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The Miami Heat were considerable underdogs as the 8-seed heading to Milwaukee to take on the top-seeded Bucks, but in Game 1 they jumped all over the Bucks early and never relented on their way to a 130-117 win. The game saw both teams lose important players, with Giannis Antetokounmpo suffering a back injury on a hard fall in the first quarter and being unable to continue and Tyler Herro breaking his hand in the second quarter for Miami.

Both teams had wing stars go for big games, as Jimmy Butler was sensational with 35 points and 11 assists, while Khris Middleton had 33 points to do what he could to keep the Bucks in the game without Giannis. It was the performance of the rest of the rosters that earned Miami a win, particularly with their three-point shooting as they knocked down 60 percent of their threes compared to just 24.4 percent from deep by Milwaukee. Health looms large, as Herro’s series is over and Giannis’ status is a question mark for Game 2 and beyond. Antetokounmpo’s status, of course, will be the most important thing in how this series progresses, but here we’ll look at three non-injury takeaways from Game 1 that will play a critical role moving forward.

Bam Adebayo Showing Up Offensively

Adebayo was not a particularly big factor offensively in the Play-In games, but his role in this series is particularly crucial because of how Milwaukee defends the pick-and-roll. Because Brook Lopez is constantly in a deep drop to stop opponents from getting looks at the rim, there are a ton of opportunities for Adebayo to get the ball in the short midrange and score. On Sunday, he took those opportunities and turned them into 22 points (and seven assists) on 18 shots, as he did well to be assertive, particularly once Herro went out of the game.

Without Herro, who will miss the rest of the series, Butler needs someone to be a release valve. Butler’s playoff track record is so strong that while he might not go for 35/11 every night, it’s not unreasonable to think he can continue producing at a level fairly close to that on a regular basis in this series. That’s provided the rest of the Heat can do enough to force Milwaukee to defend the entire floor, and Adebayo represents one of the key elements to that. The floor spacers will go through hot and cold spells from three, but Adebayo can be a consistent outlet inside the arc. The question is whether he’s willing to be aggressive enough in seeking out his own shot to make Milwaukee pay for that deep drop, willing to accept a few open misses and not be deterred. If he does that, it will give Miami more dimension to their offense than being as reliant on threes falling as often they were in this one.

Is This Just What Jrue Holiday Is In The Playoffs?

We are now into our third season of Jrue Holiday being highly inefficient as a scorer in the postseason, and it’s a genuine concern for the Bucks, particularly with Giannis banged up. Middleton’s postseason excellence is expected, but unlike Butler, there’s got to be at least some worry about his ability to hold up given his knee issues if asked to be this important to the Bucks’ offensive creation. That’s where Holiday, theoretically, steps in to be an offensive leader, but he’s been a sub-40 percent shooter for two straight postseasons (and a 30.8 percent three-point shooter). On Sunday, he was once again effective as a facilitator (16 assists), but as a scorer he was predictably rough, scoring 16 points on 6-of-18 shooting (2-of-9 from three).

There is no other option for the Bucks other than playing Holiday massive minutes because of his defense and his creation for others is so important to their offense they can’t take the ball out of his hands. That said, if he’s going to shoot like this, he has to figure out how to be a more selective shooter. Holiday has had one of the stranger green lights in the league since arriving in Milwaukee, regularly pulling up for what we’ll call interesting early clock shots. That works in the regular season given the Bucks’ general dominance, but in the playoffs when their margins get tighter, it can be a real issue. Holiday was a massive reason they won the 2021 title even with his shooting woes, so it’s not something they haven’t dealt with successfully in the past, but with Giannis out, the likelihood of them overcoming nights like this from Holiday shrinks considerably.

Can The Heat Stay Hot From Three?

I’m not talking about shooting 60 percent from deep, because that’s not going to happen, but their pathway to success in this series always required them to shoot it much better than they did this regular season (34.4 percent). Kevin Love suddenly being a positive impact player was a massive boost in Game 1, as he knocked down four threes and scored 18 off the bench — although his ability to avoid being put in trouble spots on defense decreases considerably when Giannis is on the floor. Even without Love’s surprising shooting night, the rest of the Heat’s “others” all had very good nights from three.

Max Strus, Caleb Martin, and Gabe Vincent were 8-of-12 from three on the night, and they’re going to continue getting very good looks given how Milwaukee plays defense, collapsing on stars when they drive and being willing to give non-elite shooters open looks with late closeouts. This has always been the issue for Milwaukee’s defense in the postseason, but they bank on opposing teams not being able to shoot at a strong enough clip for seven games to beat them. That is usually the case, but at this point, Miami only has to do it for a few more games to make things very interesting for the top seed in the East.

On the flip side, will the Bucks find the bottom of the net from three? Brook Lopez went 0-for-3, Middleton and Holiday were a combined 4-for-16, and Jae Crowder, Bobby Portis (who was otherwise terrific), and Jevon Carter combined to shoot 0-for-11 from deep. This is far from the first time Milwaukee’s had a rough shooting night in the playoffs, and the biggest knock on them over the years has been a halfcourt offense that bogs down and struggles to knock down shots. It’s not real fun to talk about three-point variance being the biggest part of a series, because there’s not much to say other than “guys have to make shots.” But after Game 1, it really might come down to whose guys make shots.

In late March, the news broke that Oscar Award-winning musician Questlove was set to direct Disney’s live-action remake of The Aristocats. Originally released as an animated movie in 1970, the movie will see quite a few changes, or so Questlove joked on Instagram.

Taking a fan-created mashup from the original film in which the famed animated cats were gathering around, playing and singing along with the orchestra piano, but there was a slight adjustment. Instead of the beloved jolly musical score, instead is a blaring metal track.

Uploading the clip to his official Instagram page, the musician captioned the video, “Think I won’t? Psssssh 90 mins of just this…watch,” joking about the creative liberties he plans on taking in the movie.

Garnering over 27,000 likes in less than 10 hours, it seems like fans are feeling the modification to the animated children’s film classic.

One follower in the comments section wrote, “I’m here for it!!!!! This is my fav part of the original film!!! The cats were PRAISING, ya hear me?!?!?!”

Another user wrote, “Meowtalica.”

“Everybody Wants to BE A *LOW GROWL* CAAAAAAAT,” chimed a user reimagining the film’s original song.

Even actor Michael B. Jordan joined the comments leaving a trail of crying laughing emojis.

At this time, the movie has not yet received a public release date.

The second day of the postseason brought with it the injury bug, as a number of star players suffered game-ending injuries in the first two games of Sunday’s action.

Ja Morant hurt his hand in loss to the Lakers, and noted after the game his status for Game 2 is in serious jeopardy after crashing to the floor in the fourth quarter. Early in Game 1 between the Heat and Bucks, Giannis Antetokounmpo suffered a back injury after Kevin Love slid in late trying to take a charge, leading the two-time MVP to slam hard on his back as he fell to the floor. Giannis would try to return, but was unable to continue, with the Bucks officially announcing his game was done in the second quarter.

Later in that quarter, the Heat would see one of their best players likewise go down with an injury, as Tyler Herro broke his right hand diving for a loose ball as Grayson Allen picked it up. Herro was in serious pain immediately and tried to run to the locker room, but play was still going on and the Heat for some reason didn’t call a timeout, so he stood in the corner holding his hand in pain and eventually got passed the ball and tried to take a three with a broken hand. He did not make it, but the Heat got a putback bucket and Herro would finally be able to leave the floor on the next possession.

It is unbelievable that he was even able to put a shot up with a broken hand (and have it at least somewhat on line), but the Heat probably should’ve called timeout to get him out of the game prior to that being a possibility. His day is done and one would expect he’ll miss at least the rest of the series and likely beyond should the Heat advance, which is a huge blow for a team that already has its struggles with offensive creation. Herro had 12 points in his 19 minutes of action before suffering the broken hand, the second most on the team behind Jimmy Butler’s red-hot start.

All eyes are on Coachella this weekend. However, that didn’t stop the rock band Bleachers from giving their all during their set at High Water Festival. Pulling out all the stops for their setlist, which included songs “Let’s Get Married,” “Chinatown,” “Everybody Lost Somebody,” and more, they took it up a notch by bringing out singer Lana Del Rey.

Together the musicians performed their 2021 song “Secret Life” off their album Take the Sadness Out of Saturday Night, and Del Rey, backed by the band, gave her live debut performance of her song “Margaret,” which features the group. The group ebbed and flowed graciously with the festivalgoers locked into her note played, and every note sang.

As rumor has it, Lana Del Rey is engaged to Evan Winiker, a managing partner at Range Media Partners and former Steel Train bandmate of Bleachers’ Jack Antonoff.

“While the couple has successfully kept their relationship under wraps, they’ve been spotted in public a few times together over the past several months, including a September outing at the Malibu Chili Cook-Off festival and, most recently, at Pappy and Harriet’s restaurant in Pioneertown, California, earlier this month, where they posed for pictures with fans,” reported the outlet.

Watch the full clip of Lana Del Rey performing ‘Margaret’ below.

Did You Know That There’s A Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd is out now via Interscope. Find more information here.

For the second game in a row, an All-Star player was taken out of the game after a hard fall after a player slid in front of them to try taking a charge. Ja Morant left the fourth quarter of Lakers-Grizzlies with a right hand injury after Anthony Davis stepped in front as he took off on a drive, resulting in Morant crashing hard to the floor and hurting his hand bracing the impact.

In Milwaukee in the next game of the afternoon, Giannis Antetokounmpo crashed to the floor as Kevin Love slid in front of a drive trying to take a charge, landing extremely hard on his back as he twisted through the air after contact. Love was given a blocking call for coming in late, but Giannis took the worst of it, going back to the locker room after shooting his free throws.

Giannis would try to give it a go after that, but only played another minute or so before exiting the game for good, with the team announcing he was out for the game with what is officially described as a “lower back contusion.”

Seeing a pair of star players leave Game 1 of the first round on the same type of play might just be the impetus the league needs to make some changes to rules on charges, particularly with players stepping in after the player has begun their upward motion for a layup or dunk. As some have posited, the league could look to deter such actions by using the same policy they use with jump shooters, protecting their landing space by issuing flagrant fouls for stepping under a shooter by doing the same for drivers that have people slide underneath them once in the air.

The Los Angeles Lakers took Game 1 on the road in Memphis on Sunday afternoon in come from behind fashion, as they got a second half takeover from two rather unlikely sources. While Anthony Davis dominated early (and survived a shoulder injury scare), it was Rui Hachimura and Austin Reaves who carried the Lakers to the win in the second half.

Hachimura was terrific all game, but particularly in the second half, when he took full advantage of Jaren Jackson Jr. helping off of him to try and send doubles at Davis and James. In his first postseason experience, Hachimura went 11-of-14 from the field and 5-of-6 from three-point range to drop 29 points off the bench for L.A., leading the Lakers in scoring in the win.

In the fourth quarter, Reaves and Hachimura each assisted each other on huge threes, with the highlight of the night coming on a Reaves behind-the-back feed to Rui for a three that put L.A. back up eight with three minutes to play.

In the final quarter, the duo scored 23 of the Lakers’ 32 points as they ran away from Memphis en route to a 128-112 win, including a 15-0 close to the game after Ja Morant went out with an injury.

Reaves accounted for 14 of those points, pouring in bucket after bucket down the stretch as he became the primary creator for the Lakers, with LeBron seemingly happy to take a backseat. After his pull-up jumper to put the Lakers up eight with 90 seconds to play, a mic’d up Reaves declared “I’M HIM!” to the delight of D’Angelo Russell and the Lakers bench.

Given how reliant the Lakers have so often been on James and Davis to carry the load, particularly down the stretch, it’s hard to overstate the importance of them being able to get a game in this series where those two almost get to rest a fourth quarter (even while playing) and let Reaves and Hachimura get it done. No one expects those two to combine for 52 points most nights, but it will certainly build their confidence they can knock down shots when they find themselves open in the postseason and even stealing one game on the backs of the “others” tilts the scales in the Lakers favor.

Ice Spice might not have been on this year’s Coachella lineup, but that didn’t stop her from making her way down the California desert. The “Munch (Feelin’ U)” rapper was selected as one of the featured guest musical acts of Revolve Festival. Although it has no official affiliation with Coachella, the exclusive invite-only influencer-centered multiday event is held annually on the first weekend of Coachella.

Going down in Thermal, California, a community inside the Coachella Valley, Ice Spice was spotted preparing for her set.

Taking the stage at the Revolve Festival, the spice cabinet (a nickname of Ice Spice’s fan base) quickly embraced the Bronx, New York native. Fresh off the release of her song and visual for “Princess Diana (Remix)” featuring Nicki Minaj, the rapper was sure to include it in her set.

While Minaj did not come out for Ice Spice’s performance, that didn’t stop the rapper from showing love to her collaborator on Instagram. In a video uploaded to Ice Spice’s page, captioned, “Like grah,” the musician is seen having a lighthearted twerk-off with Minaj inside the studio.

With Ice Spice scheduled to perform at this year’s Summer Jam festival in New York, maybe Nicki Minaj will pop out for a guest appearance.

Republicans love to claim Joe Biden is “senile” or cognitively impaired. But — and hear us out on this one — what if it’s all projection? What if one of the biggest people calling out the current president’s alleged mental decline is himself suffering from something similar? We’re of course talking about Donald Trump.

At Friday’s annual National Rifle Association convention — held amidst a massive uptick in mass shootings, including at schools — Trump delivered one of his rambling, self-absorbed whine-fests. He blamed the gun epidemic on transgender people, of course. He made fun of Mike Pence, who got booed earlier. He again talked about the “n-word” (no, not that one).

He also at one point made a bizarre detour into something about “hundreds” of people stealing refrigerators from “apartment stores.”

“When you see these gangs of hundreds of young, usually young people go and attack an apartment store, a department store in San Francisco and Los Angeles and Chicago,” a former U.S. president told the crowd. “And they run in by the hundreds and they’re running out carrying refrigerators, and carrying air conditioners, big stuff, big, little everything. Fur coats, non-fur coats, everything they’re carrying. They empty out the stores.”

As is often the case with Trump’s addresses, it’s not clear what he’s talking about. He has a habit of parroting half-remembered information someone may have told him a few days prior. Did someone tell him people are running around with giant refrigerators on their backs? Who knows!

Whatever the case, a lot of people called bull.

Then again, maybe all the people mocking Trump’s weird broken brain are simply forgetting about that “difficult” cognitive test he took a few years ago, which he couldn’t stop bragging about passing.

(Via HuffPost)

Ja Morant has been a dominant postseason player when healthy over the last two years, but a year ago his playoffs got cut short due to an injury in Game 3 of the second round against the Warriors. This year, he got off to a solid, even if not spectacular, beginning to his 2023 postseason campaign, scoring 18 points in 30 minutes of action, but in the mid-fourth quarter, he once again had to exit a playoff game with a scary looking injury.

Morant skied to the rim over Anthony Davis who had slid in front to try and take a charge (which he successfully drew, per the officials), but as he came crashing to the floor, he landed awkwardly on his right hand and wrist and was in serious pain, having to leave the court immediately.

You could see on the final replay how his right hand actually gets turned over as he braces himself, leading to the injury that caused him to exit the game.

He would eventually return to the bench with his hand and wrist wrapped, but would not re-enter the game creating plenty of concern moving forward for the Grizzlies in the series. While Memphis hung around briefly, the Lakers would go on a 15-0 run to end the game, closing out what became a 128-112 road win for L.A. It was not a particularly good showing from Memphis, but they were in the game until Morant left with just under six minutes to play and things started to fall apart after that. Without him, they face a seriously uphill battle and we’ll await word on just how severe the injury is and whether he’ll miss time going forward in the series.

UPDATE: The good news on the initial update is there was nothing broken in Morant’s hand or wrist after X-rays were taken, but Taylor Jenkins did say he’s still dealing with considerable pain.

The closing day of Coachella’s first weekend is getting ready to begin. With Frank Ocean making his epic return as the evening’s headliner, tens of thousands of avid music lovers have made the Empire Polo Ground their temporary home. Many opening acts and first-time performers are taking advantage of all the eyes on them both in-person and via the festival’s YouTube stream. Indie pop band Muna debuted a new song during their set, and so did the Swamp Princess herself, Doechii.

Always listening intently to what fans want, the rapper gave fans a taste of what new music she has slated to come down the pipeline. In video footage captured by our very own Cherise Johnson, Doechii teases pieces of a new song. The high-energy track blends together punk and rap elements, making it the perfect rager ready to dominate the mosh pit track.

“That’s it! Just a little taste,” as she cues her DJ to end the track. “And that song is called ‘Pacer,’” declares the musician.

Doechii also carved out a moment during her Coachella set to pay homage to Beyoncé rapping her song, “Heated,” which was featured on her record-breaking album Renaissance.

View Doechii’s entire Coachella set list on Friday (April 14), according to Setlist.fm below.

1. “Ignant”
2. “Swamp Bitches”
3. “B*tch I’m Nice”
4. “Crazy”
5. “Yucky Blucky Fruitcake”
6. “Pms”
7. “Stressed”
8. “What It Is”
9. “Persuasive”