pacers squad. Turner continued to pour in threes and eventually the benches were emptied after a dagger with just over two minutes to play.

All five Pacers starters reached double figures in scoring, led by Turner’s 29 and Haliburton’s 24. As a team they shot 22-of-43 from three, including four players hitting three or more from deep. Milwaukee got 52 from Lopez and Middleton, with Malik Beasley chipping in 20, but they simply could not keep up on a night Indiana shot over 50 percent from three.

Now the series shifts back to Milwaukee for a win-or-stay-home Game 5 for the Bucks. The statuses of Giannis and Lillard loom large for that game, and if the stars aren’t back for Milwaukee it’s hard to see how this series returns to Indiana.

Feid’s takeover of the North American music market is well underway. On April 24, the “Malibu” musician kicked off his 27-stop Ferxxocalipsis Tour in Sacramento, California.

With over a dozen dates remaining on the run, fans of the international star are curious about which of his bangers have made the setlist. Well, let’s just say Feid has been very generous incorporating tracks from his past collaborators. Continue below to view the tour’s setlist (according to Setlist.fm), the remaining tour dates, and more.

Feid’s ‘Ferxxocalipsis Tour’ Setlist

1. “Alakran”
2. “50 Palos”
3. “Lady Mi Amor”
4. “Chimbita”
5. “Castigo”
6. “Bubalu”
7. “Ferxxo 151”
8. “Ultra Solo Remix”
9. “Fumeteo”
10. “Puerro Negro” (Bad Bunny cover)
11. “Cual Es Esa”
12. “El Cielo” (Sky cover)
13. “La Inocente” (Mora cover)
14. “Interlude”
15. “Ferxxo 30” (Acoustic)
16. “Prohibidox” (Acoustic)
17. “Porfa” (Acoustic)
18. “Esquirla”
19. “Mojando Asientos”
20. “Remix Exclusivo”
21. “Ferxxo Edition”
22. “X19X”
23. “Feliz Cumpleaños Ferxxo”
24. “Monastery”
25. “Ey Chory”
26. “Ritmo De Medallo”
27. “Luces De Tecno”
28. “Le Pido A Dios”
29. “Románticos De Lunes”
30. “Normal”
31. “Ferxxo 100”
32. “Yandel 150” (Yandel Cover)
33. “Hey Mor” (Ozuna Cover)
34. “Classy 101”
35. “Chorrito Pa Las Animas”
36. “Luna”

Feid’s 2024 Tour: Ferxxocalipsis Tour dates

05/01 — San Jose, CA @ SAP Center
05/03 — Palm Desert, CA @ Acrisure Arena
05/04 — San Diego, CA @ Pechanga Arena
05/10 — Las Vegas, NV @ Michelob ULTRA Arena
05/11 — Phoenix, AZ @ Footprint Center
05/15 — Salt Lake City, UT @ Delta Center
05/18 — Tulsa, OK @ BOK Center
05/19 — Fort Worth, TX @ Dickies Arena
05/22 — Edinburg, TX @ Bert Ogden Arena
05/24 — Houston, TX @ Toyota Center
05/25 — Austin, TX @ Moody Center
05/27 — Nashville, TN @ Bridgestone Arena
05/30 — Chicago, IL @ United Center
06/01 — Montreal, QC @ Bell Centre
06/02 — Toronto, ON @ Scotiabank Arena
06/06 — Philadelphia, PA @ Wells Fargo Center
06/07 — Newark, NJ @ Prudential Center
06/09 — Hartford, CT @ XL Center
06/13 — Boston, MA @ TD Garden
06/16 — New York City, NY @ Madison Square Garden
06/20 — Washington, DC @ Capital One Arena
06/21 — Greensboro, NC @ Greensboro Coliseum
06/23 — Duluth, GA @ Gas South Arena
06/28 — Orlando, FL @ Kia Center
07/06 — Miami, FL @ Hard Rock Stadium

Feid’s Ferxxocalipsis Tour poster

The Indiana Pacers struggled to create separation against the Milwaukee Bucks in the first half of Game 4 despite the Bucks being without Damian Lillard and Giannis Antetokounmpo due to injuries and Bobby Portis after he got ejected seven minutes into the game.

However, the third quarter saw them stretch out their lead as they turned up the pace and lit up the shorthanded Bucks, to push their lead from three to 13. As was the case in Game 3, Myles Turner played a big role in the Pacers third quarter run, as he hit some big shots, forced some big stops, and created the highlight of the night when he threw down an insane dunk on Brook Lopez.

It was a Blake Griffin-style throwdown, as Turner took off over Lopez and simply threw the ball through the rim despite having his momentum stopped by the Bucks big man. The dunk sent the Indiana crowd into a frenzy, with Turner hitting a three on the next possession to force a Milwaukee timeout as the building erupted. The Bucks would stem the tide a bit to end the third quarter, but they struggled to keep up with the Pacers tempo and Turner’s facial on Lopez was a shining example of the Pacers running the floor and creating problems for Milwaukee.

The Milwaukee Bucks came into Game 4 extremely shorthanded, as they would have to try and even their first round series with the Pacers without Giannis Antetokounmpo or Damian Lillard, as their two superstars both dealt with lower leg injuries.

That meant the Bucks were desperate for some big contributions from their supporting cast, and one of the players they figured to lean heavily on to pick up some of the slack offensively was Bobby Portis. In the first seven minutes of action, Portis had 4 points and 3 rebounds as he was active early, clearly getting the message that he’d be more involved. However, Portis always plays with an edge and late in the first quarter, he let his intensity get the best of him in a scuffle with Andrew Nembhard after the two got tangled up on a box out.

Nembhard was hit with a technical for his part, while Portis was ejected for not only getting in the shoving match with Nembhard, but going a step further with the second grab/swing at the Pacers guard. The officials had already made it clear they wanted to keep the nonsense to a minimum in this game, handing out two early technicals to Pascal Siakam and Patrick Beverley for taunting, but Portis and Nembhard still got tangled and Portis left Milwaukee even more shorthanded by doing enough to get tossed.

Saturday night’s edition of Inside the NBA featured an all-time Charles Barkley roast, as the Hall of Famer had Shaq keeled over laughing as he torched the New Orleans Pelicans and the city of Galveston, Texas.

Chuck called out the Pelicans for quitting in Game 3 against the Thunder, and said they didn’t deserve a flight to Cancun and should instead drive down to Galveston to see “that dirty ass water.”

It really is some of Barkley’s funniest work in some time, and naturally it went viral and went far beyond just basketball fans. Among those who saw it was Beyonce’s mom, Tina Knowles, who was born in Galveston and got the clip sent to her by Jay-Z, issuing a funny response to Chuck on Instagram.

Barkley, being a wise man, issued an apology to Ms. Tina and asked for forgiveness from the Beyhive.

However, there was only so far he’s willing to go with an apology, and a trip to Galveston is not in the cards. He almost killed Shaq by saying he’d rather take a vacation to “San Antonio with them big ol’ women” than go to Galveston.

There is nothing guaranteed to get Shaq to lose it than a surprise joke about the women of San Antonio, and Chuck couldn’t resist dragging them into this with Galveston. The state of Texas, in general, seems to not be Barkley’s favorite and I doubt he’ll be taking any trips there any time soon on his own personal accord.

After winning Game 1 thanks to a dominant first half performance, the Clippers have struggled to find a rhythm in Games 2 and 3 against the Mavericks, as Dallas seized control of the series. It has been largely due to a tremendous defensive effort and timely buckets from Kyrie Irving and Luka Doncic that the Mavs took a 2-1 lead into Sunday, but Game 4 followed a similar script to the opener in what became a 116-111 Clippers win to even things back up.

The Clippers came out red-hot, with Paul George finally asserting his presence in the series as he was nothing short of unstoppable in the first half as L.A. led by 17 at the break — after taking a 31-point lead early in the second quarter.

George finished the first half with 26 points, and even had a little taunt for PJ Washington after his fifth (of six) threes in the opening 24 minutes. However, the Mavs chipped away at the Clippers advantage late in the second quarter and seemed to settle in going to the third quarter, with Kyrie Irving leading the way for the Dallas offense as they cut the deficit to just four going to the fourth.

The Clippers would briefly restore order, but Irving and Luka Doncic strung together a mid-fourth run that finally got them back on level pegging with L.A., fully erasing a 31-point deficit.

Down the stretch, we got a shot-making duel from both sides. James Harden hit three consecutive tough finishes to keep the Clippers ahead.

Kyrie answered with a mini 5-0 run of his own to give Dallas their first lead of the game, and send the crowd in the American Airlines Center into a frenzy.

However, that lead was short-lived as George, who was quiet in the second half, hit a preposterous stepback three from the corner to give Los Angeles the lead back for good.

The Clippers would ice the game at the free throw line and even the series at 2-2 going back to L.A. George and Harden combined for 66 points and went 11-of-15 from three-point range as they stepped up in a major way with Leonard out of the lineup. It seemed George was finally willing to be assertive with Kawhi not playing, as he tends to try and defer to his co-star, and that led to his best performance of the series (even with the quiet second half). Harden was masterful in the fourth, scoring 14 of his 33 and turning back the clock to get downhill and hit some tough finishes with the Clippers needed that kind of creation desperately.

For the Mavs, they just dug themselves too big of a hole early and had to expend a ton of energy to erase it. They deserve credit for battling all the way back, with Irving leading the way with 40 points and Doncic adding 29, but they looked to gas out a bit late and couldn’t quite complete an all-time comeback. Defensively, they took a step back from Games 2 and 3, and it would probably be wise if they try not to fall behind by 20+ in the first quarter of Game 5 if they want to reclaim the series lead.