GoneTrending

The Philadelphia 76ers were locked into the 4-seed in the East on Sunday night when the Boston Celtics blew out the Grizzlies in Memphis, meaning the Sixers will face the Raptors in the first round.

That is an incredibly interesting series for a variety of reasons, including being a rematch of a thrilling second round series in 2019, but on the minds of many was the status of Sixers defensive ace Matisse Thybulle, who missed their most recent game in Toronto due to Canada’s vaccine requirement for entering the country. Against a wing heavy team like the Raptors, Thybulle’s presence is very important for the Sixers on the defensive end, and being without him for road games in the playoffs would be a considerable disadvantage for the Sixers.

Thybulle needed to remedy his unvaccinated status within the last week to be eligible for Games 3 and 4 in Toronto next weekend, but Doc Rivers confirmed after a win over Detroit on Sunday that has not happened and they will be without him.

That certainly makes it imperative the Sixers hold homecourt in the first two games of the series, as yielding homecourt advantage to Toronto would mean they’d have to get a win without Thybulle on the road. While he isn’t one of their three most important players, his defensive presence is huge for the Sixers and allows them to do more switching and have more versatility on that end. Without him, Philly will have to adapt their coverages, and while they will at least have some time to come up with an approach, it’s not the ideal situation.

Somewhat ironically, one of the reasons James Harden reportedly wanted out of Brooklyn was fear of facing Toronto in the playoffs with Kyrie Irving not budging from his stance on getting vaccinated, and now on his new team Harden finds himself in that exact situation of playing the Raptors and being shorthanded for road games. Philly has a week-plus to come up with their plan of attack and rotations without Thybulle, but if things go poorly on the road, particularly on the defensive end, Sixers fans aren’t likely to be pleased with Thybulle’s refusal to get the vaccine.

Entering Sunday’s final day of the regular season, none of the Eastern Conference first round playoff matchups were known. The early window of games solidified the play-in picture, with Cavs-Nets determining the 7 seed, while Hornets-Hawks will play for the chance to win the 8-seed, but the evening window would determine the rest of the seeding.

The Miami Heat were locked into the 1-seed, while Toronto was guaranteed the 5-seed and Chicago the 6-seed coming into the day, but Milwaukee, Boston, and Philadelphia all had games left to determine their first round matchups. Milwaukee rested everyone and got blown out by Cleveland early on Sunday, meaning Boston and Philadelphia would determine what would happen from 2-4 in the East.

The Sixers rested Joel Embiid and James Harden against Detroit, but still had reason to try and win as they could earn the 3-seed and avoid Toronto in the first round if they won and Boston lost. However, with the Celtics playing a Memphis team resting most everyone (although that hasn’t guaranteed opponents wins this season), Boston took a double-digit first half lead and never looked back in a blowout win over the Grizzlies.

As such, the Eastern Conference playoff picture is now set and we know two of the first round series, with this week’s play-in tournament determining the rest.

1. Miami Heat vs. 8. Winner of Friday’s play-in game (loser of CLE/BKN vs. winner of CHA/ATL)
2. Boston Celtics vs. 7. Brooklyn Nets OR Cleveland Cavaliers
3. Milwaukee Bucks vs. 6. Chicago Bulls
4. Philadelphia 76ers vs. 5. Toronto Raptors

The Sixers and Raptors squaring off is particularly interesting, given Matisse Thybulle apparently won’t be available for road games in Toronto due to Canada’s vaccine requirement, as is the potential for a Celtics-Nets series if Brooklyn gets by Cleveland on Tuesday. We’ll know the full schedule on Friday after the final play-in game, but at least for now Milwaukee, Chicago, Philadelphia, and Toronto can begin their full preparations for the first round.

Steve Schmidt is over the Trump family’s bullshit. On Saturday, as Raw Story reports, the one-time Republican strategist-turned-Lincoln Project co-founder, took to Twitter to share his reaction to the recent bombshell that even as the votes were still being counted following the 2020 presidential election, Donald Trump Jr. was texting his daddy’s chief of staff about ways to overturn the results of the election if it didn’t go in dear old dad’s favor.

“It’s very simple,” Trump Jr.—who had no official role in his father’s administration—told Meadows. “We have multiple paths. We control them all.” It was this last line in particular that really set Schmidt off, as evidenced by his ALL-CAPS reaction:

“Today, we recognize ALL MEN are CREATED EQUAL as ALL PEOPLE are CREATED EQUAL. A Presidents SON has no standing in this land. He hold no TITLE and no HONORS . He is simply a citizen. NO MORE and NO LESS than any other CITIZEN He has no authority, no special privilege. HE CONTROLS NOTHING. The FACT that @DonaldJTrumpJr jr speaks like that shows his malice and autocratic heart. He speaks in the language of political violence. It is the language of PUTIN. American Presidents and their sons control nothing.”

It’s hardly the first time that Schmidt has unleashed a firestorm of criticism upon a member of the Republican party and its enablers. Back in January, be described an interview in which Cruz ‘groveled’ to Tucker Carlson as “pathetic.” You can read his entire thread below.

(Via Raw Story)

TNT had a rare Sunday night doubleheader for the final night of the NBA regular season, which was supposed to mean the return of the Inside the NBA crew for the first time all together since before the NCAA Tournament began.

However, as they came on the broadcast, Shaq was in Kenny Smith’s customary seat on the set and Ernie Johnson announced that Smith was out with what they were told was food poisoning. Charles Barkley was not buying Kenny’s excuse, saying he just wanted a couple extra off days before the playoffs, and stated his case by noting that Kenny Smith is a vegetarian and insisting vegetarians cannot get food poisoning.

“First of all, I’m gonna tell you why he’s lying. He just wanted an extra couple days at home,” Barkley said. “First of all, Kenny’s a vegetarian. Nobody gets sick eating that crap. I can get sick eating chitlins, neck bones, burgers, and pizza. Nobody gets that broccolini crap, asparagus, he eat those black bean burgers, there’s no way that crap can make you sick.”

Shaq was all in on Barkley’s line of thinking, but Ernie was trying to give Smith the benefit of the doubt, noting maybe it was some bad tofu, which led Chuck to deliver his hottest take of them all, which is that tofu doesn’t actually exist. In any case, Smith will undoubtedly hear it from his cohorts when he does return from the playoffs and will need to explain how a vegetarian ends up getting food poisoning to Chuck and Shaq.

Rory McIlroy entered Sunday’s final round at Augusta National a full 10 shots back of Scottie Scheffler, as his quest for the career grand slam seemed all but assured to last at least one more year.

However, for a tournament that lacked an awful lot of drama, Rory provided some in the final round as he went out in a 4-under 32 and continued to make noise on the back with an unbelievable chip-in birdie on 10 to inch ever closer to Scheffler.

After an eagle at 13, McIlroy had moved to 6-under for the tournament and was tied with Cam Smith, at the very least giving Scheffler something to think about on the back nine as he passed the big leaderboards around Augusta National. Unfortunately for McIlroy, he couldn’t apply additional pressure from 14-17, making four straight pars, and after going from bunker to bunker on 18, it appeared he would post 6-under at best. However, the four-time major winner created an all-time moment when he threw the ball up the slope and let it feed back to the hole beautifully, sending a massive roar ripping through the Georgia pines.

It’s an incredible shot and equally funny celebration, as Rory seems to not know what to do with his hands as he shoves the club away from him and jumps up and down in the sand. Playing with McIlroy was Collin Morikawa, who was also in the bunker, a bit more in line with the hole, and after the patrons gathered around the 18th green finally settled back down, he gave them another reason to leap out of their seats by holing a birdie of his own.

The two of them embracing is a great moment and while neither appear on their way to a Masters win thanks to the continued sensational play of Scheffler, they vaulted themselves into second and third, respectively, with those bogeys, which will make for a nice pay day on top of a special memory.

For the second straight year, the NBA will feature a play-in tournament for the final two playoff spots in each conference.

The format remains the same as last year, as the 7-seed and 8-seed teams will play on Tuesday, April 12, with the winner earning the 7-seed and a first round series with the 2-seed in their conference and the loser moving on to a second play-in game on Friday. The 9-seed and 10-seed will meet on Wednesday, April 13, with the loser being eliminated and the winner playing again on Friday, April 15, against the loser of the 7/8 matchup.

The Western Conference play-in seeds were set prior to Sunday’s final day of the regular season, with the Minnesota Timberwolves in the 7-seed, Los Angeles Clippers in the 8-seed, New Orleans Pelicans in the 9-seed, and San Antonio Spurs in the 10-seed. However the East play-in field remained a mystery, as the Cavs, Nets, Hawks, and Hornets were all in action with the chance to maneuver up and down the standings.

It became clear early on that Cleveland was headed to a win against the shorthanded Bucks, while the Nets nearly blew a big lead against the Pacers but ultimately held on to win, meaning Brooklyn would host the Cavs in the first play in game on Tuesday. Atlanta rolled past the Rockets, while Charlotte came back from a first half deficit to beat the Wizards, meaning the Hawks took the 9-seed and will host their win-or-go-home matchup.

The two 7-seeds both being in central time means the start times for the games on Tuesday and Wednesday will be earlier, while the times for Friday’s games are TBD, depending on whether the Clippers are hosting the late game or not.

Here is the full TV schedule for the play-in tournament:

Tuesday, April 12
Cleveland Cavaliers at Brooklyn Nets, 7:00 p.m. ET (TNT)
Los Angeles Clippers at Minnesota Timberwolves, 9:30 p.m. ET (TNT)

Wednesday, April 13
Charlotte Hornets at Atlanta Hawks, 7:00 p.m. ET (ESPN)
San Antonio Spurs at New Orleans Pelicans, 9:30 p.m. ET (ESPN)

Friday, April 15
Winner Of CHA/ATL at Loser Of CLE/BKN, TBD (ESPN)
Winner Of SAS/NOP at Loser Of LAC/MIN, TBD (ESPN)

There’s been this odd attempt by a certain group of people, right-wingers especially, to create a new narrative behind Twisted Sister’s highlight song, “We’re Gonna Take It.” One attempt came earlier this year when Dee Snider, the band’s lead vocalist, allowed Ukrainian supporters to use “We’re Gonna Take It” as a theme song of sorts for their fight against Russia, who invaded the country earlier this year. Some questioned why Snider allowed Ukrainian supporters to use it and not anti-maskers, to which he replied, “Well, one use is for a righteous battle against oppression; the other is infantile feet stomping against an inconvenience.”

As the saying goes, history repeats itself, and Snider once again found himself defending the meaning and intention behind “We’re Gonna Take It.” This time, it came after Jerrod Sessler, a former NASCAR driver running against Rep. Dan Newhouse (R-WA) in the GOP primary spoke about the song and Snider in a tweet. “Bummed to learn that @deesnider, the man with the perfect song written decades ago about the attack on traditional, conservative American values,” Sessler wrote. “‘We’re Not Gonna Take It’ is riding the train in the wrong direction. How could it be that he sang for us but now fights for them?”

Snider got an absolute laugh out of Sessler’s comment and he made sure to let Sessler know how funny he found his tweet. “You think i wrote a song in support of “traditional American values”? HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!! You funny,” Snider replied. Later on, Snider returned to Sessler’s tweet with another response. “The first line of my song is WE’VE GOT THE RIGHT TO CHOOSE!” he wrote. “Can I count you amongst us pro-choice people? Now that’s a Republican I can support!”

You can see the exchange between Snider and Sessler above.

There is a long list of things that Mike Lindell doesn’t understand, including: How murder works, what the past tense of “steal” is, and why a pillow maker’s powers don’t extend to imprisoning all Americans. Now it looks as if we can add orgies to the list of concepts that confuse the Pillow Man, as well as why the press is interested in talking about him at all (sorry, Mike, it’s purely for entertainment value).

On Saturday, as The Daily Beast reported, Lindell and Arizona gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake were in Selma, North Carolina for a Trump rally, because of course they were. Still, they made sure to set aside time to chat with—or, really, at—conservative, Trump-loving Right Side Broadcasting Network, where Lindell talked excitedly about the members of the media who regularly attack his batshit conspiracy theories and how he likes to “just embrace it! It’s like having a family of friends every day”… as opposed to, you know, having a regular family or friends.

But Lindell had a special shout-out for embattled North Carolina congressman Madison Cawthorn (“I think it’s Cawthorn?”):

“I told him in back: Remember a week ago, everybody, they were attacking him for, umm, he said something about, ahh, pornos things or whatever with the Republicans, right? So they’re attacking him and I told him, I said, ‘Thanks, Madison.’ I said, ‘For three days you were at the top of the news, so I could get stuff done.”

Just exactly what sort of “stuff” Lindell was able to get done remains unknown, mostly because nobody cares. Much like Madison “I think it’s Cawthorn” Cawthorn’s bizarre boasting about being a guy every geriatric Republican wants to have at their coke-fueled “sexual get-togethers,” Lindell doesn’t seem to understand that the public’s interest in him—and therefore the media’s—is largely because he’s a human sideshow attraction who is just as likely to accuse a politician of cold-blooded murder while spouting off as he is to claim to have found an 850-year-old woman who voted in the 2020 election.

(Via The Daily Beast)

The New Orleans Pelicans have nothing to play for on Sunday night when the Warriors come to town, as they are locked into the 9-seed in the West and will host the San Antonio Spurs in Tuesday’s first play-in game.

Like a number of teams around the league who are locked into position (or don’t care if they move up or down in the standings), that means a lot of rest for the top players, but unlike some of those teams, not everyone will be sitting out in totality. While the Bucks, for instance, have announced Giannis Antetokounmpo, Khris Middleton, and Brook Lopez are among the players sitting against Cleveland, New Orleans will still run the likes of CJ McCollum out there to start the game.

However, when an inquiring fan asked why McCollum wasn’t on the injury report for some rest, he explained the plan is to play some minutes to stay sharp and then park it on the bench for the remainder. As such, he provided a PSA to fans not to put him “in your parlays tonight.”

https://twitter.com/CJMcCollum/status/1513224226991398915

This is why CJ is a pro, because he knows that if he didn’t say this, some idiots would bombard his mentions complaining about lost bets on his point total and now he can, at least, point to this as him having given them ample warning not to do that.

For the first time in a little over two years, Camila Cabello has a new album out for people to enjoy. The ex-Fifth Harmony singer released her third solo effort Familia on Friday and the project arrives with 12 songs and the previously-released singles “Bam Bam” and “Don’t Go Yet.” The project also features contributions from Willow, Ed Sheeran, and Maria Becerra. So far, Cabello has celebrated the album’s release with performances of “Bam Bam” and “Pyschofreak” on Saturday Night Live. Elsewhere, she took a moment to talk to fans about the album and share how much it means to her.

“Wowzer! Familia is finally out,” Cabello said to start a TikTok she recently posted before adding that “this album means so much to me.“ She continued, “The journey to making it completely changed (me) and, not to be dramatic, saved my life. Y’know, I started this album at a really shitty mental health point and the process of making it, and being vulnerable and being honest about my experiences and leaning on other people changed my life.”

Cabello concluded her message by saying, “I’m so proud of it and I’m so happy you guys get to hear it now.”

You can watch Cabello speak about the importance of Familia in the video above.

Familia is out now via Epic Records. You can stream it here.

Ed Sheeran is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.