Month: April 2024

The two most impressive teams in the 2024 Playoffs have been the Oklahoma City Thunder and Minnesota Timberwolves, and on Monday night the Thunder joined the Wolves as the two teams to have punched their tickets to the conference semifinals, beating the Pelicans 97-89 in Game 4.

After back-to-back blowout wins, the Thunder and Pelicans played a game that felt much more like the Game 1 slugfest that saw OKC get the edge late. Both defenses led the way once again on Monday night, as the length and activity for both teams was spectacular. The two teams combined for 32 turnovers, as nothing came easy on the offensive end and the best offense for both teams was creating a turnover and pushing in transition.

Both teams stars had tough nights shooting the ball against the opposing pressure. Brandon Ingram was once again locked in the Dorture Chamber, going 2-of-13 from the floor and scoring eight points, while Shai Gilgeous-Alexander was able to score 24 but went just 8-of-21 from the field. The supporting casts did provide some support for both from surprising sources, as Naji Marshall came off the bench to hit four threes for New Orleans and Josh Giddey did the same for the Thunder.

After playing to a near-stalemate in the first half, the Pelicans showed their fight to take a five-point lead in the second half as they traded tough buckets with OKC in the late third and early fourth quarters. .

However, after taking a 5-point lead in the fourth, the Pelicans offense went cold again and the Thunder showed their mettle, producing their best offensive stretch of the night when they needed it most. OKC went on an 18-2 run to effectively put the game to rest, with the biggest shots of that run coming from Jalen Williams, who hit a pair of huge threes to put the dagger in the Pelicans season.

Williams joined SGA with 24 points on the night, and all five Thunder starters finished in double figures scoring. On the other side, C.J. McCollum led the way with 20 points on 9-of-16 shooting and Jonas Valanciunas had 19 points and 13 rebounds, but they simply could not create enough offense in the fourth quarter to keep up with the Thunder as they kicked it into gear.

OKC will now await the winner of the Mavs-Clippers series, which is tied at 2-2 meaning the Thunder will have almost a week off before playing again. The Pelicans will look at Games 1 and 4 as positive showings, but recognize that there’s another level they need to reach in order to be a legitimate contender. The question they must answer is how much closer does a healthy Zion Williamson get them to that point, and what needs to change even with him back in the fold to take another step next season.

The Boston Celtics are one win away from exercising some playoff demons. On Monday night, the Celtics went to South Beach to take on the Miami Heat in Game 4 of their first round series, and thanks to a monster night by Derrick White, the team was able to move one win away from the conference semifinals. By the time the final horn sounded, Boston picked up a 102-88 win.

The Celtics were led on the evening by Derrick White, who had the best game of his postseason career. With both Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown struggling to get going from the field and Kristaps Porzingis leaving the game due to an injury, White stepped up in a big way, going for 38 points on 15-for-26 shooting and 8-for-15 shooting from behind the three-point line. It’s the most points he has ever scored in a single game in his career, whether that’s the regular season or playoffs.

Despite going 5-for-14 from the field, Tatum (who was able to survive an injury scare) was able to register a double-double, going for 20 points, 11 rebounds, and five boards. Brown was able to find ways to impact the game even though he went 7-for-18 from the field, as he had 17 points, five rebounds, two assists, and two steals.

As for the Heat, the team tried to follow its tried-and-true formula to win against Boston in the postseason. While Bam Adebayo did everything he could — 25 points on 11-for-22 shooting, 17 rebounds, five assists — the team just could not get going from three, as they only managed to go 9-for-33 (27.3 percent) from deep on the night. That, mixed with the fact that Boston actually made five more threes on the evening, made it almost impossible for Miami to have a path to victory.

Now, the two teams will return to Boston, where the Heat will surely throw everything they can at a Celtics team that wants to wrap things up and punch their ticket to the Eastern Conference Semifinals. Game 5 between the Boston and Miami will take place on Wednesday night at 7:30 p.m. EST on TNT.

The Inside the NBA crew has been in rare form this weekend, as being a week into the playoffs and having to be on every night for games has led to the fellas getting extra loose on air.

Charles Barkley and Shaq have gotten in yelling matches, Kenny Smith has gotten beaten to the board twice after proclaiming he wouldn’t lose in the playoffs, and Chuck nearly had to face the wrath of the Beyhive after making fun of Galveston, Texas. On Monday night, the guys were back again and this time Kenny was feeling the heat of the lights, and their other “colleague,” Draymond Green, decided to roast Smith on Twitter — calling him Kenny Boozer in reference to the legendary pic of Carlos Boozer with sprayed on hair.

Naturally, they threw that up on the broadcast and the fellas got a good laugh about it until Chuck realized Draymond supposedly works for TNT, telling Green to get his ass to the studio cause he’s “got nothing better to do” with the Warriors not in the playoffs.

Chuck does have a point, Draymond certainly has some free time and could make his way to Atlanta to join the desk — especially on a night like Saturday when Kenny was out and Vince Carter filled in. Chuck feels like if Draymond wants to get in on the jokes, he needs to show up to work, and he certainly has a fair point.

The Boston Celtics got one injury scare in the first half of Game 4 in their series against the Miami Heat. Kristaps Porzingis hurt his calf with a little more than two minutes to go in the second quarter, which led to him leaving the game and not coming back after being labeled as doubtful.

Fast forward to the fourth quarter and Boston got another injury scare. Patty Mills got hit with a foul for shoving Derrick White, and after the play, Jayson Tatum tried to take a jumper. Bam Adebayo decided that wasn’t going to happen, so he went up and contested the shot. His foot went into Tatum’s landing area, causing the Celtics star to land on his foot and go down in pain after he rolled his ankle.

Fortunately for Boston, Tatum ended up being ok, as he was able to remain in the game and did not seem like his ankle bugged him all that much. As for Adebayo, he got hit with a Flagrant 1 for this, while Al Horford got hit with a technical foul for a shove. Funny enough, this wasn’t the only high-profile example of someone contesting a post-whistle jumper during this Celtics season, as head coach Joe Mazzulla did this during a game against the Phoenix Suns this year, although no one rolled their ankle on that one.

Monday Night Raw is in Kansas City this week, and usually when WWE heads to a city with an NFL team, you can expect to see a few famous faces sitting as close to the ring as possible. This week, things went to another level when WWE got Patrick Mahomes to show up alongside United States champion Logan Paul.

At one point, Paul, Finn Balor, and JD McDonagh were all in the ring beating down Jey Uso. Paul slid out of the ring and walked over to Mahomes, who helped Paul put a little spin on using a set of brass knuckles. Mahomes pulled out his three Super Bowl rings and handed them over to Paul, who threw them on, showed Mahomes a bit of love, and made his way back into the ring.

Paul loaded up to punch Uso, but he got out of the way, so McDonagh took a right hand that featured a whole lot of diamonds on it to the face.

Uso thought the whole thing was pretty funny, presumably because he did not just get punched in the face by a right hand that had Super Bowl rings on it. Here’s hoping this isn’t the final involvement Mahomes has tonight, although I assume he won’t get put through a table or anything.

Little kids will try just about anything to avoid going to bed on time. Typically it involves calls for approximately 13.2 glasses of water, five trips to the bathroom and the sudden imminent threat of starvation a couple of hours after dinner. But when none of those tricks work, they tend to pull out the old reliable monster under the bed or hiding in the closet.

Most parents have checked under the bed, in closets and behind curtains more times than they can count. Some parents have checked so many times for the monster complaint that they’re hoping to uncover Monstropolis in the closet just to change up the routine. But there’s never a Sully or Mike hidden amongst the clothes, so parents assure their kiddo its all in their imagination before putting them back to bed.

Except, when Ashley Class dismissed her daughter’s concerns about monsters in her room, the little girl turned out to be telling the truth. Well…sort of.

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The girl did think she was hearing monsters in the wall but it turned out that she was actually hearing thousands and thousands of bees. Class, who goes by the TikTok handle @classashley, didn’t say what made her finally believe her daughter about the noise, but with that many bees some must’ve made their way into the house. Either way, an exterminator was called and the infrared camera lit up like there was a rave happening in the wall.

The mom, who recently just had a newborn weeks ago has updated her page several times. It seems that after the 50,000 bees were safely removed from the wall with the assumption they got them all, more bees made their presence known. There was another hive with thousands more bees hidden in the wall of her 100-year-old house.

“Still seeing thousands of bees even though 50k were removed (safely) from our daughter’s bedroom wall,” Class writes in the caption of one video.

@classashley

What nighthmares are made of #bees #toddlersoftiktok #toddlers

Hundreds of pounds of honeycomb was removed from the walls, Class received several bee stings, and the family’s floor was covered in honey. This was probably not the push present the mom had in mind after giving birth to her youngest baby. Commenters were not only shocked but terrified of the discovery of so many bees, though some thought of much scarier scenarios.

@classashley

Replying to @lexi 🎀 Update 4: Still seeing thousands of bees even though 50k were removed (safely) from our daughter’s room wall #honeybees #bees #savethebees #homerenovation #toddlertiktok #momsoftiktok #beegate #nightmarefuel

“I would honestly rather have monsters in the wall than to have 50k bees,” one person says.

“I would’ve screamed and ran outside and not went back into the house,” another wrote.

“If your whole house mysteriously burns down homeowners insurance would cover it then…This is a joke,” someone laughs.

@classashley

Replying to @Claudia Guerrero-Dal not taking any chances #savethebees #nightmarefuel #beegate #dangerzone #beekeepersoftiktok #momsoftiktok

One person asks if the family have tried hiring a bear, since the bees just seem to keep coming. This will be a costly project since homeowner’s insurance doesn’t cover the damages caused by having to relocate the bees. Unfortunately, it doesn’t look like the Class family is quite done fighting with the bees as the last video posted shows the mom of three suited up to entered the sealed off room to retrieve something. Here’s hoping all bees will be in their new home soon and the little girl with a keen ear will have her bedroom back.

If you haven’t stumbled across Grandad Joe (@grandadjoe1933) on TikTok yet, you’re in for a treat. The charming 91-year-old, who lives with his daughter Sasha in the UK, delights over 6 million followers with his infectious joy and enthusiasm—particularly when Sahsa cooks him special meals.

Recently, by “popular request,” Joe got to introduce his taste buds to that deceptively delicious Southern staple: biscuits and gravy.

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“Guess what I got for you” Sasha can be heard sing-songing in the clip as she brings a smiling Joe a plate with with a heaping helping of the exotic cuisine.

“It’s from the South, sort of down Texas way, I think. Maybe Alabama,” she explains as Joe readies his napkin.

As she places the plate down, Joe wonders if the biscuits are scones. Which is a fair assumption, since, as we know biscuits in the UK are actually cookies. Whereas scones, while still semi-sweet, appear more like American biscuits.

Of course, Sasha does admit that she did make scones, since “you can’t really get the American biscuits, I don’t think. But I think they’re pretty similar.”

But that hardly seems a problem, judging by the ecstatic look on Joe’s face when Sasha tells him that the gravy includes sausage.

All in all, the video just hits a sweet spot between witnessing an elder display child-like joy, wholesome family bonding, and appreciation of good food. What’s not to like?

Feast your eyes below:

@grandadjoe1933 Here is Grandad Joe reacting to the highly requested American meal of Biscuits and Gravy! Thank you to everyone that recommended it, he absolutely loved it . Please recommend some more recipes for him to try 🙏 #bisuitsandgravy #grandadjoe #americanfood #dadanddaughter ♬ original sound – Grandadjoe

Needless to say, Joe liked his meal, and his tasting video inspired a few bona fide Southerners to chime in.

“As a southerner (eastern nc) that has introduced this meal to many, I am so happy that grandad Joe likes it so much! ❤️,” one viewer wrote on Reddit.

“This is so funny to me, because I grew up in the south and ate this, as well as, fried chicken biscuit sandwiches for breakfast every morning growing up 😆” another added.

Others felt compelled to share their own personal love for the dish.

“Biscuits and gravy is one of the tastiest and easiest ‘impressive’ comfort foods to make for people. I love making it for people and I love seeing how much they enjoy it. Not great for you, but worth the few extra miles you have to run the next day every time,” one person shared.

“It’s one of my fav breakfast foods!!! My lovely wife makes it all the time. She adds a little bit of cayenne pepper to spruce it up just a bit. I’m drooling just thinking about it.” wrote another.

And others still simply shared their love of sweet Grandad Joe. I think this commenter sums up what we’re all feeling:

“May we all live with this much glee and wonder in our everyday lives.”

And by the way, if you’re jonesing to watch more endearing videos of Brits trying American foods, click here , here and here. Bon apetit.

There’s a misconception that only a certain demographic of people can have light colored eyes and different colors and textures of hair naturally. This can cause a lot of frustration for people on the receiving end of someone else’s disbelief and curiosity.

One mom has been dealing with hurtful assumptions since her daughter was born, all because her dark-skinned Black daughter was born with crystal blue eyes. Cheryl Neufville Neufville took to social media to address the hate and rumors once and for all.

In the video Neufville shares that as soon as her daughter was born the doctor said he wanted to get the little girl’s eyes checked for cataracts due to the color. But some of the most presumptuous comments come from people outside of the medical field.

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The mom has been accused of editing not only her daughter’s eyes but her husband’s eyes too, since her husband is the one that passed down the blue eyes. People have accused her of putting contacts in her toddler daughter’s eyes, which seems like a herculean feat if we’re being honest. Toddlers are deceptively quick and strong for tiny people with oversized noggins.

While the comments likely frustrate her, she took the comments as an opportunity to educate people. Neufville shows several pictures of her husband’s side of the family before moving on to the education bit. Every one of them have blue eyes and according to the mom, this goes back at least seven generations.

“Now with even all of this, there are still going to be people who do and say whatever they want but I just wanted to make a few things clear. This idea that a certain feature on someone is only reserved for a certain demographic of people is extremely damaging and it can be harmful to families like mine,” shares Neufville.

The mom reveals that she’s had people “slap” her baby to wake her up to see if she actually had blue eyes. She closes the video by reminding people that just because someone hasn’t seen something with their own eyes doesn’t mean that something’s not true. Watch her entire video below, you’ll even get a peek at her precious blue eyed baby trying to steal the show.

@heyy..cheryl

#greenscreen a quick little lesson 🌈🥰🦋✨💕🍄🌺

The Boston Celtics entered Monday night’s game against the Miami Heat looking to position themselves for a potential series-clinching Game 5 back at TD Garden. Things generally went well in that endeavor in the first half of Game 4, as the team took a 53-36 lead into the locker room behind a monster half from Derrick White and a poor shooting night by the Heat.

Unfortunately, the half wasn’t all good, as one of the team’s most important players had to leave the game with an apparent injury. Late in the second quarter, Kristaps Porzingis attempted to dribble on the perimeter and came up limping, and while it’s unclear exactly what he did, it looks like he hurt his calf.

It’s hard to see what led to him getting hurt, or even which leg he hurt. But not long after he made it into the back, Chris Haynes of Bleacher Report brought word that the Celtics listed him as doubtful to return due to right calf tightness.

Porzingis actually missed some time earlier this year with a left calf injury, but fortunately for the Celtics, that was relatively minor. Prior to his exit, Porzingis had seven points and three rebounds in 14 minutes of work.

The Oklahoma City Thunder have a chance to punch their ticket to the conference semifinals on Monday night. If the Thunder can get past the New Orleans Pelicans in Game 4 of their first round series, they’ll get a little extra time off to get their bodies right and prepare for either the Los Angeles Clippers or the Dallas Mavericks.

As such, Jalen Williams had a fit ready for a game this important. It is right here, and it includes … well, you can watch the video.

This caught the eye of the Inside the NBA crew, presumably because Charles Barkley has already gotten all wound up over something Williams has worn during this series. Both Barkley and Shaq — the latter of whom just straight up screamed “the hell is that?” when he saw it for the first time — were completely baffled by what Williams was doing, although Barkley has a theory: Because he’s wearing this, there’s no way the Thunder are going to lose.

“I tell you what, the Pelicans ain’t got no chance tonight,” Barkley exclaimed. “Cause if you come to the game like that … if you come to the game lookin’ like that, you gonna beat somebody. There’s no way OKC losing, that boy come to the game lookin’ like that, it is over for the Pelicans.”

Barkley then riffed for a few seconds about his new favorite place on earth to riff about: Galveston, Texas.