Month: May 2024

The Minnesota Timberwolves are headed to the Western Conference Finals for the first time in 20 years after pulling off the biggest Game 7 comeback in NBA history, erasing a 15-point halftime deficit (and 20-point second half deficit) to take down the defending champs at home in a 98-90 win.

Early on, the Wolves were once again looking very active defensively, picking up where they left off on that end in Game 6, and while neither team was shooting it well, Minnesota was able to get to the rim and take a small advantage.

Denver would start to get going as Nikola Jokic looked to get his teammates involved early as Minnesota continued their approach from Game 6 of doubling him. Most importantly, Jamal Murray started to find his shooting stroke, hitting three from downtown in the first quarter as he racked up 13 points to give Denver a 5-point lead after 12 minutes.

The Nuggets onslaught continued to start the second, pushing the lead out to 11 and forcing a Wolves timeout two minutes in as their offense was struggling mightily with Denver’s doubling at the point, with crisp rotations behind it.

The lead would grow to as many as 13, but Minnesota started to settle in as the game slowed to a crawl thanks to foul trouble for the Nuggets. Denver’s strategy of switching smalls onto Rudy Gobert worked to gum up the Wolves offensively for a bit, but Gobert picked up three quick fouls on Denver guards and got Minnesota into the bonus with more than 8 minutes left in the second quarter. As quickly as the lead got down to five, the Nuggets pushed it back to 14 thanks to a flurry from Murray, as he looked significantly better than he did in Game 6.

Karl-Anthony Towns did his best to keep Minnesota within reach, scoring 13 in the half, as he and Jaden McDaniels (10 points) were just about the only Wolves to show up for the first 24 minutes.

By halftime, Denver had extended their lead to a game-high 15 thanks to one last flurry to close the second and there were some big adjustments needed from Minnesota to get back into the game.

The Nuggets would open up a 20-point advantage early in the third, as the onslaught continued on both ends of the floor. But with the game looking like it would get put to bed early, Minnesota finally got the big run they needed, cutting the deficit to just one going into the fourth quarter.

The Wolves ratcheted up their defensive pressure to force turnovers and got the Nuggets to start settling for jumpers again without the ball touching the paint first to put Minnesota in rotation. Towns set the tone on both ends, and Anthony Edwards finally woke up thanks to getting some looks in transition and then saw a jumper fall with a stepback three to end the quarter.

Minnesota took its first lead since the early first quarter on the first possession of the fourth quarter, 68-67. From there, the Wolves would get the lead up to before Jokic finally got an open three to fall after missing his first seven.

And then, Rudy Gobert hit a fading midrange shot to beat the shot clock buzzer, offering an indication that this might just be the Wolves night.

The two teams traded punches for middle portion of the fourth, but the Wolves opened up a 10-point advantage with three minutes to play thanks to some tremendous two-way play by Naz Reid and a big three from Edwards.

Denver would cut the lead down to five late, but a Towns putback dunk ended the threat and sent the Wolves to the conference finals.

It was a truly stunning second half comeback from Minnesota, as it looked as though Denver took their foot off the gas once they got up 20, seemingly expecting the Wolves to roll over. Minnesota never did that and just kept chipping away at the lead, and once they got rolling the Nuggets were just not able to find their level again. Denver’s star duo had 69 combined points, but they got very little in the way of support, as no one else reached double figures. Jokic and Murray also settled for perimeter jumpers far too often during the Wolves big run in the third quarter, and they lost their rhythm as an offense — and let Minnesota get out and run in transition.

For the Wolves, it is the kind of performance that gives a team the confidence they can win a championship. Edwards, who was a no-show in the first half with four points and was completely taken out of his game by Denver’s doubling and pressure, came alive in the second half to finish with 16 points, eight rebounds, and seven assists, but did his best work on the defensive end where he gave Murray fits. McDaniels continued his terrific play from Game 6 with 21 points, and Mike Conley hit three timely threes. However, it was the frontcourt that was the story of Game 7, with Towns leading the way with 23 points and 11 rebounds, Gobert giving them 13 and nine, and Reid adding 11 points off the bench, most of which came in the fourth quarter.

Now, the Wolves will face Luka Doncic, Kyrie Irving, and the Mavs in the next round, who present a very challenge to what they faced with the Nuggets. There will be some adjustments to be made and lessons to be learned from this seven-game grind, but Minnesota should absolutely have full belief this group can win a title after an all-time Game 7 comeback.

For Denver, they’ll head into the offseason needing to assess their roster around their stars. There was an immense burden placed on Murray and Jokic in this series, and while I’m not sure they’ll make any huge changes, they will need to at least explore opportunities for some rotational upgrades to try and make a run at another title next year.

One of the subplots going on during the 2024 NBA Playoffs is the ongoing rights negotiations between the league and various potential national broadcast partners.

While ESPN’s portion is locked in and it sounds like Amazon will be getting a piece, the third segment of the deal is still up in the air. NBC has reportedly put in a strong offer and the league is asking TNT to top it (with some debate over whether they have the right to match or have to beat the offer). The asking price is very high (reportedly $2.5-$2.8 billion) and Warner Bros. Discovery hasn’t yet gone all-in to make sure they retain the rights.

That’s brought into question the future of Inside the NBA, which would be a big loss for fans and the league if the show ends up going off air after next season should TNT no longer have rights — even with many of the members likely to end up somewhere else. On Sunday night’s halftime show during Game 7 between the Wolves and Nuggets, Charles Barkley couldn’t help but poke some fun at the current situation when Kenny Smith realized his chair lift had been removed from the studio.

“Hey Kenny, I don’t know if you heard, but times are tough around here,” Chuck quipped, getting some laughs from the desk.

Chuck has never been afraid of getting a punchline out of anything, from the NBA to his own network, and it’s honestly surprising it took this long for him to find a way to have some fun at WBD’s expense on air. Hopefully, we won’t be losing these kinds of moments in the future, whether on TNT, Amazon, or elsewhere.

Facebook user Savannah Root from Missouri stared at the photo above for hours before she finally figured out what it was.

Everyone that sees it either gets it right away or sits there stumped. The picture is so mystifying that after one week, it’s been shared over 33,000 times.

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For the solution, scroll down past the comments to reveal the hidden picture.

It’s a cowboy with half of his face obscured by a shadow. Facebook user Cristian-Dumitru Popescu created a cool graphic that explains it.

This article originally appeared on 09.23.17

Dalton Ross wanted to make sure his family didn’t miss him too badly while he was studying abroad in London.

To help them cope, the 22-year-old Tennessee native did what any selfless college student would do…

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He sent his mom a life-size cutout of himself.

“I thought maybe they’d put it in the living room corner until I got back to remember I exist,” he explained about the cutout, which came with a short note: “You’re welcome.”

But like any clever mom, Susan Talley couldn’t just stash this amazing piece of work away when it arrived about two months ago.

No, no — she had better plans in mind.

Talley decided the cardboard version of her son could be a great companion “while the real one is in Europe.” So she brought him along with her to events, like basketball games …

Can you spot cardboard Dalton in the stands?

… trips to the doctor’s office …

… and sub sandwich runs.

Fake Dalton celebrated Valentine’s Day with a fellow inanimate object.

He enjoyed playing with a furry, four-legged friend in the sunshine.

And he appreciated a good bedtime story, just like the rest of us.

The photos of fake Dalton are spreading like wildfire.

Without showing her son the photos first, Talley went ahead and uploaded them to Facebook. And after Dalton shared them on Imgur — explaining his mom “seems to be entertaining herself” while he’s gone — the story sent the Internet into a buzzy frenzy.

“The attention is crazy,” Ross told Upworthy, noting the story has gained so much traction that a restaurant featured in one of the photos, O’Charley’s, sent the family a gift card.

“I hope my mom’s holding up all right,” he said. “It’s awesome though.”

Fake Dalton has been hitting the batting cages…

… taking in some nightlife…

… and celebrated Easter with his family.

Although the viral reaction to the photos has been a bit nuts, Ross isn’t all that surprised his mom was up for a good laugh.

“Oh yeah, my mom is very funny,” he explained to Upworthy. And it’s a good thing, too: Laughter can be a great tool in improving the quality of family dynamics and boosting a loved one’s emotional health. (A student studying abroad should especially keep that in mind, considering being away from loved ones and familiarity can be tough.)

“We’re a big family of jokesters.”

Bravo, mom, for setting the bar very high ahead of April Fools’ Day.

This article originally appeared on 03.30.16

The future of The Vince Staples Show may not be clear. But, fans can rest assured knowing that the “When Sparks Fly” rapper has new music on the way.

Today (May 19), Vince Staples announced his next album, Dark Times, across the entertainer’s official social media pages. In a note shared on Instagram, Vince outlined his professional journey which served as an inspiration for the forthcoming project.

“Eleven years ago, a young, uncertain version of myself was given an opportunity with Def Jam Recordings,” he wrote. “I released my first project under their banner, ‘Shyne Coldchain Vol 2,’ a year later. I was unsure of what to expect from the world of music, but deeply aware of what I needed: a change in my surroundings and a clear understanding of self. Ten years and seven projects later, I’ve found that clarity. Now, I share with you my final Def Jam release, Dark Times. 5.24.24.”

To give supporters a taste of what’s to come, Vince went on to upload a snippet of one of the body of work’s upcoming tracks, “Shame On The Devil.”

Dark Times is Vince’s follow-up to 2022’s Ramona Park Broke My Heart.

Continue below to view the tentative artwork and confirmed tracklist.

Artwork

Tracklist

1. “Close Your Eyes And Swing”
2. “Black & Blue”
3. “Government Cheese”
4. “Children’s Song”
5. “Shame On The Devil”
6. “Étouffée”
7. “Liars”
8. “Justin”
9. “Radio”
10. “Nothing Matters”
11. “Little Homies”
12. “Freeman”
13. “Why Won’t The Sun Come Out?”

Dark Times is out 5/24 via Blacksmith Recordings/Motown Records. Find more information here.

The Knicks and Pacers met in the first of two Game 7s on Sunday afternoon in Madison Square Garden, and they got some apparent good news in the buildup to the game as it was announced OG Anunoby and Josh Hart would both play.

Anunoby hadn’t played since injuring his hamstring in Game 2, and while he came out and hit two shots in the early going, it was very clear he could not move much at all. The Knicks were struggling to handle the Pacers ball movement on defense, and he lasted just under five minutes before being ultimately replaced by Miles McBride.

Pascal Siakam taking advantage of the matchup on Anunoby early and then went at Isaiah Hartenstein once Anunoby left, scoring 11 quick points to give Indiana an early lead.

Donte DiVincenzo got off to a hot start to help keep the Knicks attached, but Jalen Brunson struggled early and Tyrese Haliburton got hot, scoring 14 points in a row to give the Pacers a 15-point lead — and getting into it with a fan seated courtside, as is tradition in a Knicks-Pacers playoff series.

The Pacers would stay red-hot in the second quarter, hitting 24 of their first 30 shots to run out to as much as a 22-point lead.

The Knicks would try to stay in the game, with Alec Burks coming off the bench to lead a push that got the lead down to 14, but the defense just could not get the requisite shots to sustain a run and really threaten the Pacers in the first half.

Indiana finished the open 24 minutes shooting 76 percent from the field and leading by 15, posting the best shooting half of any team in the last 25 playoffs.

The Knicks came out on a mission to open the third, trimming the lead down to as few as six and the Garden very quickly had some life.

However, the Pacers would again push back with a run of their own, taking advantage of some sloppy Knicks turnovers to get the lead all the way up to 19.

Adding to the Knicks myriad issues, Jalen Brunson fractured his left hand late in the third, ending his incredible season and handing New York another injury to a key players.

Despite the best efforts of DiVincenzo and Burks, the Knicks were unable to mount a serious push in the fourth quarter, ultimately falling 130-109. The New York faithful rightfully gave guys like Josh Hart and Donte DiVincenzo a standing ovation as they checked out of the game for the final time, ending a tremendous season that just featured too many injuries.

The Knicks did fine offensively, led by DiVincenzo’s 39-point outing and Burks adding 26 off the bench, but their defense was just not up to its usual level and allowed the Pacers to be far too comfortable on the offensive end.

This game came down to the Pacers putting forth one of the all-time great Game 7 offensive performances in NBA history. They shot 67.1 percent from the field and 54.2 percent from three, with all five starters plus TJ McConnell reaching double figures. Haliburton, whose home/road splits in these playoffs have been talked about at length, finally showed up in a huge way on the road when they needed him to most, scoring 26 points on 10-of-16 shooting to go along with six assists. Siakam was also brilliant with 20 points and McConnell remains arguably the most valuable player of the series for the Pacers, with 12 and seven off the bench on 6-of-8 shooting.

Now, Indiana will go forward to face the Celtics in the Eastern Conference Finals where they will be heavy underdogs, but given they’re capable of tremendous shooting performances like they showed in Game 7, they’ll have a puncher’s chance if they can stay hot.

The Knicks will head into the offseason likely looking to run it back and give this team another chance at a healthy run through the playoffs. There are probably some changes to be made on the periphery of the rotation, but it’d be surprising if they didn’t mostly look to just bring this group back in full.

Lana Del Rey’s gloomy music provides the perfect soundtrack for a dimly light cigar lounge. But, the “Video Games” singer actually prefers vapes. In a now-viral video, Lana appears to have allowed her love for the latest e-smoking trend to momentarily delay her performance at Hangout Festival 2024.

Yesterday (May 18), while making her way to the stage, Lana was stopped by fans on the sideline. The festivalgoers appear to have offered Lana a pull of their vape. At first, Lana politely declined. “No, I can’t,” she said.

However, after further encouragement, she gave in and took a hit. After the clip was shared to X (formerly Twitter) users online began to freak out in disgust.

“Mother, I love you, but you shouldn’t be using strangers’ vapes,” wrote one user.

“Her vaping addiction literally makes me die laughing, I don’t even care,” penned another.

Fans across TikTok have shared clips of Lana’s usage of vapes at previous concerts and festival appearances. In one performance video, Lana stopped mid-set to declare: “My vape is killing me.”

Lana has also been spotted on livestreams smoking vapes.

But fans have smoke with Lana for another reason. In the comment, section of Hangover Festival’s recap of her set, supporters called Lana out for supposedly being nearly an hour late and vocally struggling. Read their remarks below.

Lana Del Rey nor Hangout Festival have released a statement regarding the late accusations.

The New York Knicks have had brutal injury luck in the second half of the season, and that unfortunately continued in Game 7 on Sunday afternoon against the Pacers.

After announcing OG Anunoby would start after missing four games with a hamstring strain, the wing could only play five minutes, clearly struggling to move before being taken out for the rest of the game. The Pacers absolutely torched the New York defense for the first three quarters, racking up 101 points, and late in the third, disaster struck in full for the Knicks as Jalen Brunson left for the locker room after injuring his hand on a swipe down trying to stop Tyrese Haliburton on a fast break.

Early in the fourth, the Knicks released a status update on Brunson that announced he had fractured his left hand and would be done for the game.

It was an all-too-fitting end to the Knicks season, as they finished their season with Brunson, Anunoby, Julius Randle, Bojan Bogdanovic, and Mitchell Robinson all out with injuries. Brunson had battled through a number of ailments late in the year and playoffs, putting forth some incredible individual efforts to help lead the Knicks to the 2-seed and the conference semifinals. However, he was finally dealt a year-ending injury in Game 7 and the Knicks faced too much of an uphill climb while shorthanded to extend their season one more series.

In Taylor Swift’s over decade long career, she’s experimented quite a bit. The “Fortnight” singer’s creative exploration has paid off big time, as reflected on the charts.

But still, everyone has a favorite “era” from Swift (hence her record-breaking The Eras Tour) and that includes her boyfriend and Kansas City Chiefs star Travis Kelce.

Yesterday (May 17) at the professional athlete’s Kelce Jam music festival, he confessed his favorite “Swift era” is 1989. When asked by Access Hollywood, he was happy to divulge his truth. “I’m a big ‘1989’ fan,” he said. “But I’m not going to lie, I may be a little bias towards ‘The Tortured Poets Department.’ [But] I might be just a little bias.”

Kelce’s last line, seemingly, referred to the subtle references to the couple’s budding romance sprinkled across the project. Fans believe those flirty lines appear on tracks “So High School,” “The Alchemy,” and “But Daddy I Love Him.”

While Swift isn’t set to appear at his annual music event anytime soon, he has an idea of which of her tracks will win attendees over. “‘So High School’ is the only one that’s coming to my mind now,” he said. “I think everyone would go up for that one.”

Watch the full interview below.

This post was written by Tim Urban and originally published on Wait But Why.

I woke up this morning to a text. It was a link:

“optimistic-people-have-one-thing-common-always-late.”

Intriguing. Nothing’s better than the headline: “The reason people are [bad quality that describes you] is actually because they’re [good quality].”

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I got to reading. And as it turns out, according to the article, late people are actually the best people ever. They’re optimistic and hopeful:

“People who are continuously late are actually just more optimistic. They believe they can fit more tasks into a limited amount of time more than other people and thrive when they’re multitasking. Simply put, they’re fundamentally hopeful.”

They’re big-thinking:

“People who are habitually late don’t sweat over the small stuff, they concentrate on the big picture and see the future as full of infinite possibilities.”

Late people just get it:

“People with a tendency for tardiness like to stop and smell the roses…life was never meant to be planned down to the last detail. Remaining excessively attached to timetables signifies an inability to enjoy the moment.”

By the end of the article, I had never felt prouder to be a chronically late person.

But also, what the hell is going on? Late people are the worst. It’s the quality I like least in myself. And I’m not late because I like to smell the roses or because I can see the big picture or because the future is full of infinite possibilities. I’m late because I’m insane.

So I thought about this for a minute, and I think I figured out what’s going on. The issue is that there are two kinds of lateness:

1. OK lateness. This is when the late person being late does not negatively impact anyone else — like being late to a group hangout or a party. Things can start on time and proceed as normal with or without the late person being there yet.

2. Not-OK lateness. This is when the late person being late does negatively impact others — like being late to a two-person dinner or meeting or anything else that simply can’t start until the late party arrives.

John Haltiwanger’s Elite Daily article is (I hope) talking mostly about OK lateness. In which case, sure, maybe those people are the best, who knows.

But if you read the comment section under Haltiwanger’s article, people are furious with him for portraying lateness in a positive light. And that’s because they’re thinking about the far less excusable not-OK lateness.

1. OK lateness. This is when the late person being late does not negatively impact anyone else — like being late to a group hangout or a party. Things can start on time and proceed as normal with or without the late person being there yet.

2. Not-OK lateness. This is when the late person being late does negatively impact others — like being late to a two-person dinner or meeting or anything else that simply can’t start until the late party arrives.

John Haltiwanger’s Elite Daily article is (I hope) talking mostly about OK lateness. In which case, sure, maybe those people are the best, who knows.

But if you read the comment section under Haltiwanger’s article, people are furious with him for portraying lateness in a positive light. And that’s because they’re thinking about the far less excusable not-OK lateness.

All of this has kind of left me with no choice but to take a quick nine-hour break from working on a gargantuan SpaceX post to discuss not-OK late people.

When it comes to people who are chronically not-OK late, I think there are two subgroups:

Group 1: Those who don’t feel bad or wrong about it. These people are assholes.

Group 2: Those who feel terrible and self-loathing about it. These people have problems.

Group 1 is simple. They think they’re a little more special than everyone else, like the zero-remorse narcissist at the top of Haltiwanger’s article. They’re unappealing. Not much else to discuss here.

Punctual people think all not-OK late people are in Group 1 (as the comments on this post will show) — because they’re assuming all late people are sane people.

When a sane person thinks a certain kind of behavior is fine, they do it. When they think it’s wrong, they don’t do it. So to a punctual person — one who shows up on time because they believe showing up late is the wrong thing to do — someone who’s chronically late must be an asshole who thinks being late is OK.

But that’s misunderstanding the entire second group, who, despite being consistently late, usually detest the concept of making other people wait. Let call them CLIPs (Chronically Late Insane Persons).

While both groups of not-OK late people end up regularly frustrating others, a reliable way to identify a Group 2 CLIP is a bizarre compulsion to defeat themselves — some deep inner drive to inexplicably miss the beginning of movies, endure psychotic stress running to catch the train, crush their own reputation at work, etc., etc. As much as they may hurt others, they usually hurt themselves even more.

I spent around 15% of my youth standing on some sidewalk alone, angrily kicking rocks, because yet again, all the other kids had gotten picked up and I was still waiting for my mom. When she finally arrived, instead of being able to have a pleasant conversation with her, I’d get into the car seething. She always felt terrible. She has problems.

My sister once missed an early morning flight, so they rescheduled her for the following morning. She managed to miss that one too, so they put her on a flight five hours later. Killing time during the long layover, she got distracted on a long phone call and missed that flight too. She has problems.

I’ve been a CLIP my whole life. I’ve made a bunch of friends mad at me, I’ve embarrassed myself again and again in professional situations, and I’ve run a cumulative marathon through airport terminals.

When I’m late, it’s often the same story, something like this:

I’ll be meeting someone, maybe a professional contact, at, say, a coffee place at 3:00. When I lay out my schedule for the day, I’ll have the perfect plan. I’ll leave early, arrive early, and get there around 2:45. That takes all the stress out of the situation, and that’s ideal because non-stressful commutes are one of my favorite things. It’ll be great — I’ll stroll out, put on a podcast, and head to the subway. Once I’m off the subway, with time to spare, I’ll take a few minutes to peruse storefronts, grab a lemonade from a street vendor, and enjoy New York. It’ll be such a joy to look up at the architecture, listen to the sounds, and feel the swell of people rushing by — oh magnificent city!

All I have to do is be off the subway by 2:45. To do that, I need to be on the subway by 2:25, so I decide to be safe and get to the subway by 2:15. So I have to leave my apartment by 2:07 or earlier, and I’m set. What a plan.

Here’s how it’ll play out (if you’re new to WBW, you’re advised to check this out before proceeding):

CLIPs are strange people. I’m sure each CLIP is insane in their own special way, and to understand how they work, you’ll usually have to get to some dark inner psychology.

For me, it’s some mix of these three odd traits:

1. I’m late because I’m in denial about how time works.

The propensity of CLIPs to underestimate how long things take comes out of some habitual delusional optimism. Usually what happens is, of all the times the CLIP has done a certain activity or commute, what they remember is that one time things went the quickest. And that amount of time is what sticks in their head as how long that thing takes. I don’t think there’s anything that will get me to internalize that packing for a weeklong trip takes 20 minutes. In my head, it’s eternally a five-minute task. You just take out the bag, throw some clothes in it, throw your toiletries in, zip it up, and done. Five minutes. The empirical data that shows that there are actually a lot of little things to think about when you pack and that it takes 20 minutes every time is irrelevant. Packing is clearly a five-minute task. As I type this, that’s what I believe.

2. I’m late because I have a weird aversion to changing circumstances.

Not sure what the deal is with this, but something in me is strangely appalled by the idea of transitioning from what I’m currently doing to doing something else. When I’m at home working, I hate when there’s something on my schedule that I have to stop everything for to go outside and do. It’s not that I hate the activity — once I’m there I’m often pleased to be there — it’s an irrational resistance to the transition. The positive side of this is it usually means I’m highly present when I finally do haul my ass somewhere, and I’m often among the last to leave.

3. Finally, I’m late because I’m mad at myself.

There’s a pretty strong correlation here — the worse I feel about my productivity so far that day, the more likely I am to be late. When I’m pleased with how I’ve lived the day so far, the Rational Decision-Maker has a much easier time taking control of the wheel. I feel like an adult, so it’s easy to act like an adult. But times when the monkey had his way with me all day, when the time rolls around that I need to stop working and head out somewhere, I can’t believe that this is all I’ve gotten done. So my brain throws a little tantrum, refusing to accept the regrettable circumstances, and stages a self-flagellating protest, saying, “NO. This cannot be the situation. Nope. You didn’t do what you were supposed to do, and now you’ll sit here and get more done, even if it makes you late.”

So yeah, that’s why I’m late. Because I have problems.

Don’t excuse the CLIPs in your life — it’s not OK, and they need to fix it. But remember: It’s not about you. They have problems.

This article originally appeared on 04.07.16