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The Mavericks pulled off something no team had all season on Sunday against the Lakers, as they became the first to blow a 27-point lead, as all other teams were a combined 138-0 when taking a 27-point advantage this year.

It was a dreadful second half performance from Dallas, which is still trying to figure out how everything is supposed to work in the post-Kyrie Irving trade world. At times, the Irving and Luka Doncic pairing looks sensational, but when those two aren’t firing on all cylinders, the remaining roster issues can rear their ugly head as they did Sunday when Anthony Davis dominated the small Mavs frontcourt to lead the comeback bid.

What’s been almost as fascinating as the Mavs’ play on the court recently is the commentary of head coach Jason Kidd, who has outright said they’re not going to be very good defensively and will need to outscore teams to win most nights. However, after their fourth loss in five games, this time in rather historic fashion, Kidd shifted the blame almost completely to the guys in the locker room.

It’s not often you see a coach toss the whole team under the bus like this, but it’s also not exactly the first time Kidd’s chosen to go this route of calling out his team, as that was part of his “tough love” method in Milwaukee as well. The problem with that method is, of course, that it’s the coach’s job to get players to do play the right way, compete on the defensive end, and close out games, otherwise, there’d really be no reason to pay someone what Kidd makes to just sit and watch the game, as he put it.

Each week, we’ll recap the biggest moments of HBO’s The Last of Us before placing bets on the odds of survival for our favorite characters – like the sick, twisted, soulless monsters we are.

There’s a trend happening when it comes to love stories on HBO’s The Last of Us, and we can’t say that we like it. While Nick Offerman and Murray Bartlett got their happy ending earlier in the season, in episode seven’s “Left Behind,” we get Ellie’s until-now murky backstory, and let’s just say that it’s devastating.

There are doomed romances and then there’s the Queer post-apocalyptic version of Romeo and Juliet with fungal zombies added in.

All this to say, please prepare yourself before hitting play (on the episode and this recap).

FEDRA Flashbacks

As cruel as it was to leave fans on a cliffhanger last week, the show doesn’t keep them dangling there for long. In fact, episode seven opens with an answer to the question on everyone’s minds: “Did Joel survive?” He did, but he’s not doing so hot, something that becomes apparent when the camera focuses on the bloody trail left behind after Ellie dragged him to an abandoned house before trying to tend to his stomach wound. He’s bleeding and convulsing and begging her to leave him to die when bouts of consciousness strike, a directive she almost follows. It’s only when Ellie goes to actually leave her gruff and grizzled guardian do we get a glimpse of how she’s become so hardened, so tough, and so walled off from the people around her.

Growing up in the FEDRA foster care system is all military drills at dawn and firearms training and things no child should be exposed to so young. The kids under FEDRA’s care are raised to become soldiers and when a cow is meant for slaughter, you don’t go naming them and treating them like a pet. Even in this unforgiving juvenile detention facility, Ellie is an outlier. She’s bullied by her peers – girls named Bethany deserve stitches, tbh — and punished severely (and often) when she steps out of line. She’s told it’s because she’s too smart for her own good – and maybe that’s true. She’s certainly disillusioned by the life intended for her and she’s grown restless from her lack of options. Still, even if she isn’t a FEDRA acolyte, she can understand the need for law enforcement in a place like the Boston QZ, and having a higher-ranking mentor who earnestly believes that chaos would reign down if FEDRA were to fail puts a healthy amount of fear in her.

Maybe the officer is right. Maybe things would go to hell without law and order. Or maybe he just knows that hypothesizing doomsday scenarios is enough to scare a rebellious teenager into complying with his rules. Either way, one thing is clear, FEDRA’s way of governing isn’t working for the regular civilians of Boston or the young recruits meant to carry out its orders which is why Riley (Storm Reid), Ellie’s only real friend in this hellhole, spilt a few weeks prior.

The runaway sneaks back into her old barracks to surprise her friend with a night on the town, one Ellie’s initially hesitant to accept. But even in the post-apocalypse, teenagers are going to teenage and teenage girls are going to want to hit the mall.

A Night Out

If you’ve been wondering just how f*cked up childhood would be were you to grow up in a fungal dystopia, the early adventures of Riley and Ellie’s girls’ night escapades are a good meter to judge against. After Riley admits to joining the Fireflies and Ellie berates her for being so idyllically stupid as to believe she could actually make a difference, the pair squash any talk of revolution by running rooftops and avoiding FEDRA patrols and giggling like schoolgirls when they pilfer a liquor bottle from a corpse. It’s not the first dead body they’ve seen, but it’s still a macabre moment that illustrates the differences between someone like Riley – who had parents and watched them die – and Ellie, who’s only ever known the life FEDRA has given her.

Talk will inevitably return to those “fascist dickbags” but not before Riley introduces Ellie to the four five wonders of the Mall – a sealed-off underground mecca with enough working electricity to leave the girls rightfully in awe. Bella Ramsey has been terrific all season but she gives a masterclass in acting here, successfully convincing us that escalators are an invention of divine ingenuity and carousels aren’t creepy spinning wheels of death but instead, magical modes of romantic escapism. Even their disappointing photo booth shoot seems cute. The girls have what is possibly the most swoon-worthy time at a mall that we’ve ever seen. (It sure beats the awkward “hangouts” over shared greasy pretzels of our own youth.) But nothing this sweet and innocent lasts forever. Ellie eventually discovers that Riley has been posted here by the Fireflies to watch over their stash of homemade bombs – bombs that have been blowing up FEDRA officers which is what she’s training to become. Riley tries to make her understand why she made the choice to join the cause. Unlike Ellie, she was due to graduate from FEDRA’s program soon and her assignment was going to be sewer duty. She was trapped, doomed to do grunt work for the rest of her miserable life.

What’s worse, she wasn’t wanted. She had nowhere she belonged until Marlene saw value in her and invited her to join the Fireflies. For someone who had a family and remembers losing them, that recognition and acceptance are more important than any kind of liberation movement.

Ellie nearly abandons her friend, especially when Riley reveals she’s been assigned to the group leaving Boston for Atlanta, but eventually turns back, meeting Riley in a Halloween shop where things take a horrifying turn.

We Keep Going

Anytime a show like The Last of Us treats fans to moments of genuine happiness amidst the backdrop of terrible circumstances, don’t trust it. Be especially on guard if those moments include the following: dancing (of any kind), slow-mo shots of characters smiling, laughing, or generally enjoying themselves, music that evokes a sense of nostalgia, a spontaneous kiss between two characters who have been actively ignoring their chemistry over the course of the entire episode, a declaration of love, a feeling like maybe, just maybe, this one will have a happy ending.

Happy endings do not exist on shows like The Last of Us, and though Ellie and Riley eventually admit their feelings for each other with both girls promising to stay together and figure things out, their ride off into the sunset is quickly ruined by a clicker who’s been lurking in the background the entire episode. The girls try to fight him off with Ellie eventually lodging her picket knife in its skull, but not before it takes a chunk out of both her and Riley’s arms. Their realization that they’ve been marked for death is heartbreaking and completely different. Ellie rages against it while Riley tearfully and quietly resigns herself to it. Each performance is devastating and we dare anyone to say this love story isn’t as impactful or memorable as the one Nick Offerman and Murray Bartlett gave us a few episodes back.

We never see what happens to Riley – though we can guess – because that final memory quickly fades back into the present where Ellie decides that she’s not going to leave Joel to die. She’s going to hold his hand just like she did Riley’s and fight for him in a way she couldn’t for the girl that she loved. Joel’s fate is still left in the air by the end of the episode but there’s a sense of determination and focus about Ellie that wasn’t there before, one that makes us think not saving him is an impossibility at this point.

Survival Odds

Ellie (10 to 1 odds)
Ellie has evolved from a smart-mouth wayward runaway to a bonafide survivor over the course of this show and the skills she’s learned from Joel and the other adults in her life are finally paying off. Not only did she drag her guardian’s blood-drained carcass to safety, but she also managed to find something sharp to sew up the hole in his stomach with, and she kept her cool while doing it. She’s could’ve left Joel as he asked, but she toughed it out and made a choice to stand by her friend. No notes.

Joel (6 to 1 odds)
They’re gonna kill Pedro Pascal, aren’t they?

HBO’s ‘The Last Of Us’ airs Sundays at 9:00pm EST.

[This post contains potential spoilers for future episodes of The Last of Us]

Earlier this season on The Last of Us, Ellie cracked a code that Joel set up with Bill and Frank (RIP). “The radio’s a smuggling code, right? ’60s songs, we don’t have anything new, ’70s they’ve got new stuff. What’s ’80s?” she asked before tricking Joel into the answer. “Gotcha. ’80s means trouble,” she grinned. “Code broken.” Depeche Mode’s “Never Let Me Down Again” meant trouble on the radio, but during episode seven, another ’80s classic soundtracks Ellie and Riley’s visit to the mall that’s full of joy — and then things turn tragic.

As Riley shows Ellie the full capitalist wonders of the Boston QZ mall, “Take on Me” by a-Ha begins playing. A tingle of recognition was felt down the spines of every The Last of Us viewer who also played The Last of Us Part II video game; the song holds special significance to Ellie and a character who may have been introduced last episode (and through an acoustic guitar, Joel).

I won’t spoil the moment, but you can watch it here.

Interestingly, “Take on Me” — which connects Riley and a future important person in Ellie’s life — played during the first trailer for the show, but it’s since been removed. “HBO re-edited The Last of Us official trailer to remove a-ha’s ‘Take On Me,’ replacing it with generic background music,” The Direct reported. “As a result of this change, some fans have voiced their disapproval on Twitter, noting that the trailer got worse after the removal.”

Those same fans were conflicted upon hearing the song in “Left Behind.”

When the Atlanta Hawks announced they had fired Nate McMillan after two-plus seasons as head coach, the timing signified they already had someone in mind. It turned out that was indeed the case, as it didn’t take long for reports to tie them to Quin Snyder, formerly the head coach of the Jazz and an assistant for a year in Atlanta under Mike Budenholzer.

Over the weekend, talks became serious and Snyder was widely expected to be named head coach sooner than later. On Sunday, we got word from Adrian Wojnarowski that the Hawks are hiring Snyder on a 5-year deal, including this year, where he will coach out the season as a rare in-season coaching hire from the outside. Snyder could take over the Hawks, who have won back-to-back games under interim Joe Prunty, as soon as Tuesday when they host the Wizards.

The Hawks announced the hire mere hours after a buzzer-beating win over the Nets.

Snyder’s track record in Utah speaks for itself, as he helped turn the Jazz into a perennial West contender — albeit one that fell short of expectations at times in the postseason — and he is widely respected around the league for both his work as a tactician and in navigating player relationships. The Hawks are in need of his expertise in the latter tremendously, as there have been numerous reports of some internal discord this season, and Snyder’s work with Donovan Mitchell and Rudy Gobert proved he could keep a locker room together even when tensions were high.

Whether that can pay immediate dividends or not with the roster as constructed remains to be seen, but the Hawks are hoping for a similar bump to the last time they fired a coach in-season and made a run to the East Finals under McMillan. That task seems much more difficult given the strength at the top of the East this season, but improving on last year’s performance where they were not particularly competitive with Miami in a five-game exit in the first round would at least be a start.

The Dallas Mavericks looked like they were going to cruise to a win in the first half of ABC’s doubleheader on Sunday, as Luka Doncic and company seemingly could not miss in the early going, hitting 10 of their first 17 threes while the Lakers started 0-of-14 from beyond the arc.

The Mavs led by as many as 27 in the second quarter, and the good vibes of the new-look Lakers were suddenly getting a major test. However, they began chipping away at the deficit, cutting it to 14 at halftime and all the way down to three going into the fourth quarter, thanks to a 12-0 run in the third.

Leading the way in the comeback on both ends of the floor was Anthony Davis, who started quietly but eventually began to dominate the small Mavs frontline. Davis would finish the afternoon with 30 points, 15 rebounds, four assists, three blocks, and one steal, and served as the catalyst for the Lakers down the stretch, doing a bit of everything to push the Lakers in front.

Late in the fourth, after Dallas had regained the lead by one on Kyrie Irving free throws, it was Davis who secured a big offensive rebound in traffic and threw down a big dunk to push the Lakers back in front for good.

He followed that up with another big bucket in the final 30 seconds as the Mavs had cut the deficit to one but ended up with Doncic on a switch on Davis, who took him into the post and drilled a fadeaway to push the lead back up to three.

The 27-point comeback was the biggest in the NBA this season, as teams were 138-0 entering Sunday when holding a 27-point lead at any point in a game. The Lakers became the team to change that in a game that is critical for their push for the postseason, as they pull to within a game of New Orleans in 10th and are just 2.5 back of Dallas in sixth.

Given how passive Davis has been at times this season, battling through injuries again, seeing him take the lead in a game where he was the biggest mismatch on the floor is a big deal for the Lakers. That isn’t always the case, but on this night he made the Mavs pay for a small frontcourt and no one capable of defending him or keeping him off the boards. Three other Lakers joined Davis in double figures, as LeBron James finished with 26 points, Dennis Schröder added 16, and Jarred Vanderbilt scored 15 and pulled in 17 rebounds as he continues to prove a big addition for the Lakers on both ends of the floor.

After their scorching start, the Mavs came back to earth a bit, shooting 40.8 percent from three on the game (10-of-32 to close). Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving likewise struggled to keep it going in the second half, combining for 47 points but needing 44 combined shots to get there, while the rest of the Mavs starters scored six points each. For a team that’s admittedly skewed towards the offensive end, that’s not getting it done and their cushion for a guaranteed playoff position gets considerably narrower, as they fall to just a game-up on the three-way tie behind them for seventh.

Few are as thin-skinned as Donald Trump, and his history of being mad at comics who belittle him is well-documented. Or so people thought. As per Rolling Stone, this one’s new: In the early days of his presidency, Trump was so steamed that Jimmy Kimmel kept mocking him on his late night show that he pressured the White House to go after him.

As per the report, Trump directed his staff to call up Disney’s top execs to “complain and demand action.” There were at least two separate calls, which occurred towards the end of his first year in office, where they saw if they could get Kimmel to tone down his rhetoric.

What made Kimmel worse than, say, Stephen Colbert? It’s unclear. (And maybe he demanded staffers ring up Paramount Global, which owns CBS.) But as per Rolling Stone, “Trump felt that Kimmel had, in the characterization of one former senior administration official, been ‘very dishonest and doing things that [Trump] would have once sued over.’”

And so staffers, who allegedly didn’t think calling up Disney to complain about jokes would do anything, were forced to repeatedly do so anyway. “It was doing something, mostly, to say to [Trump], ‘Hey, we did this,’” one staffer told Rolling Stone.

Clearly it didn’t work. As per the report, Disney execs were more confused than worried. Spoiler: Kimmel did not tone it down and remains on the air, whereas Trump eventually lost re-election.

Kimmel did have to fight to keep his Trump jokes on air. Last year it was revealed the late night host threatened to quit if he couldn’t keep doing what he still does to this day, such as when he dragged him for not liking Rihanna’s Super Bowl halftime show.

(Via Rolling Stone)

Drake’s love of gambling has been well-documented over the years. The Toronto hitmaker is known for placing insanely expensive bets at various sporting events. Most recently, the rapper bet nearly half $1 million — $400k to be exact — for Youtuber turned boxing star Jake Paul to knock out Tommy Fury in their upcoming bout.

Paul and Fury will fight today (Sunday, February 26) at the Diriyah Arena in Saudi Arabia. “Knock knock @stake,” the rapper wrote in an Instagram post.

However, unlike his success in music, he isn’t always lucky when it comes to making bets. The last fighter he bet on, UFC fighter Israel Adesanya, cost him $ 2 million.

But in Drake’s case, it’s more than a case of bad luck. It’s been floated around that an alleged curse follows the rapper. The hilarious notion (but very accurate in some cases) has become its own phenomenon. It always starts the same. Drake ends up rooting for a specific sports team or individual, and they inevitably lose.

That doesn’t mean the “Rich Flex” rapper hasn’t had some big wins in the past. Following Super Bowl LVII, Drake won $1.4 million after placing a 700k bet that the Kansas City Chiefs would defeat the Philadelphia Eagles.

Lizzo declared 2023 would be the year of SZA, and it looks like she may be right. Not only did news break today (February 26), that the singer’s sophomore album, SOS, earned nearly 3 billion streams on Spotify, but it also is celebrating its tenth week at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart.

When the album first reached the top of the charts, the recording artist took to Twitter to post about what the professional accomplishment meant to her. “I appreciate every milestone and accolade but this? As a writer means so f*cking much to me. I aspire to be a better writer every day. Thank you. Wow,” she wrote.

Last month, SZA joined Adele and Taylor Swift as the only women artists to have an album spend at least seven weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 this century.

Meanwhile, SZA is currently on her album’s supporting tour with featured guest Grammy Award-nominated singer Omar Apollo. View the remaining tour dates below.

02/27 — Washington, DC @ Capital One Arena
02/28 — Boston, MA @ TD Garden
03/02 — Philadelphia, PA @ Wells Fargo Center
03/04 — New York, NY @ Madison Square Garden
03/07 — Atlanta, GA @ State Farm Arena
03/09 — Austin, TX @ Moody Center
03/10 — Dallas, TX @ American Airlines Center
03/13 — San Diego, CA @ Viejas Arena
03/14 — Oakland, CA @ Oakland Arena
03/16 — Seattle, WA @ Climate Pledge Arena
03/18 — Portland, OR @ Moda Center
03/19 — Vancouver, BC @ Rogers Arena
03/22 — Los Angeles, CA @ The Kia Forum

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

Two of the best teams in women’s college hoops met on Sunday afternoon in Iowa City and gave fans an absolute thriller deserving of a near-March top-10 matchup.

Second-ranked Indiana went on the road to face No. 6 Iowa in a huge Big Ten showdown, and there was nothing to separate the two teams through 39-plus minutes, as they were deadlocked at 83-83 with five seconds to play. Indiana would inbound the ball to Mackenzie Holmes in the post who spun to the paint and drew a foul that did not please the Iowa faithful who had gathered in a sold-out Carver-Hawkeye arena.

Holmes would knock down both free throws to give the Hoosiers a two-point lead with just over a second on the clock. Iowa would advance the ball with a timeout, setting up a chance for heroics from their star guard Caitlin Clark — who had 31 points, nine rebounds, and nine assists going into the final play of the game. Clark would peel around a pair of screens to the ball on the right wing, and in one motion spun and fired up a game-winning three that rattled home, sending the Iowa crowd into an absolute frenzy.

It was just the latest highlight from Clark in a career that will go down as one of the best in Iowa athletics history (in any sport), as she continues to make her case for Player of the Year, bumping up her 27 points per game scoring average with the 34-point effort in a win over the No. 2 team in the country. While South Carolina looks to be a juggernaut and is unquestionably the team to beat, once the NCAA Tournament arrives a player like Clark who is capable of catching fire, will give Iowa a chance against any team.

The Jonas Brothers are really burning up as they continue to make the most of their musical return. If the sibling trio’s latest single, “Wings,” wasn’t enough to excite fans, their Broadway residency next month surely will.

Although the JoBros forthcoming album, appropriately titled, The Album, isn’t set to be released until May, that isn’t stopping them from taking the big stage for a crowd of their most loyal supporters. The residency will take place from March 14 to May 18, at the Marquis Theatre.

While it is not clear as to what the act will perform, it is rumored that one, not all, of their past albums (2007’s Jonas Brothers, 2008’s A Little Bit Longer, 2009’s Lines, Vines and Trying Times, or 2019’s Happiness Begins) will make up the entirety of the set. Maybe they will preview tracks from The Album or, at the bare minimum, perform their new single, “Wings.”

When discussing their new single, in a statement, the family said, “[this song] is the perfect start to this new chapter for us. The song is a great first taste of that creative exploration and what’s to come with The Album.”

All ticket buyers must be registered for Ticketmaster’s Verified Fan Onsale. Those who are selected to receive an access code will be able to purchase tickets starting March 1st. To sign up for Ticketmaster’s Verified Fan Onsale, click here.