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For a record-setting 13th time in his career, Mike Krzyzewski is headed to the Final 4. The Duke Blue Devils throttled the Arkansas Razorbacks on Saturday night, 78-69, to win the West Region and extend their Hall of Fame coach’s career by at least one more game before he retires.

While it was not quite a wire-to-wire win for the Blue Devils, they did not relinquish the lead after going up, 10-9, with 14:17 left in the first half. The Razorbacks managed to keep things close, but eventually, Duke was able to turn on the jets, imposing themselves on both ends of the floor. Whether it was the stout defense of Mark Williams protecting the rim or one of their numerous talents providing scoring on offense, the Blue Devils seemed to take control early and kept Arkansas at arm’s length the rest of the game.

Four players scored in double-digits for Duke. AJ Griffin led the way with 18, Paolo Banchero pitched in 16, Wendell Moore had 14, and Williams pitched in 12 with 12 rebounds and three blocks. Two more Blue Devils — Trevor Keels and Jeremy Roach — had nine.

Banchero did end up on the receiving end of a poster from Jaylin Williams in one of the few bright spots on the evening for the Razorbacks. Williams led the way for his team with 19 points, 10 rebounds, three assists, and two steals, while JD Notae and Stanley Umude both had 14.

Duke’s next game will make history one way or the other, as the Blue Devils will either play North Carolina in the NCAA Tournament for the first time in the rivalry’s decorated history, or they’ll take on 15-seed Saint Peter’s. The Tar Heels and the Peacocks will go head-to-head in their Elite 8 matchup on Sunday at 5:05 p.m. ET.

Here is a video of Andre Drummond doing his best impression of a very good free safety during the Brooklyn Nets’ game against the Miami Heat on Saturday night. Kyle Lowry tried to throw a pass on the perimeter to Tyler Herro, but did not see that Drummond was preparing to jump the passing lane and force a turnover. The big fella did just that, tipping the pass towards his basket, grabbing it, taking one dribble, and dunking.

Perhaps you noticed that he threw out his left hand right as he was gathering. Well, here’s another angle of the whole thing, in which Drummond decided he was going to troll Herro by throwing up a peace sign as he ran away from him and threw down.

Drummond very much deserved to talk a little trash here, as did the entire Nets team. This dunk meant that Brooklyn — who, we must add, very well could end up playing the Heat in the first round of the postseason depending on how things shake out in the Eastern Conference — extended its lead on the evening to 82-55. It’s been a bad night for Miami, sure, but this is one heck of a way to have some salt rubbed in the wound.

The Toronto Raptors played host to the Indiana Pacers as Scotiabank Arena on Saturday night in a game with huge Eastern Conference playoff ramifications. While the Pacers are playing for ping pong balls during the lottery, the Raptors are on the verge of overtaking the Cleveland Cavaliers for the 6-seed, meaning their path to the postseason would not require participating in the play-in tournament.

Things were going quite well for Toronto in that endeavor, as they had a 66-38 lead over Indiana a little more than halfway through the second quarter, when all of a sudden, the game needed to be stopped and the authorities needed to be called in due to a fire in the stadium. More specifically, there was an electrical fire involving one of the speakers, so everyone had to be cleared out so it could be properly tended to.

Ultimately, the whole thing got sorted out, but the decision was made that the game would resume without any fans in attendance.

At the time of the stoppage, Precious Achiuwa led the Raptors with 16 points in 12 minutes off of the bench, while Pascal Siakam provided 15 points, four assists, three rebounds, and two steals. Meanwhile in Cleveland, the Cavaliers entered the halftime break against the Chicago Bulls trailing 53-35.

For the third time in six years, the Villanova Wildcats are headed to the Final 4. Villanova took on the Houston Cougars on Saturday evening in the South Regional Final and took care of business, grinding out a 50-44 win over the champions of the American Athletic Conference.

It was not exactly an aesthetically pleasing first half of basketball. The vaunted Houston defense managed to keep Villanova’s offense in check rather well, as the Wildcats only put up 27 points on 28 percent shooting from the field and 25 percent shooting from three in the frame. While the trio of Jermaine Samuels, Caleb Daniels, and Eric Dixon scored 20 of those points, they had to work for everything they got. They did, however, do what they do better than any team in Division I history: get to the free throw line and make the other team pay, as they connected on all 10 of their attempts from the stripe.

Unfortunately for the Cougars, they struggled to turn defense into offense, as Villanova likewise gave them all they could handle on that end of the floor. The team only scored 20 points before the break and did not hit any of their eight attempts from three. Their top scorers, Taze Moore (six points) and and Jamal Shead (four), went 5-for-16 in the half, and as a team, Houston hit on 30.6 percent of their attempts from the field.

The second half was much of the same — Houston’s offense kept it from mounting a serious challenge, and every time they managed to start clawing back, something would happen to tilt the scales back in Villanova’s favor. Eventually, though, the Cougars were able to steady themselves and make it a one-possession game with 5:15 left thanks to an 11-2 run. Moore, in particular, kept coming up big, including when he scored the bucket to cut the Wildcat lead to two.

After a timeout, Villanova was once again able to build up a little breathing room on its very next possession thanks to a bucket by Collin Gillespie.

And just like that, Houston’s offense once again went cold. The team went four minutes following Moore’s bucket before it scored again, and while Villanova did not exactly run away with things, the Wildcats were able to score enough to keep the Cougars at arm’s length. Samuels led the way for Villanova with 16 points and 10 rebounds, while Daniels provided 12 points and six rebounds off the bench. There is, however, one damper on this for the Wildcats, as Moore, the team’s starting guard and second-leading scorer, suffered a leg injury in the waning moments of the game and was unable to return.

Villanova will play either Kansas or Miami in the Final 4. The Jayhawks and Hurricanes will go head-to-head on Sunday afternoon at 2:20 p.m. ET.

Elon Musk seems to delight in upending things. He smoked marijuana with Joe Rogan. He lost millions after making a weed joke on Twitter. He neglected to tell anyone he and Grimes had a second child. He wants to take Tom Cruise to space. Now the Tesla and SpaceX head seems to be using Twitter to do what Trump is currently failing to do: take on Twitter.

On Friday, Musk started a poll. “Free speech is essential to a functioning democracy,” he wrote. “Do you believe Twitter rigorously adheres to this principle?” Over 70% of participants participated in what could generously be called a flawed, unscientific study on a site that attracts extremists and people who like to bomb polls like this.

The next day, with the poll closed, he teased at his findings.

“Given that Twitter serves as the de facto public town square, failing to adhere to free speech principles fundamentally undermines democracy. What should be done?” he wrote, adding, “Is a new platform needed?”

As with much of Musk’s actions, it’s unclear how serious he is, or how long he’ll stay interested in this subject. But clearly Twitter’s increased banning of people, often far right extremists, has gotten to him. Of course, should he go full Trump and create a Twitter clone, hopefully it will fare a lot better than Truth Social, the service that, like many of the former president’s get-rich-quick schemes, started out as a disaster and continued to get worse. Maybe he wants someone else to pick up up this idea. Or maybe this is just Musk s*it-posting. Who knows?

(Via The Daily Beast)

Earlier this week, Joyner Lucas fired off a lengthy Twitter rant that was directed at the lineup for Lollapalooza’s upcoming festival in Chicago. Lucas’ gripe with the festival seemed to be their decision to place artists, which Lucas called a “bunch of random n****z that nobody heard of,” above him on the festival’s flyer. “I’m the biggest independent artist period with the exception of my n**** tech [N9ne],” he said. “How is it that these festivals keep tryna bunch my name up with a bunch of n****z who ain’t on my level?” He used Machine Gun Kelly as an example, calling the punk rocker a “goofy ass n****.”

Soon enough, Lucas deleted all the tweets and gave a questionable reason for the rant. “Them Damn Russian hackers dun hacked my phone yesterday smh,” Joyner wrote in a tweet the following day. It’s unknown if he was joking or being serious, but today, Joyner took a moment to actually apologize for his rant and for dissing Machine Gun Kelly as well.

“A lot of people saying things about me ‘crying and complaining’ when shit don’t go my way,” he wrote. “Lot of comments telling me to ‘work harder and stop being emotional’… you know what? You right… I have a history of being upset at certain things and taking it to social media. I own that… Part of being a man is admitting when you f*cked up. I be getting frustrated when I feel like I’m the underdog all the time.” He added, “Maybe I ain’t put in enuff work.‍ maybe I think I’m a bigger artist than what I actually am. Maybe you right. I own that. Real n**** sh*t.”

He continued, “As far as the @machinegunkelly shit Goes, homie ain’t have nothing to do with my rant. Jus got caught in the cross fire of one of my bitter moments. Def sum sucka sh*t to come at him for nothin. I own that & I apologize. Real n**** sh*t. I ain’t perfect. Im growing everyday.” He added, “I cant deny that sometimes i come off like a jealous asshole But that aint the case. Im a fan of these n****z. I think I been the underdog for so long, sh*t made me feel like I deserve certain sh*t. But who tf am I to determine what i deserve? Sometimes I gotta check myself.”

Lucas concluded his message with one final note, “Lot of artists or people in general are afraid of checking themselves. I check myself all the time. I cant throw a Tantrum and shoot at n****z for nothin. @machinegunkelly did absolutely nothin to me to deserve that lame tweet. If u readin this, I apologize dog. real n**** sh*t.”

You can view Lucas’ tweets above.

Taylor Hawkins’ death has left the music world in shock. Tributes and photographs have been shared all over social media as people wait to hear more details about an untimely and mysterious death. At the time of his passing, Hawkins was in his hotel room in Bogota, Colombia, where he, along with the rest of the Foo Fighters, were scheduled to perform. A cause of death has not yet been shared, but Bogota’s District Health Office shared a statement about what led to his death.

“Bogotá’s emergency center sent an ambulance to the hotel,” the statement read. “They had received reports of ‘a patient with chest pains,’ according to the Spanish-language press release. Efforts to resuscitate Hawkins were tried. ‘However, there was no response, and the patient was declared deceased,’ Bogotá’s District Department of Health said.” The statement concluded, “Teams from EMI, a health company providing home health care services, also responded to the emergency, according to local health officials.”

The New York Post also reported that the Metropolitan Police of Bogota revealed that Hawkins’ death could be “related to the consumption of drugs.” Despite this, police cautioned that the investigation is still ongoing and that the “cause of death has yet to be established.”

The 94th Academy Awards will be televised on Sunday, and it’s already shaping up to be an even more chaotic year than most. There’s no host controversy nor sloppy pandemic-era safeguards, but there is mockery over its #OscarsFanFavorite semi-trophy as well as backlash over producers’ decision to scuttle eight whole categories from the live broadcast. Another thing they won’t show, because it’s already happened: Denzel Washington giving Samuel L. Jackson his honorary Oscar.

On Friday, the Academy held their annual Governors Awards, a non-televised ceremony where they hand out awards that used to be part of the main broadcast but aren’t any longer. Since 2009, the three lifetime achievement trophies — the Academy Honorary Award, the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award, and the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award, which were long part of the main show — have been given their own shindig, far away from live television cameras.

That’s a shame, because clearly Denzel repeatedly bear-hugging an excitable Jackson — or Jackson receiving any award, to be honest — would be top shelf television.

After Washington and Jackson — who have only appeared in one movie together, Spike Lee’s Mo’ Better Blues — were done hugging it out , Jackson delivered an emotional speech. He spoke about how his film career began with him playing “gang member No. 2” and “Black guy,” but blossomed into over 150 screen credits — and, up to this point, only one Oscar nomination. (Jackson is so good that when Lee brought 1991’s Jungle Fever to Cannes, the festival dusted off the Best Supporting Actor trophy just for him.) “I guarantee you, this this is going to be cherished,” Jackson told the crowd.

When footage of Denzel and Jackson embracing over the latter’s monumental achievement, people simply could not believe producers didn’t want this on the main Oscars telecast.

Elsewhere during the Governors Awards, Bill Murray presented a lifetime achievement award to legendary actress, filmmaker, and comic performer Elaine May, while John Lithgow gave another to legendary actress, filmmaker, and frequent Ingmar Bergman collaborator Liv Ullmann. Sounds like good television!

In the meantime, feel free to revisit the 2019 Oscars, when Jackson (alongside Brie Larson) simply couldn’t hold it in when giving a Best Adapted Screenplay trophy to Spike Lee for BlackKklansman. Sometimes the Oscars are alright.

(Via Variety)

Though she’s currently traveling the world on her long-awaited Future Nostalgia tour, Dua Lipa already has her sights set on the next chapter. Following up the release of her sophomore album in 2020, the pop star has been back in the studio, hard at work on an album that reportedly has a “unique sound.”

On her Spotify podcast, Dua Lipa: At Your Service, Dua had one of her recent collaborators, Elton John, onto the show. Naturally, the conversation turned to new music, and Dua shared that her next album is perhaps closer to completion than her previous comments suggested. “How are you getting along with the new one, is it nearly finished?” Elton asks Dua, to which she responds: “Uh, close. Close. It’s like umm, I wanna say, maybe 50% of the way. I’ve still got lots more to do, but it’s starting to feel good. It’s starting to take shape. I’m very excited about some of the new songs, so it’s always exciting to look forward towards something.”

Since Future Nostalgia was very focused on a nu-disco and classic funk sound, something that stood out in the pop landscape when it dropped, she’s been clear that her follow-up project will be a world unto itself. But we don’t have any real hints about what direction she’s going in for the next project, so hopefully that’s the update we’ll get next. Check out the entire episode below, and listen for Dua’s update about her next album starting around the 9:20 mark.

Since she was released from the predatory conservatorship that’s been dominating her life for the last several years, Britney Spears has been a prolific Instagram user. She likes to use the social media platform to vent, to demand justice for what she’s been through, and get naked whenever she wants.

Now, the pop star has decided to use her account to talk about one of her favorite shows — Euphoria. She’s certainly not alone in loving this show, but her take on the series is definitely different from some other people. In her post, Britney said the show’s “crazy plots” help her forget her own anxiety, and shared this tidbit for mental health awareness week.

Here’s her full take on the show:

“For MENTAL HEALTH AWARENESS WEEK a little while ago I watched this insane amazing show @euphoria … Good God it’s too good !!!! I’m a little behind anyways !!!! Watching this and being entertained by these crazy plots I suddenly felt all my anxiety go away … the show was like meditation !!!! It put a HUGE grin on my face … and if you want to be zen … there’s sound therapy … stillness … yoga … monk retreats … but last but definitely not least, train your thoughts to think things that make you SMILE … YES you know THOSE !!!! YOU GOT IT ???? KEEP SMILING !!!!!

While Euphoria doesn’t usually end up on a list with those other things, it’s always great to have an off-the-wall suggestion for dealing with mental health, and frequently those suggestions are the ones that work the best.

Check out Britney’s post below.