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The Philadelphia 76ers had a chance to get back to .500 on the season on Sunday night, but would have to do so on the second game of a back-to-back (without James Harden) against the West’s surprising top team, the Utah Jazz.

A night after putting 42 points on the Atlanta Hawks, Joel Embiid authored an even more impressive performance in what became a 105-98 Sixers win, as he set a new career-high with 59 points on 19-of-28 shooting (20-of-24 from the free throw line) along with 11 rebounds, eight assists, and seven blocks. He was sensational all night, but put forth his best work in the fourth quarter, scoring 26 in the final frame to carry the Sixers to a win on a night where only Tyrese Maxey (18 points) joined him in double figures.

Embiid took advantage of the smaller Jazz, as Kelly Olynyk and Lauri Markkanen simply didn’t have enough size to contend with the big fella, and in the fourth quarter he was absolutely dominant in carrying Philly to the win. It was not only Embiid’s best scoring game of his career, but very well his most complete game, as he passed well out of doubles (as evidenced by eight assists) and was unbelievable defensively with seven blocks.

While he did a lot of damage at the stripe, he also put the full arsenal on display in the final frame, beating the Jazz from inside and out as they just had no answers to matchup with him.

His biggest play of the game might have been on the defensive end, where he chased down Collin Sexton for a ridiculous block that preserved a three-point advantage for the Sixers with under 90 seconds to play in the game.

On a night where the Sixers’ star would’ve been forgiven for maybe not having his best on the second night of a back-to-back, he was better than ever on both ends, getting the Sixers a much needed win to get back to .500 at 7-7 and reasserting that he just might be getting back to MVP form.

Sunday’s matchup between the Cavs and Timberwolves saw both teams trying to snap 3-game losing streaks, with Cleveland tasked with doing so without Donovan Mitchell or Jarrett Allen.

Those absences proved too much for the Cavs to overcome, as Minnesota jumped out to a 20-point lead after the first quarter and maintained that edge into the fourth, before Cleveland mounted a comeback that fell just short in a 129-124 Wolves win. D’Angelo Russell and Karl-Anthony Towns starred for Minnesota, scoring 59 points combined in the win, but they had some serious competition in the form of Darius Garland, as the Cavs’ All-Star point guard put up a career-high 51 points in the loss.

It was the first 50-point outing of the 2022-23 season from anyone in the NBA, and Garland’s heroics were nearly enough to reel in the Wolves in the fourth quarter, as Cleveland cut the lead to as few as two in the final minute. The comeback attempt was ended by a terrific play from Rudy Gobert as he tipped a long inbound pass attempt from Kevin Love into Taurean Prince’s hands, who hit two free throws to ice the game.

It’s a much-needed win for a Minnesota team that’s been scuffling throughout the start to the season, finally seeing Towns and Gobert put together double-doubles in the same game and Russell breaking out of his shooting slump. For the Cavs, it’s a tough loss that, while understandable considering their absences, puts them on a four-game losing streak with little in the way of reprieve upcoming as they face the East’s top team, Milwaukee, next. That said, seeing Garland get rolling with a 50-point night is a silver lining on what looked like it might be a miserable night before the fourth quarter.

Barbz, rejoice! New music from Nicki Minaj is on the way. Today, the “Super Freaky Girl” rapper took to her Instagram story to announce a new collaboration with Maluma and Myriam Fares, which is set to drop this coming week.

On the story is an arrangement of three pairs of cleats tied to a fence, with each of the artists’ names printed onto them. One cleat has the number 11 printed, another reads 18, and the third reads 22, indicating that the single will drop next Friday, November 18.

At the time of writing, there’s no word about an official title for the song, however, it appears the song may be an anthem for the 2022 FIFA World Cup.

Earlier today, Nicki Minaj won Best Hip Hop at the MTV EMAs, and her song, “Super Freaky Girl” won Best Song.

Perhaps this star-studded collab isn’t the only bit of new music from Minaj we’ll be getting in the near future. In a recent interview with I-D Minaj spoke with City Girls’ JT about her several upcoming projects.

When JT asked Minaj what she has planned, Minaj responded. “The fifth album. I’m not gonna say when it’s gonna come out, but the album will be out soon.”

Prior to the season there was an expectation that we could see some all-time tanking efforts this season because of the talent at the top of the 2023 draft class, headlined by Victor Wembanyama. The 7’3 (and maybe growing?) French star is a generational prospect and teams got to see that up close when he put on a show in two exhibitions against Scoot Henderson (the No. 2 prospect) and the G League Ignite just before the NBA season started.

To this point, the ultimate tank-off hasn’t materialized just yet, with the likes of the Thunder, Spurs, Jazz, and Pacers — all teams expected to be part of a race to the bottom — playing near .500 or better ball through an eighth of the season. That figures to eventually change and at some point the chase for a bottom three record in the league (and 14 percent odds at Wembanyama) will be on.

For anyone skeptical of Wembanyama’s stature as an elite prospect, all you need to do is listen to the way current NBA stars talk about him after they see him up close. LeBron James heaped praise on the young star for his immense on-court abilities, and also for how he carries himself off the court despite all the hype. Stephen Curry likened him to a create-a-player in 2K come to life. And most recently, Giannis Antetokounmpo — who has a strong argument to holding the title of the best player in the world — explained to Serge Ibaka on “How Hungry Are You?” why Wembanyama is going to be a “big problem” for the NBA when he arrives.

I love Giannis starting by asking how much longer Serge wants to keep playing, as if he’s hinting that the veteran big man might want to reconsider his stance on staying around once Wemby arrives in the league. From there, he explains that Wembanyama “blocks shots like Rudy, but shoots like KD,” which is the type of thing that you would typically brush aside as hyperbole, but when you watch the young French star play you can’t help but think the exact same thing.

You can tell that the league’s best take Wembanyama very seriously as a threat as he prepares to enter the NBA, and we’ll see just how quickly he can assert himself as a star caliber player when he arrives next fall.

Taylor Swift surprisingly showed up at the 2022 MTV EMAs in Dusseldorf, Germany, today (November 13), and she was repaid by winning Best Artist, Best Pop, Best Longform Video, and Best Video. The Midnights maven accepted all, including two more awards for her All Too Well: The Short Film, on stage — except for Best Pop.

Hosts Rita Ora and Taika Waititi gave Swift a dose of her medicine by surprising her backstage. They gave her champagne, a random throw pillow, and a bucket. Ora expressed how happy everyone was to be in Swift’s presence and praised her acceptance speeches — and then things got awkward.

“How do you like your new award? Ora asked. “What is it?” Swift asked, not realizing the bucket in her hands was her Best Pop award. “They said you were saying hi, but I’m so happy to know that this is actually mine. They said you guys wanted to meet here, so I came back here. If this is indeed another award that is for me and we didn’t just make a mistake because we’re all having a good time, I would like to say, thank you to the fans — oh, it’s Best Pop?”

Swift continued, “OK, so I will say, I do some genre-shifting throughout my career. And so, I know how hard it is to be in pop music. You gotta wear a lot of sequins and learn choreography, and that is very hard. And I appreciate any award for that.”

Check out clips of Swift at the 2022 MTV EMAs below, and view the complete winners list here.

The Bills and Vikings met in the game of the week for Week 10 in the NFL and for much of the afternoon in Buffalo it seemed like there would be little in the way of drama, as the Bills led 24-10 in the third quarter. However, the NFL has a way of delivering and the Vikings clawed their way back to within four, getting the ball back late in the fourth with a chance to win.

They would march all the way down to inside the Bills 1 — thanks to an unreal 4th and 18 catch by Justin Jefferson to extend the drive — but get stuffed on a sneak by Kirk Cousins inches shy of the goal line. On the first play for the Bills, needing to simply get a little room to take knees, Josh Allen fumbled the snap in the end zone as he got set for a sneak of his own, with the Vikings recovering for the go-ahead touchdown.

The reverse angle shows that the ball never got to Allen clean and stayed in the end zone for the recovery, putting Minnesota up by three.

However, the Vikings would proceed to play one of the worst prevent defenses you’ll ever see, allowing Allen to pick them apart down the sidelines for chunk play after chunk play, setting up a chip shot field goal to force overtime. The biggest play of the drive was a controversial catch by Gabe Davis on the sideline that wasn’t reviewed despite there being an a pretty clear bobble as he went to the ground.

Still, Minnesota was playing far too soft and was seemingly determined to let the Vikings move it with ease. In overtime, Minnesota would get the ball first and go on a march of their own, with Jefferson again making a tremendous catch on the sideline to get them into Bills territory and then one more to put the ball on the 2.

However, the Vikings could only manage a field goal from there and Josh Allen got the ball back with a chance to redeem himself. Unfortunately, after leading a march into the red zone, he would fire his second interception of the second half in the end zone (both to Patrick Peterson), as the veteran DB ended the game in style with Allen slamming his helmet in frustration.

That loss puts the Bills behind the 8-ball in terms of the chase for the 1-seed and the lone bye in the AFC, as they move a game behind the Chiefs in the standings after KC won against the Jaguars. It’s the second straight game where Allen has made some poor decisions with the football, after being incredibly clean with turnovers for most of the last two years, which is of some concern for Bills fans.

As for Minnesota, despite looking shaky for much of the day they somehow come away with the win and move to 8-1 on the season with yet another comeback win, firmly planted in the 2-seed in the NFC and just a game back of the undefeated Eagles.

Back in August, the then-newly merged Warner Bros. Discovery made a shocking decision: They were shelving two films that were close to completion. One was Batgirl, which would have played a key role in the DCEU timeline. The other was Scoob!: Holiday Haunt, the sequel to the 2020’s animated take on the classic cartoon. The company made the rash decision for tax reasons, but they let at least the makers of Scoob! finish their film — even though they vowed it would never be seen.

In a recent interview with Variety, the movie’s director, Michael Kurinsky, who described his shock at working for nearly three decades in the business, only to have his directorial debut taken away from him. He estimates he and his team were 95% done, with only a “few hundred shots that needed to be finished, lit, rendered and then approved.” He was in a meeting for the film when he heard the news — not from Warner Bros. Discovery, but from someone who messaged him on Twitter, asking if it was true.

Thing is, Warner Bros. Discovery allowed them to still complete the film, just for posterity’s sake…sort of:

“The reason we were able to finish this movie is because it was already paid for,” he explained. “I can’t say it was [Warner Bros] saying, ‘Please finish this movie, we want you to.’ I think it was more like, ‘Finish the movie because we’ve paid to finish the movie.’”

He continued: “At the end of the day, I don’t care why and how it got finished. I’m glad it got finished because so many people worked so hard to make something so beautiful and really great.”

So what was the film about? Well, the gang were still kids, for one thing. Kurinsky explained the rest:

“The plot was basically Scooby-Doo’s first Christmas … The gang takes Scooby up to this [holiday themed resort] that Fred’s uncle owns. And of course, just like every other Scooby-Doo episode, they go up to a place, a mystery presents itself and the gang now gets involved in the mystery. And we’re off!”

Batgirl got a bittersweet send-off, with people holding “funeral screenings” on the studio lot, leaving them among the only people who may ever see it. Who knows? Maybe Warner Bros. Discovery execs will have an unpredictable change of heart and allow them to be released into the wild after all. Doing that just might get them back in the good graces of Brendan Fraser.

(Via Variety)

Today (November 13) marks 10 years since The Weeknd released his first three mixtapes to digital and streaming platforms, as well as physical discs, in the form of a compilation called Trilogy. The mixtapes — House Of Balloons, Thursday, and Echoes Of Silence — were released to mixtape-sharing platfroms a year prior, however, “Wicked Games” from his debut mixtape, House Of Balloons became a sleeper hit in 2012, leading to fan demand for a proper project.

At the time of Trilogy‘s release, many of the samples and sound mixes from the 2011 mixtapes were changed for the 2012 compilations, as The Weeknd was unable to clear the samples for the release. In March of 2021, he re-released House Of Balloons with the original samples and sound mixes, and followed suit with the other two mixtapes on their respective anniversaries.

Today, The Weeknd shared that now that he has been able to clear the original mixes, he may remove the Trilogy compilation from streaming platforms.

“if y’all wanna hear the trilogy how it’s supposed to be listened to … listen to House of Balloons, Thursday and Echoes of Silence individually,” he said in a tweet. “not all samples are on Trilogy and the mix isn’t the original mix. But shout out Trilogy but fyi, for the new fans, it isn’t an album.”

He followed this up, saying, “I might get rid of the compilation just so there’s no more confusion, now that ALL the samples are finally cleared since December 17, 2021.”

“But I also know there are fans of the compilation so I might not get rid of it,” he continued, “But just want it to be clear for all the new fans and weirdly older fans …”

At the time of writing, House Of Balloons, Thursday, and Echoes Of Silence are all on digital streaming platforms in their original mixes.

The Minnesota Vikings looked like they were going to get blown out by the Bills in Buffalo for most of the day on Sunday, but after an improbable comeback in the second half from down 14, they found themselves with the ball and a chance to win the game.

However, on third down, Von Miller got home and sacked Kirk Cousins to seemingly seal the deal, forcing Minnesota to go for it on 4th and 18 from deep in their own territory.

On that play, Kirk Cousins would simply throw it up to Justin Jefferson for what appeared to be a sure interception, only for Jefferson to somehow reach one hand back and pry the ball away from the Bills DB for an unbelievable catch to keep the Vikings hopes alive.

I MEAN LOOK AT THIS!

It’s like the Odell Beckham Jr. catch but in traffic while ripping the ball away from a DB. It is legitimately one of the greatest catches I have ever seen in my life and it doesn’t even feel like hyperbole to say that. Jefferson would make two more incredible catches on the drive to set up a 4th and goal from inside the 1 with 54 seconds to play. The Bills got two stops, with the first negated by offsides but the second standing after a lengthy review, as they stuffed Cousins on a sneak attempt just shy of the goal line.

However, on the Bills attempt to sneak the ball off their own goal line, Josh Allen fumbled the snap in his own end zone and it was recovered by Minnesota for the go-ahead score in one of the most absurd endings of a game this year.

Drake has notched the 12th No. 1 album of his career with Her Loss, his joint album with 21 Savage, who now has three No. 1 albums. Billboard announced this afternoon (November 13) that Her Loss has debuted atop its albums chart dated November 19 “with the year’s biggest week for an R&B/hip-hop set and fourth-largest streaming week ever for any album.”

The publication relayed that Her Loss moved 404,000 equivalent album units, including 513.56 million official streams. That streaming number slots behind Taylor Swift’s Midnights (549.26 million), Drake’s Certified Lover Boy (743.67 million) and Drake’s Scorpion (745.92 million) as the fourth-best streaming week in history. Only The Beatles (19) and Jay-Z (14) have more No. 1s than Drake’s dozen.

Her Loss ends Swift’s Midnights reign atop the Billboard 200. Midnights debuted at No. 1 with the biggest first-week numbers since Adele’s 25 in 2015. Midnights maintained the top spot for a second consecutive week in which, you guessed it, the album netted the most significant second-week total since Adele’s 25 in 2015.

Drake and Savage have gone out of their way to attract attention to Her Loss, and it worked. The power duo conducted a full-blown fake promotional cycle, including a spoof Howard Stern interview, a staged SNL performance, and a photoshopped Vogue cover that resulted in a copyright infringement suit from Conde Nast. More seriously, Her Loss lyrics aimed at Megan Thee Stallion, DRAM, and Serena Williams have attracted scrutiny.