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The Rockets and Mavs capped off the second night of the NBA restart in Orlando with what might’ve been a thrilling opening-round playoff preview, in a game filled with plenty of scoring and very little defense as Houston eventually outlasted Dallas in overtime, 153-149.

James Harden dropped 49 points, nine rebounds, and eight assists to lead the Rockets, while Russell Westbrook added 30 points, 11 rebounds, and eight assists, despite shooting 13-of-30 from the field and committing six turnovers. Harden now has two consecutive seasons of 20 or more 40-point games.

Kristaps Porzingis led the Mavs with 39 points and 16 rebounds on the night, and Luka Doncic logged his 15th triple-double of the season with 28 points, 11 rebounds, and 10 assists, but a late-game collapse recalled a troubling trend for Dallas.

The Mavs have had a historically good offense this season, yet have been one of the worst teams in the league in crunch time, as they let the Rockets climb back into it late in the fourth quarter and force overtime after a wild finish in regulation.

With 3.9 seconds remaining, Harden got fouled on the inbounds pass while trying to get into his shooting motion, but the officials ruled it on the floor, giving him two free-throws with the Rockets down three. He made the first, then missed the second, but Robert Covington was able to sneak into the lane and get the tip-in to tie it up at 139-139 to send it to overtime.

LOL MAVS pic.twitter.com/67xml8kFYI

— gifdsports (@gifdsports) August 1, 2020

Covington also hit a key three-pointer late in the extra period to give Houston a four-point advantage, despite going 0-of-9 from downtown up to that point, and the Rockets were able to hold on from there to get the win.

There wasn’t much defense to speak of in this contest, particularly in the first half as the two teams combined for 160 points before halftime, the highest point total of the season so far for a half. The Mavs’ 85 points also tied a franchise record set back in 1983 against the Nuggets.

Both teams got some key contributions from their role players. Houston had seven players in double-digit scoring on the night, including Danuel House Jr., who knocked down 6-of-12 from three to finish with 20 points, and Ben McLemore, who scored 13 points on perfect 4-of-4 shooting from downtown.

Trey Burke and Tim Hardaway Jr. both came up big for Dallas on the other end. Burke dropped 31 points off the bench on 8-of-10 from behind the arc, while Hardaway went 5-of-8 from three for 24 points of his own.

We even got a sighting from Dirk.

Virtual Dirk pulled up to the Rockets-Mavs game pic.twitter.com/eA1GpoOEsX

— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) August 1, 2020

With the win, the Rockets moved from sixth to fifth in the West standings.

Expectations have been awfully high for what Sabrina Ionescu, the No. 1 pick in the 2020 WNBA Draft, would bring to the league from day one. Her first two games were a pair of losses, but Ionescu still turned heads during the league’s “wubble” at IMG Academy in Florida, averaging 22.5 points, 6.5 rebounds, and 5.5 assists through this incredibly early juncture.

Ionescu looked impressive in the first half of her third game, a tilt against the Atlanta Dream, but unfortunately for the New York Liberty’s young star, she went to the locker room a bit before the end of the half. While pushing the ball up the floor, Ionescu’s foot came down on the foot of Atlanta’s Betnijah Laney, and anyone who has ever played basketball can guess what happened next.

Eventually, Ionescu made her way into the back with a little bit of help and was unable to put any weight on her left ankle.

While sitting a little more than 100 miles away within his own hoops bubble, LeBron James quickly fired off a tweet wishing the former University of Oregon standout well.

There’s no word on the extent to which Ionescu is injured or if she’ll be able to return to this game, but we’ll let you know when that information is available.

Aside from the health and safety concerns, one of the biggest apprehensions about resuming the NBA season had to do with whether it might distract from the Black Lives Matter movement that had swept across the country in the wake of George Floyd’s death at the hands of police.

In the end, the NBA opted to return, but with emphasis on using its platform and its influence to bring awareness to the ongoing fight for social reform. Since scrimmages began, several players have used their postgame availability to call for justice for Breonna Taylor, and on opening night Thursday, all four teams, along with coaches, referees, and team personnel, took a knee during the national anthem to advocate for change.

Many players have also ponied up considerable sums of cash to put toward various causes that are geared toward helping minorities and other disenfranchised groups. Kyrie Irving, for instance, has pledged $1.5 million to help provide financial support for WNBA players who are opting out the wubble in order to continue fighting for the cause.

Now, Kings forward Harrison Barnes and his wife Brittany have announced that they will donate $200,000 of their own money to various non-profit initiatives. Here’s more from the official press release:

With the Kings playing 8 games during the official restart to the season, Barnes will dedicate every game to a different organization by contributing $25K to the nonprofit and highlighting their mission on his social media.

Since breaking into the NBA, Barnes has been known for his altruistic efforts in supporting the Black community. As all eyes return to basketball this week, the Barnes’ are utilizing this time to put the spotlight on organizations that are dedicated to helping fight racial injustice and support those who have been victims of police brutality.

These are the eight organizations that the Barnes will donate to: the Trayvon Martin Foundation, the Botham Jean Foundation, the Atatiana Project, Mothers Against Police Brutality, the Michael Brown Foundation, the Tamir Rice Foundation, the Jordan Davis Foundation, and the African American Policy Reform (#SayHerName campaign).

Halo is going free-to-play in at least one way this fall. Microsoft’s killer app for the Xbox Series X had a major announcement a week after showing off a first look at the 343 Studios title gracing the next-gen console this holiday season.

The Xbox Series X games event only showed off a demo of the game’s campaign mode, but multiplayer has been an essential element of the game’s appeal from the beginning and Infinite will be no different. Which is why it’s big news that much like other major shooters, Halo Infinite‘s multiplayer will be free-to-play.

Battle royale games have certainly dipped their toes in the free-to-play realm more and more, with Call of Duty Warzone being the best example of a significant factor of a major release’s multiplayer being free to others online. Other games like Rocket League are trending in the free-to-play direction in the coming months, while some titles opt to have free-to-play weekends to attract new gamers and grow the player base.

The move here is an obvious one: it’s incentive for gamers on the fence about buying a new console to find value in the Series X. But it’s also following a trend in gaming that doesn’t appear to be going away. The much-hyped Halo campaign will still cost those who want to continue Master Chief’s story, but others looking for a much bigger fight online will have to pay less to do it this fall.

Those of us who grew up in the Alanis Morissette angst era and followed her through her transformation into a more enlightened version of herself may be thrilled to know she has a new album out. Such Pretty Forks in the Road is her first album in eight years—and the first since two of her three children were born.

Anyone who’s been working from home with kids knows that we’re all in the same frequently interrupted boat. Such is the pandemic life. But we’ve also seen how those very human moments when kids insert themselves into life are some of the most real and precious. And that reality comes shining through in Morissette’s Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon performance of her new song, “Ablaze,” which is, not so ironically, a song about her children. As she sings, it’s clear that she’s still got the chops that made her famous. It’s also clear that her 4-year-old daughter, Onyx, just sees her mommy as mommy and not as the iconic pop star that she is. The performance is lovely and sweet, and hearing Onyx’s little voice and seeing her put her hand over her mom’s mouth as she sings is just too adorably real.

Enjoy:

Alanis Morissette: Ablaze (TV Debut)

www.youtube.com

As one commenter on Reddit wrote, “Keeping in tune with a baby on your hand while she’s talking to you can’t be easy. She nailed it.” Indeed, she did. Welcome back, Alanis. Thanks for releasing an album right when we need it the most.

Sometimes you have to laugh when you really want to cry.

Rex Chapman shared a TikTok video from Australian creator Blake Pavey, in which he “checks in” with different countries regarding their coronavirus numbers, and it is sadly hilarious—especially if you’re an American.

We all know that we’re in a global pandemic, and that every country has been impacted by the virus in varying degrees. But the U.S. is in a league of our own when it comes to our national response to the outbreak, leading the world in cases. In fact, we account for nearly a quarter of the world’s cases and a quarter of the world’s deaths, despite only being about 5% of the world’s population. So much winning!

Pavey takes us around to various countries in his video, with some cute quips and one-liners. But when he gets to the U.S. and our “2600…an hour” count. Oh my. I mean, it’s hilarious, yet not. Like, it’s so unbelievably absurd that it’s laughable, even though tens of thousands of people per day being diagnosed with a potentially deadly disease with no cure and no vaccine is really no laughing matter.

Like I said, sometimes you have to laugh when you really want to cry.

Other countries must be looking at the United States like we have our heads on backwards. “I have rights. I ain’t wearin’ a mask,” unfortunately sums up far too many Americans’ attitudes about mitigating the biggest public health crisis in a century. Between the anti-maskers, the it’s-a-hoaxers, the Bill Gates conspiracy theorists, the hydroxychloroquine cultists, and the demon semen doctors muddying the waters, the U.S. is a hot freakin’ mess.

HA HA HA. It’s all so hilarious I need a box of tissues for all the tears.

At least a few of the original Scream crew members will get back together for the series reboot. Courteney Cox has reportedly signed on to reprise her role as Gale Weathers for the fifth edition of the Scream franchise. The original thriller directed by the late Wes Craven hit theaters in 1996, and now we know that at least two of the film’s original star-studded cast will return for the upcoming Part 5.

On Friday, Hollywood Reporter confirmed a report from Deadline, which adds Cox to the list of Scream originals that include David Arquette, who signed on to the project back in May:

Courteney Cox is set to reprise her role as the dogged news reporter Gale Weathers for Spyglass Media Group and Paramount Pictures as they relaunch the Scream franchise.

Cox joins the previously announced David Arquette, who also returns as Dewey Riley. Scream as a horror franchise generated four movies, including the original 1996 slasher horror movie, with all directed by the late Wes Craven and together grossing over $600 million in worldwide box office receipts.

The movie, which will be directed by the horror duo Matthew Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett (Ready Or Not) is slated to film in Wilmington, North Carolina once casting is complete. Whether others from the Scream series will return isn’t clear, but there’s certainly value in honoring the franchise’s past with some very familiar faces.

(Via Deadline & Hollywood Reporter)

Major League Baseball’s bad news got even worse on Friday, as more positive tests lead to more postponements. Now, according to a report, commissioner Rob Manfred admitted that the already belated and brief season may be in jeopardy if MLB cannot get its COVID-19 outbreaks under control.

The St. Louis Cardinals postponed games on Friday after positive coronavirus tests, adding to the growing list of teams that have experienced positive tests while attempting to play the season in home cities without a so-called bubble like the NHL, NBA, WNBA, MLS, and NWSL have instituted in recent months. Serious concerns about outbreaks have impacted teams’ abilities to field full MLB rosters, which have seen the Miami Marlins postpone a slate of games and the league institute new rules on the fly, such as the ability to make up games later in the year with 7-inning doubleheaders.

Despite these adjustments, the bad news keeps coming for baseball. More teams are undergoing contact tracing and testing as they hope they have not been exposed to the COVID-19 pandemic which has killed more than 150,000 Americans.

On Friday, ESPN’s Jeff Passan reported that even Manfred has admitted to officials that the coming days are crucial to baseball’s future in 2020, and canceling the season altogether is a real possibility.

Major League Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred told MLB Players Association executive director Tony Clark on Friday that if the sport doesn’t do a better job of managing the coronavirus, it could shut down for the season, sources familiar with the conversation told ESPN.

The story cited some “bad decisions” being made by players off the field, which would imply that players are exposing themselves to risk of exposure by going into public places. There’s also concern expressed from local health officials about congregating on the field, a lack of mask use, and players spitting and touching hands, which have been shown on camera during games — one rule the league instituted to try and prevent pitchers from doing this was letting them take a wet rag onto the mound with them. As the story notes, with more test results due back in the coming days, it could be a simple numbers game that would require Manfred to pull the plug on the season.

Should another outbreak materialize, Manfred, who has the power to shut down the season, could move in that direction. Multiple players briefed on the call fear the season could be shut down as soon as Monday if positive tests jump or if players continue not to strictly abide by the league’s protocols.

It would be an embarrassing debacle for baseball to struggle with its Players Association to get a season together in the first place, only to have it fall apart in less than a fortnight. But it also speaks to the seriousness of the COVID-19 pandemic and its uncontrollable spread in America. MLB clearly didn’t put in place enough safety measures to keep its players from bringing the virus to baseball. And now it seems possible that it will end the season well before a champion is crowned for 2020.

For as long as they’ve resided at the top of the trap world, it’s surprising that Future and Lil Uzi Vert have worked together on just a few occasions. Their first collaboration arrived with 2016’s “Too Much Sauce,” the standout single from Future and DJ Esco’s Porject E.T. tape. The single was widely celebrated by fans and became one of the anthems of that summer. A month later, Lil Uzi Vert would return the favor and all on Future for their “Seven Million” track which appeared on Lil Uzi’s The Perfect Luv Tape project. Since then, their collaborations have come far and few, but tonight the hip-hop stars deliver a new batch of songs to fans.

The two songs, “Over Your Head” and “Patek” arrive a week removed from the announcement of a joint project. In the trailer for their upcoming video, Future and Lil Uzi sit together and contemplate their next move before the video cuts out and reveals the newly-released video would be directed by Hype Williams. After seeing Future and Lil Uzi shooting a music video together, many fans were divided as to what would be arriving. Some believed it was a new collaboration, while others believed it was a visual for “All Bad” off Future’s High Off Life album, however, it was soon revealed that Lil Uzi Vert was simply making a cameo for Future’s “Posted With Demons” video.

The project also aims to continue the momentum Future and Lil Uzi Vert have carried throughout the year. Working together for “Wassup” as well as “All Bad,” both artists have landed No. 1 projects with Future’s High Off Life and Lil Uzi Vert’s Eternal Atakedeluxe version.

Listen to the video for “Patek” and “Over Your Head” above.Lil Uzi Vert is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

The New Orleans Pelicans gradually increased how many minutes Zion Williamson played when he made his NBA debut earlier this year following knee surgery. The team decided to take a similar approach during his first game in the league’s Orlando bubble on Thursday night, and apparently, the decision didn’t sit particularly well with the No. 1 pick in the 2019 NBA Draft.

Chris Haynes of Yahoo Sports, who is down in the bubble, appeared on The Dan Patrick Show to discuss how things in the bubble are going. Patrick asked him about the lack of Williamson on Thursday — he played 15 minutes in a 106-104 loss and scored 13 points on 6-for-8 shooting — and as Haynes tells it, the youngster was “pissed.”

“I’ll say this, Zion was pissed,” Haynes said. “Like, he wanted to play. And obviously, I think members of the Pelicans feel like if he was able to go down the stretch or play significant minutes, that they would’ve got the win last night.”

Haynes explained the reasoning behind the decision. Basically, the team wanted to use Williamson — who had to leave the bubble for a good portion of the ramp-up to playing — in “3-4 minute spurts,” and that he was not on any sort of formal minutes restriction. This logic, we can probably assume, won’t be the case as the bubble goes on and the Pelicans play games against other teams with whom they’re battling for the 8-seed in the Western Conference. After a tilt against the Clippers on Saturday, four of their remaining six games are against other teams at the bottom of the West, while the other two are against the Orlando Magic and the hobbled Washington Wizards.