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The Los Angeles Lakers reached a new low point on Saturday night in Denver, as they lost by 37 to the Nuggets to fall to 21-22, currently 7th in the West and in a play-in position.

It’s far from where L.A. planned on being at this point, and while Anthony Davis’ eventual return from a sprained knee will provide a boost, there’s not an awful lot of optimism among Lakers fans right now. For many, the focal point of L.A.’s struggles has been the Russell Westbrook trade, which was always a gamble on talent versus depth, and to this point it appears that has not paid off, with Westbrook struggling to impact winning in the way he has on teams in the past — particularly the Wizards late season run to the playoffs a year ago.

Westbrook’s struggles, coupled with struggles from much of the rest of the roster that was brought in to replace those that were traded out, have set the scene for some trade deadline anxiety, and with a few weeks before, famously optimistic franchise legend Magic Johnson ripped the team’s effort to apply further pressure. While Westbrook shrugged it off when asked about Johnson’s tweet, LeBron James seemed to see a need to issue a message direct to the fans on Sunday.

There are plenty of people reading into this as James hinting at changes coming to the roster before the deadline, as it is widely accepted that James has a not-so-insignificant amount of sway in personnel decisions. We’ll find out if that’s the case in the next month, but if nothing else, it’s been awhile since LeBron went to the motivational tweet move — the most famous, of course, being “fit in or fit out” directed at Kevin Love in his first season in Cleveland.

It remains to be seen what more James himself can do, as he’s been putting up monster numbers (28.9 points, 7.5 rebounds, 6.5 assists on 51.9/36.2/76.7 shooting) this season and all the Lakers have been able to do is tread water near .500. The onus will be on the rest of the roster to raise its level, or else the pressure for changes is only going to grow.

The Dallas Cowboys had a regular season so full of promise, but as we’ve seen so many times with them over the years, the team failed to win a playoff game. Despite playing host to the San Francisco 49ers on Sunday afternoon, the high-flying Cowboys offense could not get off the ground and their defense couldn’t keep the Niners out of the end zone enough. As a result, San Francisco won, 23-17, while Dallas gets to start its offseason quite a bit earlier than they anticipated.

The end of the game was the cherry on top of a horrific afternoon for the Cowboys, as the team opted for a QB draw with 12 seconds left and no timeouts. Because Dak Prescott went down inbounds, the clock kept ticking, only Dallas needed to wait for the referee to set the ball. He got there, moved the ball back from where they set it by one yard, and before Prescott could spike it, the clock hit zero.

For folks who hate the Cowboys, it was dang near the funniest possible way for their season to end. Perhaps no one fits that description better than Stephen A. Smith, and in the immediate aftermath of the game, the ESPN personality — who has been sidelined with COVID recently but says he will be back on First Take on Monday — recorded himself reacting to the whole thing. As you can guess, he was in a good mood.

“Didn’t I tell ya?” Smith asked after laughing very hard. “Didn’t I tell ya? All year long, when everybody was raving about those boys in Big D, what did ya boy Stephen A. say? They ain’t gonna even win a playoff game. And sure enough, right on schedule, right when it really really counts, they crashed like a cheap tent in inclement weather. All I gotta say is two things: How ’bout them Cowboys? And see you on First Take tomorrow. Ya boy is back, right on time. Hehehehehehehe hehehehehahaha hahahahahahaha.”

Congratulations to the biggest winner in the Niners’ upset of the Cowboys: Stephen A. Smith.

The Cowboys and 49ers played in one of the dumbest NFL playoff games in recent memory on Sunday, as neither team seemed to want to win a game filled with penalties and bizarre coaching decisions.

After trailing by as many as 23-7 in the third quarter, the Cowboys rallied back to be down just six late, but a defensive holding penalty on a run play by Randy Gregory extended the Niners drive to, seemingly, set them up to run out a win. However, a Deebo Samuel reverse came up a literal inch short of the first down and from there, chaos ensued.

First, the Niners succeeded on a quarterback sneak to end the game, only for it to come back on a false start after they ran left tackle Trent Williams in motion and snapped the ball before he was set.

From there, the Niners’ punt bounded into the end zone and gave Dallas 38 seconds to go 80 yards for the win. After a pretty hook and lateral and a couple passes to the sidelines, the Cowboys got the ball beyond midfield with 14 seconds to play. Rather than trying to throw to the sidelines again or taking a shot to the end zone, they decided they had enough time to run a quarterback draw with Dak Prescott and spike the ball to set up one throw to the end zone. What happened after Prescott slid down was, fittingly, an absolute mess, with the Cowboys failing to get the ball to the umpire, who by rule has to touch the ball to set it, and instead crashed into Prescott and the line, moved it back, and the clock ran out before the Cowboys could snap it.

After the play, Tony Romo explained why it was a mistake from the Cowboys trying to just give the ball to the center rather than finding the umpire and having him spot it, as precious seconds ticked off the clock in the mad scramble to get set.

It really was a perfect ending to a game that included the Cowboys running a successful fake punt, then leaving the punt unit on the field to try and force a timeout from San Francisco, only to run the offense back on the field late and get a delay of game because they didn’t leave enough time for the Niners to match their mass substitution. In a game that was a comedy of errors, one last one proved to be the dagger, and Dallas will enter the offseason kicking themselves for not taking a game the Niners tried to serve them up on a platter on a few occasions.

Over on the Nickelodeon broadcast, Mike McCarthy got slimed after one of the most disastrous coaching performances in recent memory.

The Golden State Warriors have cooled off of late, going 5-5 in their last 10 games and all five of those losses have come with Draymond Green not playing. Green’s presence is obviously critical for the Golden State defense, but he’s also huge as a creator and connector offensively to help ease the burden on Golden State’s guards.

Unfortunately for Golden State, Green, who has been dealing with calf tightness, will miss at least two weeks as the Warriors medical staff has discovered that the root of his calf issue is actually a disc injury in his lower back. The team announced on Sunday that he’ll miss two weeks and then be re-evaluated, which does not guarantee a return at that point.

The two-week timetable would mean Green will miss at least eight games, including Sunday’s tilt with the Timberwolves in which they’ll also be without Stephen Curry, who injured his hand late last week and will skip the final game of this road trip. The Warriors are currently second in the West at 31-11, 2.5 games ahead of the Grizzlies and three games ahead of the Jazz in the four-team breakaway atop the West. Navigating this stretch of schedule without Draymond as they continue to work Klay Thompson back into the rotation could end up important for seeding, but in the grand scheme, Golden State knows the most important thing will be ensuring this back issue doesn’t linger and trying to get Green healthy for the stretch run and playoffs.

The Dallas Cowboys played host to the San Francisco 49ers on Sunday in the late afternoon window of Super Wild Card Weekend, and as happens often in afternoon kicks in Dallas, the sun began to wreak havoc in AT&T Stadium because, for whatever reason, they built it with giant windows that face west.

As the sun gets lower, the glare on the field gets worse and in the late second quarter the Cowboys were on the wrong end of the sun issue on an important 3rd and 20 at midfield, trailing 16-7 in the final minute. Dak Prescott was trying to find Cedric Wilson over the middle in order to get into field goal range to make it a one-possession game before the half. Instead, the ball went whistling just over Wilson’s helmet because when the receiver turned back to find the ball he got hit with a face full of sun and never saw the ball, ducking out of fear of taking a pass to the facemask, unsure where the pass was.

It could prove to be costly, as it would’ve set up a long Greg Zuerlein field goal attempt, which while not automatic, would’ve given Dallas a chance for back-to-back scores to take the lead as they get the ball back to start the second half. Instead, they punted to the Niners who ran out the clock in the half and went to the locker room up 9 as the Cowboys offense has had its struggles with execution, a really talented San Francisco defense, and even the damn sun, which Twitter found rather hilarious.

The Bay Area has given plenty to the hip-hop world, whether it be certified legends like E-40 and Too Short, who competed in a Verzuz at the end of 2020, or more modern acts like Saweetie, Mozzy, Guapdad 4000, and Larry June. Add genre-influencing acts like the late Drakeo The Ruler and it’s clear that the region is more than worthy of recognition. Now there’s female rap duo Su’Lan, who have impressed many with their releases over the past couple of months.

One of them includes “We Talking Sh*t Again,” which recently received the music video treatment. The video captures the duo’s menacing approach, both with the performers’ aggressive demeanors and the militant support they receive from their crew. Su’Lan also delivers several cut-throat bars that aim to deliver the highest dose of disrespect possible towards their opponents. The track appears on their EP Free Su’Lan, which they released at the end of 2021. The album is also home to their single “Blue Cheese,” which also received a music video.

Prior to Free Su’LanBaby Glock Gang in 2020 and Tia & Tamera in 2019.

You can watch the video for “We Talking Sh*t Again” above.

Free Su’Lan is out now via Special Sounds. Get it here.

Many of us spend whatever money we have unwisely. Then there’s Mike Lindell. For the last year-plus, he’s dropped lord knows how much on pure nonsense, which is to say the baseless belief that the 2020 election was stolen from incumbent Donald J. Trump. A recent report claimed that he’s dropping at least $1 million a month on right-wing groups, who are still fruitlessly trying to get the failed blogger back in the White House. Then there’s that billion dollar lawsuit. Now he’s allegedly run into even more money problems.

As per Newsweek, Lindell went on Steve Bannon’s War Room podcast, where he claimed that, on top of being banned on parts of social media due to his yen for spreading misinformation, he’s also being cancelled by two of the banks with which he does business. He alleged that Heartland Financial and Minnesota Bank and Trust were both trying to “de-bank” him. Lindell played a recording he said was from a bank official, who told the MyPillow guy that they were reluctant to be connected with someone who arouse the suspicion of the feds, especially considering his ties to the Jan. 6 Capitol riot.

“[W]hat if somebody came in and said, ‘You know what, we are gonna subpoena all his account records…and then also we make the news,’” the person in the recording told Lindell, likely alluding to the House select committee investigating that fatefuld ay. “So it’s more of a reputation risk.”

Lindell then claimed they’d told him he has 30 days to shutter his accounts with them. But he refused. “I said, ‘I am not being part of this. I’m not leaving. So you’re going to have to throw me out of your bank,’” Lindell said. “Where does it end everybody? Where does it end?”

If true, it’s yet another financial blow to someone who made a fortune selling pricey pillows and who has been squandering it on such activities as a Thanksgiving marathon of bonkers conspiracy theories that no one watches. He’s even losing money due to that bizarre and untrue claim that he was dating actress Jane Krakowski. So things are not on the up-and-up for a guy who wants to imprison over 300 million people.

(Via Newsweek)

At the close of 2021, Brooklyn band Geese dropped their debut album, Projector — a rather short work, bearing just nine songs, but which proved to be one of the year’s better indie releases. Another impressive aspect about Geese is that the members are all in their early 20s, leaving them plenty of time to excel in their careers. With a bright future ahead of them, Geese brought their talents to The Late Show With Stephen Colbert to perform “Low Era.”

Geese took the stage to deliver a lively performance that proved to be their nation-wise television debut. The band shined throughout their rendition of the Projector song thanks to a well-produced performance that saw them drowned in an array of vibrantly-colored lighting.

Back in October, when they released “Low Era,” Geese gave a short explanation about the song. “We had been trying to get everything to sound super heavy, creepy crawly, and complicated, really because that’s all we knew how to do,” they said in a press statement. “Four-on-the-floor songs like ‘Low Era’ had felt a little like poison to us for a while, until we consciously tried to challenge ourselves to write something more danceable.”

You can watch the band perform “Low Era” in the video above.

Projector is out now via Partisan/Play It Again Sam. Get ithere.

The start to the NFL’s first six-game Wild Card weekend had one controversial, one-score game that featured some drama in Cincinnati (unfortunately mostly centered on the officiating) and a pair of absolute blowouts with the Bills and Bucs both dominating against the Patriots and Eagles, respectively.

The Eagles-Bucs game was the first game of the Sunday slate, with Fox getting the draw for Tom Brady’s first game of the postseason, sending Joe Buck and Troy Aikman to Tampa, while Jim Nantz and Tony Romo scooped up the marquee game of the day in Dallas, where the Cowboys would host the 49ers in the 4:30 p.m. window. Throughout the Bucs blowout of Philly (that finished 31-15, closer than the game really felt), Buck and Aikman were not shy about voicing their frustrations with having to watch the Eagles flounder about on the field, but Aikman made things crystal clear in the promo for the late game, when he said point blank he wished he was in Dallas instead.

“It’s gonna be a great game,” Aikman said of the Niners-Cowboys matchup. “It’ll be a really good game. There’s a lotta people who’d like to be calling that game. But should be a lot of fun.”

Buck’s reaction is priceless, as he just chuckles and realizes they’re gonna get a call from someone at the league for that, but it’s surely how both felt. While Brady is a draw, the Eagles just flat out didn’t show up until the fourth quarter and it was a pretty ugly game that couldn’t have been all that fun to call. Still, you can rest assured this won’t sit well with some fans and the league may have some private complaints for Troy.

Marjorie Taylor Greene claims that she no longer holds the kooky views that were unearthed after she wound up becoming an elected public official. Like how she once seemed to approve of now-colleague Nancy Pelosi being executed. Or how she believed that a deadly wildfire in California in 2018 was caused by space lasers controlled in part by a Jewish member of a banking firm. That tinfoil conspiracy came to be better known as “Jewish space lasers,” a term that earned her much online dunking and has stuck with her ever since.

Well, Greene is still upset about the term, inspired by something she actually once believed. In an interview earlier this month with Mike Huckabee on his Newsmax show, she admitted that the this one — and not the many, many other things that have earned her mockery and scorn — really got to her.

“Terrible attacks, especially about silly things about something called ‘Jewish space lasers,’” Greene told Huckabee. “That was a term I had never used in my life but someone wrote an article and then they copied and pasted and put it all across the media.”

The dust-up left still haunts her. “That really hurt my feelings,” Greene said. “Because I’m a Christian and I would never say anything against any group of people, especially Israel. I would never do that.”

Speaking of which, earlier this year Greene did what she never did and apologized after repeatedly drawing offensive comparisons between those trying to save lives during a pandemic and the Nazis. After inspiring widespread condemnation from Jewish and Holocaust remembrance groups, Greene issued a rare mea culpa. She even went to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, where she seemed to finally learn what others learn much earlier in life.

In the meantime, Greene’s fans can be assured that she still has plenty of kooky, illogical beliefs, some of which got her permanently suspended from Twitter at the year’s start.

(Via Raw Story)