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Glance at the Washington Mystics’ place in the WNBA standings (5th, 20-14) and you may scoff when I call them a legit title contender, but don’t be fooled by their mid-seed position, this is a team no one will want to see in the playoffs.

The Mystics play a slow methodical offensive game, tied for 12th in pace and with an average offense according to Her Hoop Stats. However, Washington is built on the back of a the league’s best defense, and one of the better units in recent league history, sporting a Top 25 ranking in opponent points per 100 possessions since 2010. They grind teams down to a pulp, smothering ball screens, erasing drives, and creating a no fly zone of sorts in the passing lanes and around the rim.

The biggest thing to understand when assessing the Mystics’ title odds is their 4-7 record of Washington when star forward Elena Delle Donne rests. Delle Donne’s health is routinely a question and understandably so as she deals with the complications brought on by Lyme Disease, but if she’s able to play the full postseason schedule, Washington will have a great chance. The former MVP is still one of the best players in the league (top 10 or higher, in my opinion) when healthy and on the court — I’m still miffed that she wasn’t voted to the All-Star team this year.

Washington’s halfcourt offense can get bogged down, but with Delle Donne in, the offense has much more fluidity and purpose. That makes a great deal of sense when considering the roster is built around her scoring versatility. Barring health constraints in the playoffs, I’d argue their style of play can fit much better in a series where matchups matter more than in regular season games.

Part of what makes this Mystics team such a joy to watch and a steady competitor is an incredibly versatile and modern roster. There’s length in abundance and numerous players capable of handling, shooting, and playmaking at various levels. No player embodies that versatility more that Shatori Walker-Kimbrough. Walker-Kimbrough’s stat line doesn’t often stand out, but it doesn’t need to on a team with Ariel Atkins, Delle Donne, and Natasha Cloud. Her connective abilities amplify the skills of the team’s on-ball players while adding cohesive threads to the fabric of the Mystics.

Walker-Kimbrough extracts the most out of her scoring gravity. Even as a relatively average shooter, she’s incredibly willing to fire away, essential in actually drawing the defense into rotation. While she doesn’t draw the hardest closeouts or more intense coverages, she parlays that off-ball threat into secondary on-ball reps. Her passing and playmaking ability shines remarkably attacking off of the weak side, adding a second crack to an already scrambling defense.

Her pacing and tempo as a handler are really fun and effective. She throws in a great deal of stutters in her footwork and hesitations with her handle to momentarily freeze defenders. She doesn’t possess the quickest first step, but she has wonderful shift moving East-West, one of my favorite parts of her game. She’s adept at forcing small rotations, tricking help defenders into stepping over, and throwing darts out to the nail or the corner. She knows she’s not getting to the rim, but she sells the attack with an extra step or two to antagonize defensive shift, and I can’t iterate enough how awesome that is.

She’s rarely sped up with the ball in her hands and has a wide array of ways to get the ball off: cross-body throws, one-handed fastballs, overhead tosses, and some wonderful usage of jump passes to craft new angles. Again, that extra 10 percent of movement she applies makes such a significant difference in extrapolating the margins of an offensive possession. Her connective passing is crisp and lightning quick, making decisions before the ball even gets to her.

Walker-Kimbrough draws fouls at an above-average rate, using her craft and guile to draw contact in the paint. She excels working out of hand-offs and out of the slots, and her two-player game chemistry with both Myisha Hines-Allen and Elizabeth Williams has been a staple of Washington’s offensive flow.

On the defensive end, she has quick hands and is active with her length, ranking 15th in the league in steal rate. The Mystics play a slow place as mentioned earlier, but Walker-Kimbrough has a keen ability to create easy offense, translating offense to defense. She’s incredibly effective playing up at the nail or rotating low, and times close-outs well. She’s solid on the ball, but is at her best working in tandem with one of Washington’s bigs. She navigates screens well, but she’s makes her defensive imprint using her awareness and knowledge of personnel to attack ball screens with another player and shut them down, as her communication and preparation prior to screening actions setting up repeatedly stands out.

Routinely, you can watch a defensive possession and witness Walker-Kimbrough pointing and calling out assignments and coverages as soon as a screen is placed. Much like we hit on with her playmaking and taking the extra steps to buy time, Walker-Kimbrough adds steps defensively to take away the margins from opposing ball-handlers.

Part of what makes her so versatile is that she can play up on wings, and particularly get away with it due to her capabilities as an off-ball defender.

Shatori Walker-Kimbrough doesn’t bring the scoring weight of some of her star-studded teammates, or the same All-Defense level play of Atkins or Cloud, but this team is better because of her. Her play is often far louder and more noticeable when she’s not on the court, buffering offensive possessions and smoothing them out, or chasing an opposing team’s two-guard off a bevy of screens. What she does expands the margins for the Mystics, and those margins matter that much more in the playoffs.

When Run The Jewels dropped their fourth album in June 2020, they closed the album with the rambunctious “A Few Words For The Firing Squad.” It was a bold and fitting choice; the album was released at the height of several uprisings against police brutality, particularly against the murders of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor. The punishing track stressed their distrust of the system and commitment to fighting back by any means necessary.

It has been a couple of years and a whole heap of new problems has appeared to burden the average American citizen with worries about pox viruses, inflation, and the loss of bodily autonomy, but “A Few Words For The Firing Squad” remains as poignant and timely as ever. El-P and Killer Mike stopped by The Late Show with Stephen Colbert to remind viewers that there’s still a fight for justice going on even amidst the slog of daily life during a pandemic.

With a stripped-down that highlighted the lyrics and message in lieu of an elaborate light show, Mike and P rap their verses without a drum track. Only a lone saxophonist accompanies them, growing more urgent and frantic as their rhymes do. You can catch the boys performing the song — and others — on their tour with Rage Against The Machine.

Watch Run The Jewels perform “A Few Words For The Firing Squad” from their fourth album on The Late Show above.

Heading into its third season, Pennyworth has made the jump from Epix to HBO Max and with that move comes a name change that has people laughing their butts off on social media. The show is now titled, Pennyworth: The Origin of Batman’s Butler, just to make it clear that the prequel series is about the famous butler who works for Batman.

The name change was revealed in the Season 3 trailer where it looks like things are going to pop off for Alfred and Batman’s parents, who are also in the show, but apparently didn’t merit a mention in the title. Maybe next season! Via IGN:

The official plot synopsis for Season Three, which will run ten episodes, reveals a new time period and how things have changed since viewers last saw Alfred and the Waynes: “Season three of the psychological thriller begins after a five-year time jump: the civil war is over, and a cultural revolution has changed the world for better or worse – ushering in a new age of Super Heroes and Supervillains.”

Considering Pennyworth: The Origin of Batman’s Butler isn’t the most subtle for a TV series, people have been dunking on the name change on Twitter as well as reacting to the fact that the show not only exists, but somehow has been running for three whole seasons. Then again, it’s now a DC Comics project on HBO Max, which is not the safest place to be these days.

You can see some of the Pennyworth reactions below:

(Via IGN)

Back in October 2021, Madonna made a classic appearance on The Tonight Show, during which she seemingly made it her mission to make Jimmy Fallon as uncomfortable as she possibly could. Her (especially effective) tactics included flashing her butt and straddling his desk. Well, she popped back up on the show last night and it again seemed like her goal was to put Fallon in awkward spots.

Madonna opened the 17-minute interview by insisting she’s “not going to cause any problems.” A mere minute later, she declared, “This interview is going to be all about flirtation and seduction,” which got Fallon to bashfully cover his face with his hands. He quickly saw where she was going with that, though, tying it into Madonna’s recent Finally Enough Love: 50 Number Ones remix album.

A few minutes later, Madonna got to talking about the grills she was wearing in her mouth, saying, “I just like the way it looks, mouth jewelry. And I have really ugly teeth.” Fallon responded by asking, “You do,” although his inflection made it sound sort of like a statement and not a question. As Fallon added, “I don’t think you do,” Madonna said, “Don’t agree with me!” That got Fallon scrambling to clarify he was asking a question as the audience laughed and Madonna grabbed his hand to slap it.

Then, going back to an earlier part of the conversation about her hosting The Tonight Show, Madonna added, “See, when I host the show, I’m gonna make sure my guests feel really comfortable.” Fallon laughed and said, “I don’t think you will do that ever. You’ve never made me feel comfortable one time you’ve been here. Not one time, you’ve never made me feel comfortable.”

As Fallon was saying that, Madonna laughed as she thought Fallon pronounced the first syllable of “comfortable” like a certain four-letter words that starts with C.

Later in the interview, Madonna produced some flash cards, one for each letter of the alphabet, and she and Fallon played a simple game where they picked a card and said the first word that came to mind. Naturally, a lot of Madonna’s words were profane, which got the sort of reactions out of Fallon that she was looking for.

The game ended with the letter I, with Fallon saying “icon” and Madonna going with “idiot.” That got a laugh out of Fallon, who walked to the front of his desk and defeatedly collapsed on the floor face-down. Madonna saw her opportunity and took it, straddling his back, bouncing up and down, and pretending to whip him as he threw to commercial.

Before the interview, Madonna, Fallon, and The Roots performed a “classroom instruments” rendition of “Music.” Find that below and the interview above.

NBA 2K23 is right around the corner! As hard as it is to believe, the next iteration of everybody’s favorite basketball game is less than a month away and that means it’s time for the hype machine to get rolling. The majority of the game is finished, besides maybe some final polishing for a day one patch, and devs can eagerly anticipate its September release date.

With the game so close, we can also start looking at trailers about many of the game’s upcoming modes. On Thursday, 2K dropped a trailer for the return of the Jordan Challenge. Longtime fans of the series will remember when this mode was a staple of NBA 2K11, and with Jordan appearing on one of the covers for 2K23 it only makes sense to bring it back. The trailer teasing the new mode is really sick though with legends of the game like Patrick Ewing, Dennis Rodman, and Bill Walton all heaping praise upon how incredible Jordan was at his peak.

The trailer itself shows us that we’re seeing the return of some of the challenges from 2K11 like the shrug game, flu game, and Jordan’s final title which is now fittingly called The Last Dance. There are some new moments teased throughout the trailer though such as a young Jordan’s appearance in the Olympics, and even a moment from his North Carolina days. With 15 challenges, this mode has the opportunity to showcase the entirety of Jordan’s career from start to finish.

What’s going to make this mode really stand out though is what the 2K series has always done best, its presentation. A press release sent to UPROXX gave us some details about how they’re planning to make every moment of Jordan’s career feel unique.

• An intricately designed video filter system that aims to re-create the television experience of watching these games as they were originally broadcast during the 1980s and 1990s, with each decade getting its own unique viewing experience.
• Era-specific broadcast elements that truly capture the technology at the time of each played game. In 1982, you will experience a broadcast that is simple in design and nature. Big block letters, not many graphics. As we progress into the 90s, you will start to see an evolved presentation as technology was improving in leaps and bounds. Seeing is believing on this front, and wait until you see it…
• A broadcast experience that dives deep into the mood and setting of every game to truly deliver a world-class experience. To make the commentary believable, you need the talent of someone who was there, who lived the entire Jordan experience from every perspective. Joining the commentary team for the Jordan Challenge in NBA 2K23 will be legendary coach and analyst Mike Fratello, aka The Czar. Fratello brings a one-of-a-kind level of authenticity to the games with his keen insight and unique stories that shine a bright light on our commitment to making these games look and feel…just right.
• From North Carolina…At Guard…6’6…MICHAEL JORDANNNNNN! We’ve all seen the iconic Bulls starting lineup introductions featuring the iconic voice of Ray Clay. In order to capture and re-create that chill-inducing moment, we went out and captured a full PA announcer set from Ray Clay to include as the official Bulls PA announcer during those 90s games when he was broadcasting on television sets around the entire world. No 90s Bulls starting lineup experience would be complete without ‘Sirius’ by the Alan Parsons Project playing through the in-stadium speakers as each starter is announced. We left no stone unturned to deliver a completely authentic experience for all of you!
• Each of the 15 Jordan Challenge games feature a pre-game interview with a luminary that was a part of what made each and every game special. Who better to tell the story of Michael Jordan than teammates, coaches, and those who commentated his games? During your experience, you will be regaled by the likes of Marv Albert (courtside commentator for The Shrug game), Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (opponent in 1988 All-Star game in Chicago), Dennis Rodman (opponent in the Bad Boys game), Phil Jackson (head coach in The Last Dance game), and many more. We think you will find this touch to be the icing on the cake of a truly remarkable and memorable narrative experience.

While everything here is really cool, the best is going to be having actual interviews with people who were there to see Jordan in person. The best part of The Last Dance a couple of years ago was watching people who went up against, watched, or spent time with Jordan reminisce about it and these interviews are another chance for that.

Last year, The Killers released Pressure Machine to follow up 2020’s Imploding The Mirage, whose album cycle was disrupted by the pandemic. They returned last week to release the new song “Boy,” and now they’ve shared the music video for it. There’s a lot of symbolic imagery — a white horse, a stunning sunrise, a pink body of water — and it makes for an impactful, cinematic experience.

In an Instagram post, singer Brandon Flowers reflected on the release of “Boy” from his car. “Just heard it on the radio for the first time and it sounded great and we’re really happy with it,” he said. “We hope everybody’s liking it. It’s the song that took me to Nephi. I wasn’t able to leave. I just found this treasure trove of ideas and memories and people and characters that I was carrying around with me all these years and I was able to write about it and capture it and put it into Pressure Machine but we always knew that we had this song ‘Boy’ that was lingering and it didn’t quite fit, as Ronnie calls it, the complexion of Pressure Machine […] It is its own thing. It’s gonna be the blueprint for where we’re going with record number 8.”

Watch the video for “Boy” above.

On Wednesday, Donald Trump was in New York City to square off against Attorney General Letitia James and her office’s ongoing civil investigation into his allegedly shady business dealings. But rather than help to shed light on a situation that the former president has written off as yet another witch hunt, he instead decided to plead the fifth — again and again and again. This hardly came as a shock to Trevor Noah, though The Daily Show host did playfully feign surprise.

For anyone who is confused about which crime Trump was in Manhattan to answer for (nope, it’s not the same one that had the FBI raiding his Florida home earlier this week or the ones the January 6th committee is investigating), Noah broke it down:

Apparently, when [Trump] was trying to get loans from the bank, he was all like, ‘I’m balling out of control.’ But then, when he was reporting his taxes to the IRS, suddenly he was like, ‘Hey, I ain’t got no money, sir.’

And as part of this investigation, the New York Attorney General has already questioned Trump’s beloved children — and also Eric. But today was The Donald’s turn to go under oath, and I’ll give credit to the man. You know, he could’ve bitched out. But no, he stood tall and he walked into that interrogation room — and then bitched out.

The irony of the story, of course, is that Trump has repeatedly talked about how only criminals plead the fifth — when it related to Hillary Clinton or he wasn’t the one being questioned. What Noah also finds so shocking is that Trump, who has an opinion on pretty much everything, actually chose to shut his mouth.

“Trump decided not to talk? Now we know something shady is going on right?,” Noah opined. “‘Cause when has Donald Trump ever refused to talk? We can’t get the man to stop talking! Donald Trump not talking is like Taylor Swift taking the bus. That’s not a thing!”

You can watch the full clip above.

Rudy Giuliani stopped by Real America’s Voice on Thursday morning to let right-wing viewers know that Donald Trump is doing just fine after the FBI raid of Mar-a-Lago. In fact, he’s stronger than ever. According to Giuliani, he recently spoke to Trump, who is apparently encouraged by the devoted MAGA supporters who are once again ready to fight for his honor even as January 6 rioters continue to face jail time and federal charges. Following the raid, “Civil War” started trending on social media, and it apparently lifted Trump’s spirts.

“The president’s doing going great,” Giuliani said. “I called him last night expecting that I was going to have to bolster him up. First thing he said to me is, ‘I think they’ve gone too far, Rudy.’ … Look at all those people in front of Mar-a-Lago. He said, ‘Our people understand what happened, they understand it, don’t worry.’ I said, well, I’m calling you to tell you that! [weird laughter]”

While Giuliani is obviously attempting to do damage control for Trump, in reality, the situation is not looking good. As more details emerge about the raid, an informant reportedly told the FBI where to find classified documents at Mar-a-Lago. The New York Times also ran a report detailing Trump’s penchant for hoarding presidential documents in cardboard boxes, which may now be in the FBI’s possession. That revelation has reportedly shaken Trump so much that he’s reportedly accusing friends and cronies of “wearing a wire.”

In short, the former president is not “doing great.” He’s freaking out, man.

(Via Ron Filipkowski on Twitter)

Beto O’Rourke has no chill — and who can blame him? The Democratic gubernatorial candidate was campaigning in Mineral Wells, Texas on Wednesday and giving a speech at town hall when a heckler did his best to shut Beto down, and was promptly served with a line that would have sounded more likely coming from Joe Pesci in Goodfellas.

O’Rourke, a fierce proponent of stricter gun laws, was discussing the recent school shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas — and the ease with which the teenage gunman obtained a AR-15-style rifle — when a supporter of current governor Greg Abbott, O’Rourke’s opposite in every way, decided to chuckle. Beto, without missing a beat, quickly singled the giggler out and told him: “It may be funny to you, motherf**ker, but it’s not funny to me.”

Reports the Washington Post:

At Wednesday night’s town hall in Mineral Wells, O’Rourke promised supporters “common-sense” gun control if he’s elected governor. He mentioned raising the minimum age for buying an AR-style rifle from 18 to 21, implementing universal background checks in Texas and enacting a red-flag law, legislation that allows judges to order law enforcement to seize gun owners’ firearms if convinced that they pose a danger to themselves or others.

O’Rourke ended his pitch by saying that “Democrats and Republicans, gun owners and non-gun owners” — maybe even himself and the heckler — might still find common ground on gun restrictions.

“You either accept that we are inherently evil and violent and deadly and love to kill each other and slaughter kids where they sit,” O’Rourke said, “or that there is something that you and I can do together regardless of the differences between us.”

O’Rourke’s surprising but spot-on outburst was met with a round of applause from the crowd, and plenty of attention from people on Twitter.

On August 6, Lady Gaga performed at Toronto’s Rogers Centre. As she has done on her Chromatica Ball tour, she closed her encore with “Hold My Hand,” her song from Top Gun: Maverick. As she sang the track, though, she was struck on the head by an object thrown from the audience. Thankfully, it was a soft object, a doll, and Gaga was unfazed, continuing to perform through it.

As Stereogum notes, a Twitter user claimed credit for the throw, sharing photos of the doll they threw and writing (translated from Spanish), “From Mexico to Toronto,” and adding in another tweet (also translated), “Out of nerves I didn’t record when I threw it hahahaha, sorry @ladygaga.”

The doll is of Dr. Simi, the mascot of Mexican pharmacy chain Farmacias Similares. Throwing Dr. Simi dolls on stage (but not necessarily at the performer’s head) has apparently become a new concert tradition in Mexico since last year. The character is popular enough that in 2018, a Mexican 3-year-old generated some attention for their Dr. Simi-themed birthday party.

All in all, Gaga fared better than Kid Cudi did at the Rolling Loud festival in July, when he cut his set short after fans kept throwing things at him despite his stern warning.