Month: May 2024

The Western Conference Finals is a fascinating matchup of young teams looking to reach their first NBA Finals. The Dallas Mavericks have beaten the Clippers and top-seeded Thunder to reach this point, while the Timberwolves bounced the Suns and defending champion Nuggets to get to the conference finals for the first time in 20 years.

Despite having very different constructions, the two teams have leaned on the same things to get here. The teams follow the lead of young stars, as Anthony Edwards and Luka Doncic have more than lived up to the billing as young faces of the league thus far this postseason. The two both seem totally at ease as the centerpieces of a contender, producing at an incredibly high level this postseason. and have a showmanship to their game that makes everything a bit more fun when they’re going off. They play to the crowd both at home, basking in the adoration of their fans, and on the road, reveling in the chance to hush an opposing arena.

However, the full potential of both teams is unlocked by their secondary stars in Karl-Anthony Towns and Kyrie Irving, who are both capable of lifting the team’s ceiling and making each offense nearly unstoppable when they are rolling — in two very different ways. Irving’s dynamic on-ball creativity and shot-making creates immense pressure on defenses opposite Doncic, particularly late in games when teams start to send extra attention at the Slovenian star. Towns, meanwhile, does the same as the best three-point shooting big in the league, but the Wolves are at their most dangerous when he is more than just a shooter and is aggressive getting downhill when teams start to close out hard on him. Both Irving and Towns are prone to the occasional disappearing act for a half. Irving seemingly does so by deferential choice, while Towns has a habit of picking up foul trouble with some head-scratching decisions.

While getting consistent excellence from Doncic and Edwards is a must for either team, you feel fairly confident they’ll both be up for the challenge most nights and may ultimately wash each other out. As such, which of Irving and Towns can more consistently provide high-level support could be one separator in this series.

Beyond the stars, these teams have gotten tremendous performances from the “others.” PJ Washington has been a revelation for the Mavs, winning them a few games this postseason already by punishing teams for leaving him open from three. Jaden McDaniels has been that guy for the Wolves, showing he’s more than just a defensive terror by having multiple 20-plus point outings so far in the first two rounds. Those two figure to be X-factors, as guys that won’t be at the top of the opposing scouting report but can force the other team to change their gameplan if they get rolling.

The real question in this series, for me, is whether Dallas has enough guys they can trust night in and night out to counter the Wolves rotation. Beyond those top three, the Mavs seem to have to be a bit more flexible in adjusting their rotation on any given night to roll with hot hands. The Wolves can be pretty confident in what they’ll get from Rudy Gobert, Mike Conley, and Naz Reid on both ends of the floor, with Nickeil Alexander-Walker at least bringing high-level defense, even if the offensive output can swing wildly. That gives them a pretty high floor and allows for a consistent nightly rotation of seven, with Kyle Anderson and Monte Morris getting the call in spot duty behind that group.

The Mavs, meanwhile, split their big man minutes between Daniel Gafford and Dereck Lively II (the latter of whom was a revelation late in the series against the Thunder). Against a big Minnesota frontcourt, they’ll need Gafford to be better than he was against OKC and need a young Lively to reach the highs he showed in that second round series more consistently. From there, they lean on Josh Green off the bench on the wing and roll the dice on whether any given night will be a good or bad Tim Hardaway Jr. shooting night — with occasional cameos from Dante Exum and Jaden Hardy when in search of something.

This series figures to go deep, with both teams needing to making adjustments and counters as it wears on. To be able to do that, Dallas is going to need six or seven guys in the rotation they can trust in nightly. That’s especially true in the frontcourt, as they’ll have their hands full with Towns, Gobert, and Reid. The Thunder and Clippers were very different challenges than this Wolves team, and they will need Gafford and Lively to not only be active defensively, but to provide an offensive threat as finishers to keep Minnesota from loading up help on Doncic and Irving.

On the other side, this Dallas defense has been sensational this postseason, and Minnesota will need to be ready to handle the physicality of the Mavs. They have walled off the rim in the first two series, and no one has quite figured out how to get them out of shape consistently. The Mavs figure to test it Minnesota has enough creators outside of Edwards, asking questions of Towns, McDaniels, and Conley to pick up the slack. Conley’s Achilles soreness will be something to monitor all series, as his ability to get the Wolves into good offense will be vital against this Mavs team. Towns, meanwhile, will have to avoid trying to meet Dallas’ physicality by getting too amped to match that by ducking his shoulder in and picking up offensive fouls.

This should be a spectacular series, with defense at the forefront and both teams stars having to adapt to the challenges presented to them. The team that can dictate which offense has to make changes first figures to grab the upper hand, but there should be multiple twists and turns this series takes in terms of adjustments and counters before it’s all said and done.

Billie Eilish’s new album Hit Me Hard And Soft has been out for a few days now, and “L’Amour De Ma Vie” is already a fan favorite. Like is the case a couple of times on the album, there’s a beat switch partway through, with the track transforming from a lush, mid-tempo number to a more in-your-face, electronic-influenced, club-ready banger. Now, Eilish has decided to flesh the latter part of the track out into its own thing, which she has dubbed “L’Amour De Ma Vie (Over Now Extended Edit).”

Interestingly, the “extended” version of the song is technically shorter than the original: “L’Amour De Ma Vie” clocks in at 5-and-a-half minutes while the “extended” edit is a minute shorter than that. This is because the edit just includes a longer version of the song’s second half, instead of extended it and appending it to the original song.

Notably, the song contains a bunch of new lyrics, including an outro that some believe is about Jesse Rutherford (via Genius): “It’s not that complicated (I couldn’t tell, I couldn’t see) / I wasn’t satiated (You weren’t around, I was alone) / You weren’t that bad, just lazy (You never once took care of me) / Too self-obsessed to save me / It’s not that complicated / I wasn’t satiated / You’re looking older lately / Dating another baby (‘Nother baby).”

Listen to “L’Amour De Ma Vie (Over Now Extended Edit)” above.

The Indiana Pacers were 10 seconds away from a stunning Game 1 win in Boston, but the young team in their first trip deep in the postseason struggled to execute down the stretch in what became a gutting overtime loss.

Leading by three with the ball and 10 seconds on the clock after Boston took its last foul to give in the backcourt, all the Pacers needed to do was inbound the ball and hit some free throws. Instead, Andrew Nembhard’s pass to Pascal Siakam got knocked away by Jaylen Brown and then touched by Siakam as he ran out of bounds under Boston’s basket for a turnover.

The Celtics would get the ball to Brown in the corner on the ensuing inbound, where he hit a game-tying three over Siakam to force OT, where Jayson Tatum delivered the big buckets to give the Celtics the win and a 1-0 series lead.

It was a brutal loss for the Pacers, and after the game Pacers coach Rick Carlisle took full responsibility for the loss, noting Indiana should’ve advanced the ball to make for an easier inbounds situation than on the sideline in the backcourt.

“This loss is totally on me. With 10 seconds in regulation, we should have just taken the timeout, advance the ball and found a way to get it in and made a free throw or two and ended the game.”

Carlisle also confirmed he wanted the team to foul up three, but because Brown caught the ball in the corner and immediately went up for the shot, Siakam pulled back to avoid a potential four-point play to lose. That was the right decision, because you can’t allow a chance to lose in regulation at that point, but it never should have even gotten to that point. While Indiana is a young team, Carlisle is too experienced a head coach to put his team in that position.

Tyrese Haliburton wasn’t willing to let his coach fall on the sword, noting his two late turnovers played a big role in Indiana’s loss and felt those cost the Pacers more than anything.

These are the right things for a coach and star to say, but it’s hard to see how Indiana bounces back from this in this particular series. As the underdog, the Pacers can’t be the team giving away opportunities to win the game, and it certainly seems likely they’ll have serious regrets once this series is over about dropping a road Game 1 they should have won.

Classics always hold up. And the year 2020 brought us an instant rap classic. Four years ago, rappers Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion sent the world into shock with their collaboration, “WAP.” While their Billboard chart topper was immediately well-received by fans, the song proved to be controversial due to its lyrical content, as well as the sexual nature of its accompanying video. But regardless, it is a moment everyone will remember.

The two rappers have long sung each other’s praises, and nearly four years after the song’s release, continue to shake up the rap landscape. Tonight (May 21), at the New York City stop of Meg’s ongoing Hot Girl Summer Tour, the Bronx native Cardi B made a surprise appearance, during which, she and Meg performed the iconic raunchy hit.

Of course, Meg and Cardi’s performance was met with cheers from the audience, who couldn’t help but rap along to every single word. On stage, the two have undeniable chemistry. While “WAP” came out during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, the performance with the large crowd allowed for the song to finally have its grand live moment.

Last year, Cardi and Meg reunited for the collab, “Bongos.” The two will also collaborate on a remix of “Wanna Be” from GloRilla’s Ehhthang Ehhthang mixtape.

You can see a clip from the show above.

The Boston Celtics came into the Eastern Conference Finals as heavy favorites against the Indiana Pacers, and they looked early on like they might make a statement performance in the opener.

Boston came out on fire, starting the game on a 12-0 run that had the TD Garden in a frenzy.

The Pacers would regroup, though, and cut the deficit to three after the first quarter and stay attached throughout the second, getting the game tied at the half on a Tyrese Haliburton logo three to beat the buzzer, and finally took their first lead early in the third.

Boston would push the lead back out to double digits in the third, but Indiana would quickly hit back and, again, it was Tyrese Haliburton hitting another buzzer-beater, this time on a double-pump, to cut the Celtics lead to one.

The two teams traded blows in the fourth until it seemed Indiana had full control and would steal Game 1. They dodged one bullet after a Haliburton turnover up three, but would not survive a second when Andrew Nembhard threw an inbounds pass that got tipped away and then knocked out of bounds by Pascal Siakam with just under 10 seconds to go.

The Celtics drew up a baseline out of bounds play to get Jaylen Brown a corner three to tie it, earning a Double Bang from Mike Breen as he found the bottom of the net over tight defense from Pascal Siakam (who was trying to make sure he didn’t foul).

The Pacers would get the ball to Haliburton easier than expected on the ensuing inbound, but after starting a drive, he bizarrely veered out sideways and could only hoist a leaning three that missed, sending the game to overtime.

In overtime, the Pacers again took an early lead but it became the Jayson Tatum show down the stretch, starting with an and-1 bucket to tie the game (and then give Boston the lead at the line).

From there, Haliburton got swarmed by Jrue Holiday on defense and dribbled the ball out of bounds (his second rough turnover late in the game).

Tatum would make Indiana pay for the sloppiness, drilling the dagger three from the top of the key to lift Boston to a 133-128 win.

It was a wild game that Indiana will have to mentally figure out how to come back from. They had their chance to steal the opener and got the tremendous shooting performance they needed (53.5 percent from the field, 37.1 percent from three). Haliburton had 25 points and 10 assists, Siakam had 24 points, 12 rebounds, and seven assists, Myles Turner had 23 on 9-of-13 shooting, and four other Pacers reached at least 12 points. It was the exact formula they needed to win, but they kept shooting themselves in the foot with turnovers (21 on the game) to keep giving the Celtics chances down the stretch.

Boston wasn’t exactly crisp themselves, with 14 turnovers, including some seemingly crucial gaffes from their stars late in the game. However, Tatum (36 points, 12 rebounds) and Brown (26 points, seven rebounds) were able to hit massive shots when they needed them, and they got a lift from Jrue Holiday (28 points, eight assists, seven rebounds) in his best offensive performance of the postseason. The Celtics will have plenty to look at on film on Wednesday, but it’s much better to need to clean things up after a win than a loss in the opener.

For the Pacers, they’ll need to find a way to shake off the end of both the fourth quarter and overtime and bring the same kind of performance to Game 2. That’s easier said than done, and we’ll find out Thursday night whether this game took too much out of them or if it gives them confidence they can take down this Celtics team.

A sixth lawsuit has been filed against Sean “Diddy” Combs. Today (May 21), New York Times reported that a former model named Crystal McKinney filed a lawsuit against Diddy, accusing him of forcing her to perform oral sex on him.

According to the lawsuit, McKinney, who was 22 at the time, first met Diddy in 2003, when an unnamed fashion designer invited her to attend a Men’s Fashion Week event at a restaurant in Manhattan. The suit notes that she had met Diddy that night, and was invited by him to accompany him to his recording studio. McKinney says she was given alcohol and marijuana, and later, says she came to realize it was laced.

The suit claims that Diddy led McKinney into a bathroom, pushed her head down to his crotch, and forced her to perform oral sex on him, despite her refusals. McKinney said she then lost consciousness, and woke up in a cab, realizing she had been sexually assaulted.

This is the sixth lawsuit filed against Diddy in recent time. Last November, Diddy’s ex-girlfriend Cassandra “Cassie” Ventura sued him for sexual abuse, and said suit was settled within 24 hours. Shortly after,Joi Dickerson-Neal and a woman identified as Jane Doe filed two other sexual assault lawsuits against Diddy. The following month, a woman also identifying as Jane Doe accused Diddy of gang-raping her when she was 17 years old. Back in February, Lil Rod accused Diddy of sexual misconduct.

Last week, a video allegedly featuring Diddy physically assaulting his then-girlfriend Cassie in 2016 surfaced online. Diddy has since taken to social media, filming an apology, despite denying allegations of abuse last November, when Cassie first sued him.

Buying a used car is often the more sustainable and financially sound choice, but it does have its inherent risks. Even purchasing from a dealership doesn’t guarantee quality, or safety. NBC News previously reported that some “certified” pre-owned vehicles which had passed auto retailer AutoNation’s “precise inspection process” had unresolved recalls.

Bottom line: you don’t truly know how well the vehicle was taken care of. However, there are certain precautions we can take to ensure our investment is a wise one.

A man who goes by “Jackson The Mekanic” recently posted a now-viral video explaining the “three musts” that you need to check before pulling the trigger on a car purchase. Great news—all these things are easy to check, even without mechanic supervision.

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“First, you pull out the dipstick,” Jackson explains as he shows where to find it under the hood.

“It’s very important to wipe it with a rag first, then re-insert the dipstick back in.” After you pull it out again, you want to make sure the oil makes it to the “full” line. Also, make sure the car is off when you check.

@mekanic_jackson

3 simple checks

♬ original sound – Jackson The Mekanic

Coolant, also known as antifreeze, is a liquid that keeps a car’s engine from overheating by transferring heat and preventing it from freezing or boiling. In the comments Jackson says that this is an important thing to check because low levels can indicate a leak.

To check coolant levels, Jackson says “There’s two ways you can do this, you can check it directly from the radiator, or you can check it from the overflow tank.”

To check from the radiator, you’ll need to lift open the cap, but keep in mind that you’ll need to wait until after the engine has cooled down to do so.

If the car is low on coolant, Jackson recommends you simply add a little water.

3. Brake Fluid Level

Jackson might have saved the most important for last.

“What you’re looking [for] here is for color and for the level, so we can see this color looks nice and new, and is also topped up to the max,” he says while pointing to a full brake fluid tank.

For many of us, car upkeep can be overwhelming. But it’s a necessary skill, at least if you don’t rely on public transportation to get you everywhere you need to be. And certain aspects aren’t all that difficult to understand once we really pop open the hood and see what’s inside. And expert explanations like the ones Jackson offers certainly help.

If you’re looking for more of his advice—like how to replace a car battery, which cars to avoid to save money and diagnosing engine noises —follow Jackson on TikTok.

We saw her do it once with “Hrs And Hrs” and now Muni Long is back at it again with another R&B hit on her hands thanks to “Made For Me.” The song was released last fall and it bcame a quick success as the record traveled everywhere, from TikTok videos to parties all over. Just like “Hrs And Hrs,” “Made For Me” is a record dedicated to a partner who provides the perfect love to their companion. As if the song wasn’t good enough already, it now gets an awesome boost thanks to a new remix with the legendary Mariah Carey.

The new track begins with Carey’s signature high-pitched whistle before Muni Long arrives for the song’s original first verse and chorus. Carey then reappears for the song’s second verse which matches the energy and direction of the original version of the song. Together, Muni Long and Mariah Carey are deep in love and it’s a sweet thing to hear.

The remix arrives as Carey is a month removed from completing the first leg of the Mariah Carey: The Celebration Of Mimi Live In Las Vegas residency at Park MGM’s Dolby Live. As for Long, she was among the performers who took the stage at Mary J. Blige’s Strength Of A Woman Festival earlier this month.

You can listen to Mariah Carey’s remix to Muni Long’s “Made For Me” in the video above.

Superstar producer Metro Boomin is paying it forward. Today (May 21), Metro announced plans to give back to five St. Louis-based women-focused organizations in honor of his late mother.

The producer has partnered with Rung for Women and Amazon Access to distribute $20,000 checks each to Almost Home, Diamond Diva Empowerment Foundation, The Haven Of Grace, The Little Bit Foundation, and Parents As Teachers. The funds will benefit women struggling to pay for expenses like rent, childcare, and debt payments.

“I’ve seen firsthand the work that goes into being a single mother. Mine was my inspiration and my hero,” said Metro in a statement. “It’s very important to me to pay it forward, because I see the same resilience and dedication in the women these organizations work with.”

Metro raised these funds last year, which took place at Rung For Women in partnership with Amazon Access. He is also planning to work with Rung as he launches his nonprofit foundation.

“We are excited to partner with Metro Boomin in his work to lift up single mothers in St. Louis,” said Rung’s president Leslie Gill in a statment. “Inspired by the remarkable love he has for his late mother, he is demonstrating a commitment to women and to our community.”

Anitta is slaying the game. Earlier this year, she dropped her new album, Funk Generation — her sixth overall, and her first under Republic Records. This past weekend, the Brazilian pop hitmaker kicked off her Baile Funk Experience Tour in Mexico City.

The tour is set to continue this week in Los Angeles and will go across the world over the course of the summer. So far, the tour has been well-received by fans — and as Anitta has shown to be one of the biggest international pop star of our time, we’re going to want to remember this era.

Here is the merch available at Anitta’s Baile Funk Experience Tour

According to a video shared by a fan, ticket holders at the Baile Funk Experience Tour can look forward to purchasing a wide selection of t-shirts. One of the t-shirts is a white shirt, with Anitta’s lettering logo, with imprints of her face, surrounded by text reading “I was there” and “Baile Funk Experience.” Another is a black t-shirt with her back facing forward, while she’s wearing a thong. Tote bags and hats will also be available for purchase.

You can see a video clip featuring the Baile Funk Experience Tour merch above.