Category: Viral

The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted practically everything, and that certainly includes the music industry: tours have been postponed or canceled altogether, releases have been pushed back, and musicians the world over have been forced to consider different approaches when it comes to almost every aspect of their profession. But for Gus Dapperton life in quarantine times has been — as much as it can be — business as usual.

“There was no drastic change for me,” the 23-year-old musician born Brendan Patrick Rice states as we spoke over the phone last month. He’s dialed in from his Brooklyn apartment, where he’s been holed up since deciding to take a break from the constant touring grind at the top 2020. “I’m pretty used to being at home in my apartment and home studio, messing around. So I’ve just been taking it all in, observing, learning, and not forcing myself too hard to be creative.”

During this period of relative downtime, Dapperton put the finishing touches on his sophomore album Orca (out September 18), a record of overcast, glowing pop-rock that he largely wrote while on the road promoting his breakout debut, last year’s Where Polly People Go to Read. “I had a lot of music done already, so I wasn’t pushing myself too hard to finish things,” he reflects on the necessity of going easy on himself over the past six months, while emphasizing the restorative effects of solitude on his mental well-being. “I was introverted when I was younger, and I still am. I’m able to spend long periods of time by myself, so it’s been a good change of pace for me instead of touring and meeting so many new people every day.”

There’s a sense of relief palpable in Dapperton’s voice as he finishes that last sentence, and with good reason. Since his music started receiving attention online in 2017 — a streak of internet-native success that led to his current record deal with indie-focused label AWAL, as well as placement on the soundtrack for the second season of Netflix’s teen drama 13 Reasons Why — the resulting success, as he tells it, has proved overwhelming.

His story so far is as unique to his own experiences as it is increasingly common in popular music: a young bedroom-bound auteur builds an audience online, the music industry takes notice, and before long things are moving so quickly that it becomes difficult to keep one’s feet on the ground. But despite being a denizen of the digital era, Dapperton professes an overall lack of online engagement, claiming that he mostly uses social media “more to observe” than to directly interact with others. He’s similarly quick to downplay the notion of himself as an artist borne out of logging on — more than reasonable, really, when considering his IRL artistic beginnings.

Dapperton grew up in the upstate New York town of Warwick, with early memories of “Friday night dance parties” in which his father hooked up a Hi8 camcorder to their television so the whole family could see themselves grooving on TV. While dodging the ever-present pressure to participate in his town’s athletics programs, Dapperton spent his adolescence skateboarding and engaging in minor creative pursuits with friends that he lovingly refers to as “outcasts.”

With little in the way of formal training or lessons, Dapperton was bitten by the musical bug in eighth grade after his music teacher issued an assignment that doubled as a contest: He and his fellow students had to write, produce, and record their own song using Garageband, and the winners would get to play their music on a local radio station. Dapperton won off a song called “Shock,” his sister Amadelle possessing the only copy of which to this day; the early taste of success left him wanting more. “I was like, ‘Wow. I want to do this for the rest of my life,’” he recalls.

Citing early influences ranging from legendary hip-hop producer Madlib to Taylor Swift’s self-titled debut, Dapperton initially dabbled in production before pivoting to full-on songwriting “once I found my voice and decided I had a lot I wanted to say.” His off-kilter, distinctive fashion sense — a style highlighted by Dapperton’s taste-the-rainbow predilection for hair dye, including the cherry-red hue he sports on the cover of Orca — emerged around this time too, as he dug through thrift stores and artfully distressed his duds.

If Dapperton’s parents were accepting of his constantly changing appearance, they possessed a bit more apprehension when it came to his pursuing music as a career. “They thought the extent of a musician’s career was a jam band playing at a restaurant,” he chuckles; eventually, they came around after his father’s perspective was shifted by Malcolm Gladwell’s 2008 book Outliers: The Story Of Success. “I think he read that and thought, ‘Well, I guess my kid puts more hours into this than I’ve seen any other kid put into anything.’”

In 2014, Brendan Patrick Rice officially became Gus Dapperton after uploading the laid-back, hip-hop-flavored “If the Sky Was Vivid,” featuring his friends Elijah Bank$y and Lo.Rd Lingo, to one of his multiple Soundcloud accounts he maintained “back when it was less for listening and more for creators.” “It was the same as naming a newborn baby,” he explains when asked about the origins of the Gus Dapperton moniker. “I heard my voice had this sound, and I thought the name summed up the sound, as well as the person that I wanted to be — someone who wasn’t afraid to express themself and create.”

The song turned Dapperton into an overnight internet sensation, with a string of buzz-building EPs — Yellow And Such in 2017, the following year’s You Think You’re a Comic! — that followed as he, while finishing high school and attending Drexel to study music technology, became a self-described “worse student.” After two years at college, he made the decision to drop out permanently to focus on music full-time: “It wasn’t a super encouraging program. I learned some of the equipment, but I just couldn’t focus. After two years, I just couldn’t do it anymore.”

Dapperton hesitates to describe the three years that followed as a “blur,” but the rigors of near-constant touring — which carried through the creation and release of Where Polly People Go To Read, the title of which referencing a fictional people that Dapperton drew as a kid — undoubtedly wore on him. “As soon as I started touring, the last three years of my life went by so fast,” he recalls. “I was making and recording music on my tour bus, and in hotel rooms — writing songs whenever I could. I’d be living with someone for three months, and then I’d be across the world playing shows.”

It was under this strain that Orca came together, the dusky first single “First Aid” one of the first songs he wrote for the project. “It’s about these deeper and darker thoughts I’d neglected to be a strong person — but in reality, being a strong person is about confronting those feelings,” he explains while discussing the song’s thematic bent, elaborating that its lyrical intentions also encompass Orca as a whole. “When I’m feeling depressed and lost in the world, there’s not many things that help me. Therapy doesn’t help me very much. But putting it into the music is very therapeutic for me.”

Orca is a melancholic departure from Dapperton’s vibe-oriented earlier material; his raw voice is surrounded by full-bodied instrumentation that as much recalls Death Cab For Cutie as it does generational scions like Mac DeMarco and Porches. It bears the overall mark of someone pushed to the brink of excess that overnight success in the music industry is often accompanied by — a careful retreat, with no short supply of personal reflection and self-care. “I’ve probably missed out on a lot of the life lessons that people go through in adulthood, so there’s this huge imbalance in my life that I’m reflecting on,” he explains. “The longest break I had over the course of three years was a month. I’d have to socialize while playing this music that I consider very sacred to myself every night. All of that on top of not getting eight hours of sleep, having physical exhaustion, drinking every night — it takes a huge toll on you.”

Dapperton describes Orca as an album about “feeling trapped, depressed, and having these people and unconditional forces of love in your life that reel you back in.” It’s fitting, then, that Amadelle joins him throughout the album as a vocalist, providing literal harmony to his fractured feelings. The pair have collaborated in some form since early adolescence, but Orca represents their artistic kinship more than ever before — an embodiment of Dapperton’s message that the ones you love are the ones you need the most. “A lot of the things I’m talking about are really timely right now,” he states on what the future might hold for him, choosing instead to reflect on the potential impact his music could have during our peculiar societal moment. “I have a responsibility to release this music.”

Orca is out September 18 via AWAL. Get it here.

A funny thing happened almost immediately after Madden NFL 21 dropped. It seemed like everyone who had the game did one of two things: Get blown away by how much of a buggy mess it was, or hop onto one of several ratings sites and toss a one-star rating its way. As of this writing, here’s what users on Google think of the game:

Real bad! If Dylan from the Making the Band skit on Chappelle’s Show dropped an album — not the person it was based on, I mean Dave Chappelle doing Dylan for 45 minutes — it would have done better than this. There is an evident sense of frustration among Madden fans over the current direction of the game, something that has been going on for years and seems to have come to a head for this version.

A fascinating subplot is what happens in future editions of Madden, but you did not come here for that, you came for a review of this game. As I played through it, one overarching thought was seared into my brain: Despite some things I really enjoyed, this just felt like last year’s Madden with a few more bells and whistles.

Let’s start with the good. I really liked playing The Yard. Would I recommend dropping serious coin on Madden just to play it? No, I would not, but if you’re going to purchase the game, this is a really fun addition that breathes some life into a game that feels a bit stale — for fans of the other football, think of it like VOLTA Football in FIFA 20, both in terms of aesthetic and how it adds a different dimension that wouldn’t otherwise exist in the game.

The general concept of The Yard seems to be heavily inspired by NFL Street. It’s backyard-style football with backyard football playbooks, taking place on a collection of fields and letting you mix and match players together. You can read more about it right here, but in general, this is the mode to play, especially if you can get together with a group of friends. It’s not quite the same as The Neighborhood in NBA 2K — which is a pretty easy comparison to make — due to the fact that there isn’t a whole world where you exist, but the general comp of a street/backyard game mode with different rules, a different approach, and one individual, customizable character isn’t a bad one.

It’s not perfect, if only because it doesn’t always feel like you’re playing a different game and it can feel like you’re playing a slightly looser version of Madden if you don’t have down the various little tricks that give you a leg up, plus I am not someone who gets super into customizing my avatar, although I certainly understand that that’s a personal preference. An option that would let gamers build their teams where they are picking teammates from every NFL roster would be interesting, too. But generally, The Yard is fun, and I’m excited to see how it develops over the years.

I’m also a fan of Superstar KO, if only because it’s quick, fun, and customizable. The act of playing football over and over can, of course, get a little repetitive, and while I enjoyed The Yard more, Superstar KO is a good way to get a few quick, unique games in. It can get a bit hectic, and the gameplay issues I have that we’ll get into in the next graf or two, but this is one of the two game modes that, I believe, you’d enjoy sinking the most time into if you picked this up.

The mere act of playing Madden isn’t a negative, but generally, it’s fine, albeit imperfect. The main thought that went through my head the entire time was something that Steven Petite of GameSpot also articulated in his review: Playing Madden, along with the apparent ignoring of Franchise mode and Ultimate Team — both of which feel exactly the same as last year’s version of the game — makes this feel like more of a season update than a game that, ostensibly, had a full year to turn into something new, fresh, and worth $60.

Two main examples of things I didn’t love in last year’s Madden that are still evident in this one. For one, if a player’s Superstar X-Factor is activated, you are absolutely useless trying to do anything against them. While playing against the Packers, Jaire Alexander’s “Shutdown” x-factor was activated, and if I threw the ball within his area code, it was picked off, with my wide receiver not even attempting to make a play on the ball. The other issue is how frequently my receivers would catch the ball, come down with it, have a defender bump into them, and drop the ball. In an obvious attempt to make it so every game doesn’t turn into a pass-happy shootout, the last two Madden games have made passing unnecessarily finicky.

After getting a few games under my belt, I referred to this post on the EA Sports site about gameplay. It was, admittedly, a little less tricky to do run defense, but for the most part, all of these gameplay tweaks didn’t really stick out. Again, it largely feels like you are playing the exact same Madden game as last year. Which is fine! It’s just not sink tons of money into purchasing a new game levels of fine.

This is the issue at the heart of having to put this game together during a global pandemic. This is something that, I believe, needs to be front and center during the Madden discourse — due to circumstances outside of the control of every single person at EA Sports, the game needed to be put together with people unable to sit in offices together and do all of the things you normally need to do to build an entire dang video game. That’s really, really hard to do, and it’s something that I think about a lot as I am playing Madden, because it feels like a game that just isn’t complete, something that EA Sports has tacitly admitted with the number of patches and updates, such as the September title update or the Franchise Mode one that is coming in November.

I suppose this is where I should talk about bugs and glitches. Boy, there are a lot of them, aren’t there? A few, in my experience:

1. SMOOTH FIELD.

2. Whatever this is supposed to be.

3. Some general sloppiness in Face of the Franchise (which we will get to shortly!). This included things like needing three tries for the game to accept the player I created’s build and features, or my difficulty automatically resetting to “Rookie” when I’d exit out of the mode. Little things, too, like my tenure at Oregon featuring teammates that wore generic white and blue uniforms during a cutscene, or the inability to simulate and only do offense/defense/key moments being taken away during one FotF for no identifiable reason, or in my first game in the mode, when I’d do kickoffs and the camera would set up shop right behind the uprights, so my entire screen would be blocked for a hot second.

4. The strictness over profanity in names was completely insane — in a weird personality quirk, I like to name my characters one of “Gil Faizon” or “George St. Geegland,” because I am a loser, but both “Gil” and “St. Geegland” were ruled to include profanity, for some reason. I swear, I am not making this up.

Again, it is not hard to see how putting this game together during a pandemic hurt EA Sports a ton, as little things are just not right. You have, certainly, seen compilations of bugs and glitches that exist in this game, so this is not an issue that only I dealt with. One can only wonder if the game could have gone through another two weeks worth of quality control checks before going out to gamers would have smoothed over those various cracks, because they are as much a part of this game as pressing “X” on my PlayStation controller to hike the ball.

Ending on a sour note isn’t fun, but this is where talking abut Face of the Franchise fits in. It’s just not good. I’ve been of the thought for a year or two that we really don’t need to have big narrative modes in sports games — Madden, FIFA, 2K, maybe The Show, etc. — but this cemented my belief. It is all done through the eyes of your character giving an interview after his career, and you, as is commonplace in these modes, go through an entire career, from a new player on a high school football team behind a star, to taking over for that star as a junior because he has a heart condition, to playing alongside him as a senior, to going to the same college as him, to a pro. You’re called the Heartbreak Kids, which is an admittedly good name for a football duo, in large part because I am a Shawn Michaels stan. Your NFL career ends up having ups and down, but generally, it’s nothing remarkable.

The whole thing felt inflexible as a story. An example: During your junior year in college, you start the season opener, then you jump right to the College Football Playoff semifinal, where you start after being told the two quarterbacks rotated all year. While there, I torched LSU, 70-0. The other QB ended up starting the national title game, anyway. He gets hurt at halftime, you come in, save the day (for me, this was against USC), and win a national title.

Then, the next scene is the coach telling you that you will be the backup quarterback next year, and you have two choices: Go to the NFL Draft or switch positions to running back or wide receiver. While I did the former, a colleague did the latter, and he got two extra college games before getting the option to switch back to quarterback prior to entering the NFL if you want. Why you, the national title-winning quarterback, go through this is not clear. It is Sorkin-esque writing insofar as it tried way too hard to do way too many things and just ended up getting in its own way.

Ultimately, where I land on Madden is this: Despite the addition of The Yard, and despite how much fun Superstar KO can be, it would have been way better for EA to drop a monster season update to Madden 20 and perfect the next full game. While I can’t say for sure, I suspect this would have been the case regardless of the extenuating circumstances that made creating a video game so difficult right now. It’s not as bad as the flood of negative reviews it received from frustrated gamers who, hopefully, will spur major changes to future editions of the game, but I can’t justify forking over the money to buy it right now. Do keep an eye out for sales and what not, though, because there is enough to like that getting the game at some time isn’t the worst idea in the world.

Over the weekend, Big Sean celebrated the release of his Detroit 2 album by hosting an #AskBigSean Q&A on Twitter. While Detroit 2 is still fresh, Big Sean is also looking towards the future, as he is apparently planning on launching his own record label, and is looking for suggestions on who he should sign.

One fan asked Sean is he was still signed to GOOD Music, and he responded, “Yep! I’m starting my own after this album though. Any artist u think I need to sign? It’s time!” It doesn’t appear there are hard feelings between Sean and Kanye or anybody else at the label, though. Yesterday, Kanye tweeted out a link to Sean’s album and wrote, “Congratulations to my brother Big Sean on his new album Good music for life.” Sean responded, “Love you big bro no matter what! Thank you! 4 Life!”

Kanye was an executive producer on the album, and in the Q&A, Sean outlined his involvement in the project, tweeting, “Lotta advice! And more, he actually did a lot of references n parts that helped out a lot.”

Elsewhere during #AskBigSean, the rapper shared some trivia about the new album, so revisit all the tweets from the Q&A here.

Virtually every boundary-pushing indie artist won’t deny that Radiohead inspired them at one point or another. Subsequently, the group has been covered a lot, and the latest artist to pay homage in this way is Phoebe Bridgers. She performed a Radio 1 Piano Session, with Arlo Parks doing the ivory-tickling, and they gave a rendition of “Fake Plastic Trees,” with Bridgers delicate and powerful voice soaring over Parks’ piano and backing vocals. The pair also linked up for a performance of Bridgers’ “Kyoto.”

Bridgers has covered the indie legends before. In fact, she covered “Fake Plastic Trees” at a performance in a London church in 2017. The next summer, she joined Mumford & Sons during a surprise Newport Folk Festival set to cover the 2007 In Rainbows highlight “All I Need.”

Bridgers has been active in recent days aside from this. She recently contributed to a star-studded benefit album. She performed an intimate show at the huge LA Colosseum. Other things she has gotten up to lately include appearing on Zack Fox’s wild new Twitch show, make out with an old woman in the “I Know The End” video, virtually collaborate with Gillian Welch for a cover, and, of course, re-live the time she pooped her pants on stage.

Watch Bridgers and Parks perform “Fake Plastic Trees” and “Kyoto” above.

For three decades, J.K. Simmons has been one of the best and most recognizable “That Guys” around. The character actor moved from stage to screen in HBO’s 1997 drama Oz, and he’s been working steadily ever since in movies such as Juno, Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man movies, and the movie for which he finally won an Oscar, Whiplash.

On this week’s WTF with Marc Maron, J.K. Simmons spoke at length about the process of winning the Oscar — not the acting, but the awards’ season experience. According to Simmons, actors who want to be considered for Oscars basically have to put themselves through a process, which Simmons was very reluctant to do. “No thanks, I’ll be at home with my wife and kids, or working on my next project,” he had initially told Sony Classics.

However, his director on Juno, Jason Reitman, talked him into it, telling him he could be “that guy, an artiste,” or you could do it … for the film, its director, etc., but also “everyone you have ever known your whole life from your best friend in second grade to all your fourth cousins. All of those people are going to be so excited and so happy and thrilled for you. The people who you were doing theater with in Buffalo in the 1970s … all these people, and obviously, your close friends and family. That really sunk into me.”

Simmons said he and his wife had a “heart-to-heart” about committing to the process — “because it’s a whole thing” — and he agreed when the studio allowed Simmons to bring his wife and kids along with him for all of the awards’ season events. In fact, by the time the Oscars finally arrived, he’d won so many awards for the performance that when they finally announced his name at the Oscars, it came “as a relief because how big a schmuck would I have been if they’d said someone else’s name” when the odds of Simmons winning were so astronomically high by that point.

One of Simmons’ favorite aspects, however, was when he was going up to up to accept the award. “There’s a billion people watching, and you’re in the Kodak theater with every famous actor you grew up watching, so I was a little nervous, and I never actually wrote an acceptance speech. I had a theme in mind … and I wanted to talk about what’s most important in life, which is family. So, I’m kind of formulating my thoughts and walking up on stage, and Lupita Nyong’o was going to hand me the trophy and I reach out with one hand to take the trophy, and I reach out with the other hand to shake her hand, like we’re two dudes making a business deal, and then I realized, ‘Oh no, it’s Hollywood. You’re supposed to do the fake kiss on the cheek.’ So, I kind of awkwardly go in for the fake kiss on the cheek thing, and I gave her a little of a head butt. But [thankfully] not enough to take her down.”

You can see the head butt and Simmons’ family-specific speech here:

Source: WTF with Marc Maron

Sometimes the best new R&B can be hard to find, but there are plenty of great rhythm and blues tunes to get into if you have the time to sift through the hundreds of newly released songs every week. So that R&B heads can focus on listening to what they really love in its true form, we’ll be offering a digest of the best new R&B songs that fans of the genre should hear every Friday.

This week, Bryson Tiller emerged from a three-year intermission to share with fans his new single titled “Inhale” and also announced that a new project is on the way this year. SZA also surprised fans this week with the release of her new single “Hit Different” featuring Ty Dolla Sign after a three-year intermission of her own. And R&B vet Monica released her new track with the assistance of fellow Atlanta native Lil Baby. Check out the rest of the best new R&B music below.

Bryson Tiller — “Inhale”

It’s been three long years since Bryson Tiller‘s 2017 album True To Self and today the mystical R&B singer makes his return with “Inhale.” The song takes a little from Mary J. Blige’s “Not Gon’ Cry” and a little from SWV’s “All Night Long” to create a sexy groove that has Tiller singing about missing his ex. Based on the excitement of Twitter when the song dropped on Friday (September 4) at midnight, it’s clear fans are certainly pumped for a new wave of Bryson Tiller slow jams to be released and the Grammy award-nominated singer promises that something for is coming just in time for cuffing season this fall.

SZA — “Hit Different” Feat. Ty Dolla Sign

Last month, it seemed as if SZA and Top Dawg were at odds about when she’d be releasing new music again. To everyone’s surprise this week, however, the R&B talent decided to share her first single of the year in the form of “Hit Different” featuring Ty Dolla Sign with an accompanying music video of her dancing in a scrapyard. “Hit Different” is SZA’s first release in three years and was produced by The Neptunes at DJ Khaled’s crib.

Monica — “Trenches” Feat. Lil Baby

During the Brandy and Monica Verzuz battle this week, Monica took the opportunity to drop her new song with Lil Baby titled “Trenches.”

FKA Twigs — “Sad Day”

FKA Twigs delivered an elaborate visual for her song “Sad Day.” Filled with beautifully choreographed martial arts and fight scenes, Twigs gets her point across vocally and visually.

Ricco Barrino — Ugly EP

Singer Ricco Barrino finally released the last EP of his musical trilogy, Ugly, this week. The project features his new single “Friday Night Lights” with DaBaby and his baby sister, Grammy award-winning musician Fantasia, also makes an appearance.

Check out this week’s R&B picks, plus more on Uproxx’s Spotify playlist below.

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

The Lakers came out, unsurprisingly, looking to set the tone in Game 2 of their series with the Rockets after being outplayed and outworked in the opener. They ran out to a 21-point lead and, much like their first round series, it looked as though they might’ve just rope-a-doped the Rockets out of the gates and were set to take control of not just the game but the series.

The Rockets had a response, though, in the form of a third quarter run in which they caught fire from three-point range and stormed back to take a two-point lead going into the fourth quarter. However, it was there that LeBron James took over and helped push the Lakers to a 117-109 win and even the series at a game apiece going into Tuesday. It was a highly entertaining game, falling firmly into the “game of runs” category, and hopefully is indicative of what the rest of this series has to offer. Here are our takeaways from Game 2 as we now look ahead to the rest of this series.

Russ giveth and Russ taketh

Game 1 was a really good Russell Westbrook game. He didn’t shoot it great from the perimeter, but he did all the other things you want to see from him in terms of attacking downhill but staying in control and wreaking havoc on defense. In Game 2, he was the polar opposite and the Rockets got absolutely hammered in the minutes he was on the floor. Russ picked up five fouls in three quarters, which led to him playing matador defense in the fourth trying his best not to pick up a sixth. On offense, he exhibited all of his worst habits: committing turnovers, playing out of control, and generally taking the Rockets out of their rhythm on the way to 10 points, 13 rebounds, four assists, and seven turnovers.

It’s hard to overstate just how detrimental Westbrook was to the Rockets on Sunday night, as just about everyone else was spectacular in Game 2. They had five players hit at least three three-pointers, including six from Eric Gordon who was the scoring catalyst for their third quarter run that let them erase a 21-point deficit to regain the lead — James Harden’s playmaking was also sensational in that quarter.

However, when Westbrook was in the game, everything became a grind, with L.A. happily helping off of him to send extra defenders at Harden and then simply rotating back to cut off his drive rather than trying to close out on him beyond the arc. If Russ isn’t able to get to the rim under control, he makes life so much easier for the Lakers defense because it collapses the spacing for Houston — particularly when Harden’s on the floor and they’re sending doubles at him with Russ’ defender. Westbrook can still have a positive impact on this team, we saw that in Game 1, but when he’s playing as he did in Game 2, Mike D’Antoni might have to be quicker with the hook for Russ, because it was painful to watch.

LeBron and Anthony Davis showed up and showed out

The first game wasn’t a bad performance from LeBron and AD, but it wasn’t the impact those two have to have for this Lakers team to succeed. They both stepped it up in Game 2, with LeBron posting 28 points, 11 rebounds, and nine assists (including the dagger turnaround jumper) and Davis coming out aggressive early for 34 points, 10 rebounds, and four assists.

The Lakers got better contributions from the bench unit on Sunday as well, with Markieff Morris (16 points), Kyle Kuzma (13 points), and Rajon Rondo (10 points, nine assists) all chipping in some much needed help, but it seemed as though James and Davis recognized that to get through this series they can’t merely be good, they have to be great. Sunday night that was the case, with Davis opening the game strong and James shutting the door in the fourth with his play on both ends.

As the series wears on, it seems clear that the Lakers are going to do their best to combat the Rockets small-ball with their own small lineups, as Dwight Howard was a healthy scratch on Sunday and JaVale McGee played just eight minutes. That means a lot rides on Davis playing big and playing smart, which he did successfully in Game 2. There were some sloppy offensive possessions down the stretch that helped Houston stay in the game and the Lakers have to clean some things up with late game execution, but Game 2 saw their leaders step up in a big way and it seemed the rest followed.

How does each team settle in now?

In Game 1, the Rockets came out with an energy that the Lakers couldn’t match. L.A. turned the tables in Game 2 and were the ones that hit Houston first with an unbelievable opening run. The Rockets made a furious comeback in the third quarter but the effort just to claw back into a narrow two-point lead seemed to gas them out going to the fourth. Now that we’ve seen both teams throw big punches, this series figures to settle into a bit of a rhythm. For the Rockets, the question is twofold. First, it’s how do they stay intact when their three-point shooting is in a lull?

They’re a team that almost always has a run in them, but as we saw in Game 1, if they have to come back from 21 down, then even a ridiculous shooting performance like they had in the third is only enough to get ahead by a few for when the Lakers inevitably counter. We saw this play out in the OKC series as well, where the Thunder would just stay attached during the Rockets hot streak and then were able to grind out wins in close games. Houston’s going to have to win a game or two like that in this series, because LeBron almost always has a counter-run in him as he did to open the fourth.

The second for Houston is whether Russell Westbrook can avoid repeating his Game 2 performance. They already run a shortened rotation and when Russ minutes are as bad as they were on Sunday, they don’t have a lot of great options for replacing him on the floor. Eric Gordon seems to be in a great rhythm in this series and that bodes well for Houston and, theoretically, should take some of the pressure of of Westbrook. However, he still has to be a net positive when he’s on the floor even if he’s not sensational, because if not they just don’t have the bodies to make up for it.

For the Lakers, LeBron and Davis have to continue being great but that’s more than doable. It simply comes down to whether their “others” can help them weather the storm when Houston gets hot. The Rockets are capable of runs like they had in the third quarter every game, and if the Lakers don’t hit threes like they did in Game 2, Houston can really separate themselves. Kuzma, Morris, Green, and Caldwell-Pope have to be able to shoot it, and getting positive Rondo minutes is a huge boost (but Vogel has to be careful about leaning too much on him because, like Westbrook, he sinks the Lakers spacing when off the ball). It’s going to be interesting to see what adjustments come now, but I expect both teams to be settled in for Game 3 and a competitive series to be on our hands.

A number of celebrities have caught and survived COVID-19, starting with Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson back in March and continuing through Dwayne Johnson, who broke the news of his own ailment last week. You can add another familiar face to the list: Michael Rooker, longtime character actor and MCU scene-stealer, who has declared victory over the virus after what he called an “epic battle.”

In a Facebook post on Friday, Rooker — who played baddie-turned-goodie Yondu Udonta in the two Guardians of the Galaxy movies, and will have a plum role in James Gunn’s The Suicide Squad — detailed his illness with the hindsight of beating it. “If y’all aint figured it out by now why I’ve been isolating in this crazy awesome Airstream of mine, let me help y’all out by saying I’ve been fighting off COVID-19,” Rooker wrote. He continued:

Rooker said he didn’t take any extra medication (not the least being the infamous hydroxychloroquine, which has been recklessly pimped by our president). “I was either feeling like crap, or pretty dang good, semi human in fact. So, just so y’all know the end result of all those daily battles has come to an end,” Rooker wrote. “My body has won the WAR! Covid put up a pretty good fight… but bottom line, it ended up getting its ass knocked out! buy my immune system.”

He described it as a “1,2, punch to the head, 2 body shots and a left hook right upper-cut combination.”

Before getting minted by Marvel, Rooker has made untold appearances in film and TV, from a three-year stint on The Walking Dead to Days of Thunder, JFK, Cliffhanger, Tombstone, Mallrats, and many, many more. He first rose to prominence with his screen debut, as the titular ice-cold psycho in 1986’s Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer. Once this virus goes away, we’ll get to see him pop up in Fast & Furious 9. Till then, this is great news!

(Via EW)

The Houston Rockets were impressive in Game 1 of their second round series with the Lakers, giving L.A. problems on both ends of the floor on their way to a 112-97 win. It’s the second straight series that the Lakers have opened with a disappointing loss in their opening game, but this is a Rockets team with significantly more firepower than the Blazers and this Game 1 loss felt a bit more concerning.

That’s not so say the Lakers can’t turn things around and do so in a hurry, but it will be incumbent on them to make the proper adjustments to what the Rockets do. A big reason for that is that you can’t take the Rockets out of what they do and force them to adapt to you, because there isn’t a team in the NBA with a greater confidence or commitment to a system and identity than this Houston team.

What makes adjusting to Houston, particularly what they do defensively, difficult is that some of it runs counterintuitive to your initial expectations. As such, your first instinct in a gameplan can lead to some confounding results, which means adjustments are needed. Some of it for L.A. falls into the category of “play better,” most notably hitting more shots from the perimeter, but there are more tangible adjustments to be made we’ll outline a few things here that could turn the tide and help them even the series.

Don’t Try Out-Small Balling The Rockets

As I mentioned above, no one is as committed to their system and style more than Houston. As such, you’re going to have a very difficult time beating them at their game. Playing big is still the way to attack this Rockets team, particularly given the personnel the Lakers have, it’s just being smart about how you use your big lineups.

The Thunder showed in the first round that having your perimeter players attack the Rockets off the bounce in isolation when they get a favorable matchup can get good looks inside or collapse the defense to open up shooters. As Tim of the B-Ball Index points out in an excellent thread here, holding someone in the dunker’s spot against this Houston team is an effective way to force the Rockets not to help at the rim, as their way of preventing lobs is to keep a body on a big to keep them from being at the rim.

The Lakers have a deep frontcourt and they should use that more than they did in Game 1, when JaVale McGee and Dwight Howard combined for just under 24 minutes on the court. It can help open things up for LeBron James going to the basket as well as keeping Anthony Davis in 1-on-1 situations. When the Rockets aren’t helping, the Lakers are at the advantage. When you go small and allow them to switch and collapse and chase, even though it looks frantic that’s where they’re at their best on defense.

Playing big is important, but you have to be smart about how you try and take advantage of those perceived mismatches. The Rockets love to bait teams into falling in love with post-ups. Going to the post is the first thing people think about when they see the small-ball lineup with no one taller that 6’7 on the floor. Davis is great at a lot of things, but post play is not his strongest attribute. On the regular season, he averaged 0.9 points per possession on post ups, shooting 44.6 percent from the floor, per NBA Stats, and while he’s seen that jump to 1.07 points per possession in the playoffs, it’s still playing into the hands of this Houston defense. To take advantage of Houston’s size disadvantage, the answer isn’t more physicality. It’s more verticality.

The Rockets may be short, but they’re still strong. They play with incredible energy and effort, so trying to back them down doesn’t often yield an opportunity right at the rim where your advantage is at its greatest. The Lakers would be wise to use Davis as a roll-man more, where he excelled this season at 1.28 PPP, hitting 59.1 percent of his field goal attempts as the roll-man, per NBA Stats. Getting Davis — and McGee/Howard — rolling to the rim for lobs and catches deeper in the paint as a roller rather than posting up would produce far superior opportunities for him. You can even take advantage of getting Davis moving downhill with one of Howard or McGee in the weakside dunker spot, forcing Houston into quite the compromising position of not helping on Davis catching the ball off the roll towards the rim or risking leaving a lob for the other big.

Less Rajon Rondo

This isn’t the series to have non-shooters on the perimeter, even accounting for the Lakers’ dire need for more play-making. Rondo’s minutes should almost exclusively come with LeBron off of the court to serve as the primary facilitator for bench units, as he just causes problems for James and the Lakers’ spacing when they share the floor. LeBron is going to see extra bodies just about every time he puts the ball on the floor, and if Rondo is out there, it makes for a very easy decision for Houston who to leave open when they send help at James.

Now, their shooters (or, at least, the ones who are shooters in theory) have to be better and knock down shots — [stares in Danny Green and KCP] — but Rondo is such a non-threat that leaving him is a no-brainer for the Rockets defense. If you want to avoid a packed paint for James and Anthony Davis, Rondo can’t be one of your floor spacers. With a bench unit that could desperately use some creativity with James not on the court, I can more than understand shoveling Rondo minutes because, as I mentioned earlier, ball-handling and play-making is not a strength of this team. However, his minutes need to be limited, particularly as he works off some rust, and there’s no reason for him to have the sixth-most minutes on the team.

Don’t Let Eric Gordon Be A Factor

Defensively, the Lakers have to pick up their energy level a lot to match what Houston does. James Harden is going to do what he does, while Russell Westbrook was really good going downhill in Game 1 and made some big plays. However, this offense becomes an entirely different beast when Gordon is cooking because of his threat as a perimeter shooter. Gordon had 23 points on 7-for-14 shooting and that made a big difference in the opener for this Houston offense.

Sometimes Gordon can struggle to stay engaged with Harden and Westbrook as the two lead ball-handlers, but when they get him involved early and defenses allow him to get in rhythm, this becomes a nearly impossible offense to stop. Knowing who to help off of and who not to is the greatest test of defensive discipline in the modern NBA, because the best players in the world command help on the ball. Houston’s entire offense is predicated on making defenses struggle with that decision.

The easiest answer on the Rockets is Westbrook, because if he’s shooting threes, the defense is happy, and you don’t have to worry about hard closeouts, instead focusing on cutting off a driving lane with your rotation. The last guy that should be getting left is Gordon, because he’s the most capable three-point shooter and a quality ball-handler who can initiate offense immediately off the dribble if a closeout comes too hard. Everyone else on the floor is either merely a spot up shooter who you want to run off the line if able.

The Lakers gave Gordon too much opportunity in the opener, and needs to give him more focus to try and put more pressure offensively on Harden and Westbrook to be the sole creators on offense.

The Milwaukee Bucks entered Game 4 of their second round series with the Miami Heat needing a win to keep their playoff hopes alive, after the Heat won the first three games of the series, including a gutting fourth quarter of Game 3 that saw the Bucks meltdown after having a double-digit lead.

Giannis Antetokounmpo was a gametime decision for Game 4 with a right ankle injury, but was activated before tipoff and came out firing, with 19 points in the first 11 minutes before disaster struck and he aggravated the injury, spraining his right ankle and being forced out for the remainder of the game. As such, the onus fell on Khris Middleton to be the lead star on offense and the rest of the Bucks to step up around him, and that they did with a pretty incredible performance in Antetokounmpo’s absence to win it 118-115 in overtime.

Game 5 is now set for Tuesday night, with plenty of uncertainty about the Bucks’ top star, but for a team that was really lacking confidence in their ability to close, Sunday gave them some hope. Here are three takeaways from Game 4.

Khris Middleton Is Really Good

With Antetokounmpo out, Khris Middleton, who played 47 minutes (a season high), had to be the primary creator and he responded with 36 points, including 21 points in the third quarter to keep the Bucks within range of the Heat entering the fourth quarter.

While Middleton didn’t hit a shot in the fourth quarter, he came alive in overtime with some huge buckets, including the game-winner to put Milwaukee up four (and hit a pair of clutch free throws after a Miami three brought them back within one with three seconds to play).

Whether Giannis is able to play Tuesday or not, this is the kind of effort they’ll need from Middleton, who was aggressive and assertive on the offensive end, while playing excellent defense on the other. The Bucks found some success in attacking switches whenever they could to get Tyler Herro or Goran Dragic matched up with Middleton and shake free of the Jae Crowder or Jimmy Butler defense, so expect Miami to possibly adjust their coverage of the All-Star next game. Whatever the case, this was a Bucks team that had folded down the stretch a few times and to gut this win out without Giannis showed a lot from Middleton and the rest.

Miami’s Late Offense Struggled For The First Time

The fourth quarter has been where the Heat have looked the best in this series, erasing deficits or running away with wins. Jimmy Butler has been the catalyst for many of those fourth quarter runs, taking over and being the best player on the court, but in Game 4 both he and the Heat offense stagnated late. Tyler Herro hit three huge threes down the stretch to force overtime and keep Miami close in the extra period, but aside from that they really struggled to create much of anything as Milwaukee did a great job bottling up Butler and keeping Miami out of the paint.

For all the talk of Miami’s three-point shooting being their biggest advantage against this Bucks team, it’s been how well the Heat have attacked downhill, led by Butler and Dragic, that has really hurt Milwaukee. This game, the Bucks went back to protecting the paint above all, and while it yielded some runs from Duncan Robinson, Jae Crowder, and Herro from deep, it kept Butler and Dragic from taking over as each had 17 points. As the Heat fell in love with the threes, particularly from Crowder as he cooled off, things turned in Milwaukee’s favor and Miami’s offense fell out of rhythm and became a lot of standing around.

It’s possible this was simply a letdown performance for Miami, as it was a closeout Game 4 going against a Milwaukee team down an MVP. Still, I would bet the focus for Erik Spoelstra in film study on Monday will be that late game offense which shut down and allowed a tired Bucks team to not just stay in the game, but escape with a win and suddenly gain some confidence.

Bam Adebayo Holds The Key

Giannis’ status is critical for Milwaukee’s chances of winning three more games in a row here, but for the Heat, even with the late-game offensive woes, they have to feel pretty good about where they’re at. Herro saw some shots go in during crunch time, Robinson finally got loose, but maybe most importantly this was a monster performance from Adebayo. He led the Heat in every category, with 26 points, 12 rebounds, and eight assists and, honestly, the biggest mistake in the fourth was probably going away from initiating the offense with him.

He played spectacular defense on Khris Middleton at times in the fourth, and the dribble-handoff game with Duncan Robinson got on track in the middle quarters. He’s been a big reason why they’ve been able to slow down Giannis, as he’s always lurking as help behind Crowder and others if he’s not serving as the primary defender, but as Miami moves forward it’s his capabilities on offense as a threat both scoring at the rim and facilitating that gives them a real chance.

The Heat are able to hurt you in so many ways on the perimeter with two elite shooters in Herro and Robinson and a pair of great drivers in Dragic and Butler. However, as we saw in the fourth quarter, a really good defense can take away those driving lanes and smother Robinson to keep him away from the ball. The Heat were at their best in this game when things ran through Bam at the high post or in pick-and-roll, and I think that’s something for them to consider more for crunchtime, particularly when teams start throwing more aggressive ball-pressure as Milwaukee did.