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The Los Angeles Lakers took a 49-44 lead into halftime on Friday night against the Minnesota Timberwolves. Then, after the two teams emerged from the locker rooms at Staples Center, the Timberwolves absolutely blitzed the Lakers en route to a 107-83 win. The third quarter, in particular, was shocking on both ends of the floor for L.A., as Minnesota outscored them in the frame, 40-12.

While the Lakers have dealt with injuries and a largely brand new roster this season, their 7-6 record to start the season hasn’t quite been good enough for a team with championship aspirations. And after the “embarrassing” game, Anthony Davis took his team to task for their effort in third quarters throughout the season up to this point.

“We sucked,” Davis said about their effort in the frame, per Dave McMenamin of ESPN. “No defense. Can’t score. That’s not just this third quarter, it’s every third quarter we’ve played this season. We come out slow, lackadaisical offensively and defensively. We got to get it together. Why? I can’t tell you. But we got to do a better job.”

Davis went on to say that the Lakers, even beyond this one loss, are nowhere near the level they need to be right now.

“We got to decide who we want to be. A championship team? That’s not us right now,” Davis said. “We’re not winning a championship the way we’re playing. We got to be better, and we got to care more for our wins at home. Wins in general. That was embarrassing.”

The Lakers will try to get back in the win column on Sunday afternoon when they play host to the San Antonio Spurs.

Last week, Joe Biden finally saw an ambitious piece of legislation passed. The House and Senate both voted (narrowly, of course) for the president’s infrastructure bill, which only saw support from 19 GOP senators and 13 GOP representatives. Those few who voted against party lines were not left so merry: They were angrily singled out by one of the most unhinged members of the House, Marjorie Taylor Greene. And she’s not calling off her dogs any time soon.

In a series of tweets on Saturday, the Georgia lawmaker (who rarely makes any actual laws herself) doubled down on driving harassing phonecalls, including death threats, to those who didn’t vote the way she’d have liked. Greene linked to a Salon piece about how her plan “worked,” leaving her colleagues with abusive feedback, then added her own veiled threats.

“My office, my staff, and I receive nasty calls, death threats & wishes all the time, but the difference is they are from the deranged left, not Republican,” she tweeted. While she admitted that “all death threats should be investigated,” she remained unmoved by the abuse she’d directed towards her coworkers, even though she, too, has experienced her own such animosity.

“However, the calls will continue and primaries will ensue. Republicans in the House and the Senate need to learn a lesson,” Green wrote. “Stop helping Democrats destroy our economy, take away our freedoms, enslave us in crippling debt, and corrupt our society with immoral policies.”

Greene also called out the 31 pro-Infrastructure Bill GOP lawmakers once more, and claimed that Democrats are wielding “authoritarian power over the Great People of America.”

Rarely does a day go by without Greene saying or doing something over-the-top. She recently told a newly indicted Steve Bannon that she’s actually not that into politics, talked about “patriot hunting” with Tucker Carlson, and has continued to surrender a truly jaw-dropping amount of her congressional salary to mask fines.

(Via Raw Story)

After a relatively mild summer, COVID-19 cases are spiking once more, with health officials warning of a potential “fifth wave” as winter sends people back indoors. Should that happen, things will be a bit different than in the past: The majority of hospitalizations and deaths will likely happen mostly in cases with low vaccination rates. The GOP has not made it easy to change their minds and save their lives; Ted Cruz has even come after Big Bird. (Meanwhile, Breitbart published a surreal conspiracy theory blaming it all on…people who want people to get vaxxed.) But Stephen Colbert tried to find a way: baseball talk.

On Friday’s The Late Show, Colbert said he was tired of using “wave” metaphors to describe seesawing COVID cases. So why not try invoking the national sport instead?

“If we do get a fifth wave, it won’t affect the entire country equally, because the places hardest hit tend to have low vaccination rates,” Colbert told the crowd. “At this point, staying unvaccinated is like wearing a Yankees hat to a Red Sox game: You’re probably gonna end up in the hospital and it’s your own damn fault.”

Colbert also played a clip of California Governor Gavin Newsom warning of a fifth wave arriving with the cold weather. “Winter is coming,” he said, with a nod to Game of Thrones. Colbert also took umbrage with that.

“Makes sense to quote Game of Thrones, because the pandemic is already way too long and it’s not going to end well,” he cracked, reminding people of the show’s controversial capper.

You can watch Colbert’s opening monologue in the video above. The pandemic business begins around the 2:30 mark.

Absences are scattered across the Philadelphia 76ers’ rotation. All-Star point guard Ben Simmons has yet to suit up for a single contest. Due to health and safety protocols, Tobias Harris (six games), Matisse Thybulle (four games), and Joel Embiid (three games, plus an earlier one for rest) have all missed extended time. Nursing an ankle injury, Shake Milton didn’t debut until game five. Danny Green sat out three games to work through a hamstring issue. Even Seth Curry, Furkan Korkmaz, and Andre Drummond have each been sidelined for a night.

To this point, the lone constant is Tyrese Maxey, who is looking the part of a future star. Unlike some players who earn that distinction, Maxey’s play makes it seem like the future might already be here. Through 13 games, the 21-year-old speedster is averaging 17.1 points, 4.7 assists (1.5 turnovers), and 3.8 rebounds on 59.3 percent true shooting.

He’s converted 54.7 percent of his twos, 38.5 percent of his threes, and 87.2 percent of his free throws. After posting a true shooting percentage 4.1 points below league average as a rookie, his current mark stands 4.4 points north of league average, all while seeing more minutes against starters on a team often missing its best player(s). That’s a mighty fine leap.

Over his past five games, he’s averaging 22 points, 5.4 assists (0.8 turnovers), five rebounds, 1.4 steals, and one block on 61.4 percent true shooting (.518/.435/.933 split), including back-to-back 30-burgers. Philadelphia’s plethora of close games amid a compromised rotation has tasked Maxey with a gargantuan minutes load. He’s logged at least 37 minutes in six consecutive outings and 39+ in the last five, though none of it seems to bother him.

Against the Toronto Raptors on Thursday, he keyed a fourth-quarter comeback (albeit, unsuccessful) with 15 points, two assists, one steal, and one block in the final frame, blazing up and down the floor for delightful sequences.

Dating back to his pre-draft days, Maxey was always a drive-first, shoot-second scorer. As an NBA sophomore, he’s refined both aspects to emerge as one of the best scorers on his team and from the 2020 class. The dude’s a sprinter masquerading as a hooper. He zips past defenders in a jiffy, varies his speed to compound its effectiveness, and can convert around the basket from an array of angles.

Per Cleaning The Glass, his rim frequency (38 percent, 84th percentile) and finishing (67 percent, 84th percentile) both place him clear of the 80th percentile among point guards. He’s elite in both volume and efficiency. Last season, he had the former (88th percentile), but was missing the latter (58 percent, 41st percentile).

What’s more is he’s continuing an in-season trend from 2020-21 by relying less on his silky floater. Per Synergy, his “runner” frequency is down from 22.2 percent to 16.4 percent, but after ranking in the 79th percentile in efficiency as a rookie, he finds himself in the 82nd percentile to open 2021-22. It’s still a weapon, just not the headlining one that leads him to settle occasionally.

A year to add counters and further learn how to succeed as a downhill-inclined, 6’2 guard has made him a devastating slasher to provide the Sixers with much-needed dribble-drive equity. He knows how to adjust his finishes based on defensive interference and alters his release points when warranted. The manipulation of pace and screens, diversity of deliveries, and driving technique are marvels. Take note of how low he gets here:

Maxey’s role has changed from being predominantly a bench spark plug a year ago. He is tasked with organizing the offense in Simmons’ absence, even if Embiid and Harris are the centerpieces when they play. Keenly identifying pockets of space, Maxey is increasingly discretionary as a scorer and balancing all the responsibilities associated with being the starting point guard for a playoff team.

With Embiid, Harris, and Curry the focal points most often, Maxey is not always afforded on-ball rep after on-ball rep to cook downhill. Even separate from them, he’s also just not yet equipped to be a primary initiator, which slides him into an off-ball role for periods. This is where many of his recent strides are manifesting. Last season, and early this season, he was burdened by hesitancy and prone to many record-scratches when the ball swung his way. He’d bypass open catch-and-shoot threes and tepidly aim to venture inside the arc.

Now, he’s either launching from deep or decisively attacking to get to a pull-up, floater, or rim foray. In his 33-point outing against Toronto, such maturation was readily apparent. He knows what he wants to do but isn’t predetermined, and the finishing guile is even more practical against a scrambling defense.

This growth also helps explain why his long midrange frequency has trickled down from 16 percent as a rookie to nine percent this year, per Cleaning The Glass. There are fewer instances where he dribbles himself into the binary options of a pass or an uninspiring long two.

Serving as a secondary fiddle alongside Embiid, those occurrences are paramount. Many of these plays are not ones he would’ve made as a rookie or even earlier in the season. For instance, the two semi-contested threes that he drains in the compilation below are almost assuredly record-scratch sequences from a younger version of Maxey. Instead, each tacks on three points for the Sixers and are examples of his development into a dynamic off-ball scorer.

A quick glance at Maxey’s slash line and his surge beyond the arc pops out. After shooting 30.1 percent from deep in year one, he’s up to 38.5 percent in year two. He’s more willing to fire spot-up threes, of which he’s knocked down 38.1 percent (8-for-21). His off-the-bounce flashes have, to this narrow point, become consistent, connecting on seven of his 18 (39.1 percent) pull-up attempts from three.

Although his .247 three-point rate is barely higher than last season (.240), he’s certainly more comfortable this year. It’s just that he’s found other ways to generate efficient shots inside the arc. There are fewer instances where any sort of an aversion to triples looks or actually is detrimental.

When defenders duck under screens, he’s ready to let that sucker fly and he also holsters a fluid step-back for self-creation. Given the menacing nature of his interior chops, the jumper emerging as an auxiliary tool when he leverages his driving prowess is important for his chances of becoming a legitimately elite guard scorer. Through 13 games, he’s taking the steps necessary to accomplish that.

Maxey hasn’t merely replaced Simmons as the team’s nominal starting point guard. On many nights, he assumes the opponent’s primary perimeter option. He’s already battled James Harden, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Trae Young, and Damian Lillard, among others. While he’s sometimes lost navigating through all the off-ball chaos defensively and must stay down against shot fakes more commonly, he’s laying the foundation for high-level guard defense and is already tenable for his position.

He helped severely limit Young in Philadelphia’s victory two weeks ago, coaxed various challenging shots from Lillard, and has incorporated some of Thybulle’s rearview contest artistry into his toolkit. His lateral mobility and core strength enable him to thwart drives, and he’s flashed instinctive off-ball playmaking.

Despite the difficulty of on-ball assignments being elevated from last season, he’s performing better on that end and already showing heightened discipline against fakes, even if he must sustain that improvement.

Consistent off-ball defense and tact against savvy fakes are atop the forward-thinking defensive checklist. Better handling hedges and traps out of ball-screens, along with replicable passing reads beyond skips to the corner, confront him offensively. His 3:1 assist-to-turnover ratio seems tidy, but speaks more to his conservative tendencies than delicate, daring facilitation.

There have been many occasions recently in which he’s failed to feed an open Drummond on the roll because he’s flustered or deterred by multiple bodies. A balance between timidity and foolishness exists, and he hovers too close to the former right now. This experience is good for him. He can identify those errors of omission and adapt accordingly. He’s already a vastly better player now than early October, just as was the case throughout last season.

The Sixers have thrust much onto Maxey’s plate in year two. He’s one of their foremost creators, routinely initiates possessions, and locks horns with explosive offensive talents nightly. By and large, he’s handling it superbly and resembles an obvious top-10 player from his class. At age 21, he’s a good player, which is why the possibilities ahead are so promising and alluring.

On Friday, a few weeks after he refused to cooperate with a subpoena from the Jan. 6 committee, Steve Bannon was federally indicted. The news came as a bit of a surprise, perhaps to Bannon himself, too. The committee, which is investigating the events leading up to the Capitol siege, has subpoenaed a number of other close Trump associates, some of whom may wind up in big legal trouble if they make like Bannon. But that hasn’t stopped other allies from trying to downplay that fateful day and claim, erroneously, that it’s fine to break the law.

One of them was Matt Gaetz, the embattled Florida congressman who already has problems of his own. Gaetz, too, is in trouble, being the subject of a federal investigation into his ties to a sex trafficking ring. Publicly he’s tried to ignore it; privately he’s lawyered the heck up. But perhaps he saw a kinship with someone who’s also in deep doo-doo.

“Steve Bannon did nothing wrong,” Gaetz tweeted on Friday. The statement was patently false: Bannon ignored a subpoena, and being held in contempt of Congress was the least that could befall him.

But rather than unpack his argument, a lot of people simply made jokes about Venmo, reminding people that earlier this year he was busted for using the popular app to wire money to Joel Greenberg, who is connected with said sex trafficking ring and who is playing ball with the feds.

And thus, Venmo went viral, all thanks to Gaetz’s big mouth.

For the first time in two years, Kendrick Lamar returned to the stage. On Friday, the rapper delivered a performance at the Day N Vegas festival, which was also the last venue he performed at, back in 2019. His set was a special one, as it found him performing a number of songs from his debut album Section.80 for the first time in nearly a decade. These include “F*ck Your Ethnicity,” “HiiiPoWeR,” “Chapter Ten.” and “Ronald Reagan Era (His Evils).” He also performed songs from Good Kid, M.a.a.d City, To Pimp A Butterfly, and DAMN. He then hinted at a proper, full return “very soon.”

After performing “Family Ties” and “Range Brothers” with Baby Keem, Kendrick shared a promising message with the crowd. “Vegas till next time,” he said. “And when I say next time I mean very soon.” This could mean that the rapper’s highly-anticipated fifth album is on the way, which will most likely be paired with an exciting tour.

Kendrick’s comments come after he gave an update on his upcoming fifth album, revealing it would be his last with Top Dawg Entertainment, a label he’d been signed to since 2005. “As I produce my final TDE album, I feel joy to have been a part of such a cultural imprint after 17 years,” he wrote in a statement. “The Struggles. The Success. And most importantly, the Brotherhood. May the Most High continue to use Top Dawg as a vessel for candid creators. As I continue to pursue my life’s calling.”

You can view clips from Kendrick’s Day N Vegas performance below.

The NFL has made it a point to crack down on taunting this year. While someone, somewhere theoretically enjoys it, the league has come under a ton of scrutiny for taking the emotion out of football, particularly because referees are calling 15-yard taunting penalties on dudes who aren’t exactly doing lengthy, elaborate celebrations or anything like that.

Perhaps the low point came on Monday Night Football this past week when Chicago Bears linebacker Cassius Marsh registered a huge third down sack on Ben Roethlisberger, did his normal celebration, then took a few steps towards the Steelers’ sideline. It didn’t look like he said anything, he just stared at the opposing players. This didn’t sit well with the officials, who decided to throw a penalty flag and extend the drive for Pittsburgh. Further, the flag came after head official Tony Corrente straight up threw his butt into Marsh.

Apparently, the NFL thought that flag was not just totally justified, but it didn’t go enough, as it was announced on Saturday morning that the league has fined Marsh for the incident.

Pelissero reported that Marsh plans to appeal the ruling. It’s not a huge chunk of change, so it’s not like Marsh is going to have to fork over an insane amount of cash or anything if it’s upheld. But hopefully, the league uses this offseason to recalibrate its taunting rules.

After nearly 14 long years, Britney Spears’ conservatorship finally came to an end. On Friday, a judge terminated the conservatorship, which has long found people overseeing decisions regarding the singer’s personal life and her estate, including her father, Jamie. Shortly after the news broke, Britney shared a message of her own about the termination.

“Good God I love my fans so much it’s crazy,” she wrote next to a video of her fans celebrating the ruling. “I think I’m gonna cry the rest of the day !!!! Best day ever.”

Britney’s post comes after she addressed her family for the pain they caused her over the years. “This message is to my family … for hurting me deeper than you’ll ever know !!!” she wrote on Instagram. “I know the conservatorship is about to be over but I still want justice !!! I’m only 5’4″ and I’ve played the bigger person my entire life … do you know how hard that is ???”

Britney did some anxious about her post-conservatorship life. “I’ll just be honest and say I’ve waited so long to be free from the situation I’m in … and now that it’s here I’m scared to do anything because I’m afraid I’ll make a mistake !!!” she wrote on Instagram. “It’s like they want me to do something crazy,” she continued, adding, that she’ll have to “do things a little differently from now on.”

On Friday, Steve Bannon was found in contempt of Congress and indicted on federal charges after he refused to comply with a subpoena issued by the committee investigating the events of Jan. 6. It was a big, perhaps even surprising move, considering Attorney General Merrick Garland hasn’t always been in a rush to serve the wishes of President Joe Biden. But there was one person who may have been surprised to see it: Steve Bannon himself.

As the indictment news broke, Bannon was in the middle of recording The War Room, his show and podcast that has been a fount of flamboyant voter fraud misinformation. Behind him was a TV airing CNN, and an eagle-eyed viewer managed to screengrab the moment when the words “Bannon indicted” appeared on a chyron. It was a real “Brockman in Trouble” moment, as Bannon kept right on talking and never once mentioned the news during the episode.

Surely someone informed Bannon that he was in big doo-doo beforehand, right? Possibly. Raheem Kassam, the on-again-off-again Trump ally’s co-host, implied that he just didn’t bring up that he may be heading to the slammer just so he could own the libs.

Bannon is far from the only Trump associate who’s been subpoenaed by the Jan. 6 committee. A whole mess of requests went out last week, wrangling up the likes of Kayleigh McEnany and Stephen Miller. Trump himself has been struggling to block subpoenas, without much success, and while Bannon may think it’s cool to pretend like he doesn’t care about a federal indictment, he may change his tune once he’s stinking up a jail cell alongside the world’s unluckiest convict.

(Via Insider)

It’s official: Sunday’s showdown at Lambeau Field between the Green Bay Packers and Seattle Seahawks will feature each team’s MVP quarterback. After Russell Wilson was cleared to return earlier this week from surgery on his right middle finger, news dropped on Saturday morning that indicated Aaron Rodgers has be activated off of the COVID list.

The report comes via Tom Pelissero of NFL Network, who added that there won’t be a slow build to get Rodgers back into the fold. Instead, when the Packers’ offense steps onto the field, they’ll be led by their star signal caller.

Rodgers tested positive for COVID-19 earlier this month. He came under plenty of scrutiny for this, as his absence meant he was unvaccinated — earlier this year, Rodgers responded to a question about his vaccine status by saying “yeah, I’m immunized,” and reporting in the aftermath of his positive test indicated he tried to have some sort of antibody-boosting therapy take the place of getting the vaccine.

While he was isolating at home, Rodgers twice appeared on Pat McAfee’s radio show and brought even more scrutiny onto himself, as he made a number of scientifically misleading or inaccurate claims and stated that the “woke mob” was on a mission to put the “final nail” in his “cancel culture casket.”