GoneTrending

Despite a ridiculous charge at the end of the season that saw Washington win 17 of its last 23 games, the Wizards’ reward for beating Indiana in the play-in tournament and claiming the eighth seed in the East is a matchup with a pretty scary 76ers team that they simply don’t match up well against.

As we saw in both rounds of the play-in tournament, Washington star Bradley Beal is also hampered by a nagging hamstring injury. In a series that already likely would have taken a perfect series from the Wizards to end in an upset, Washington is also less healthy and coming off a loss against Boston this week that showed their struggles handling elite perimeter scorers.

The Wizards are better than their record shows, but it’s hard to imagine that they can topple the improved 76ers in the first round.

Matchup To Watch

In sizing this series up, the first place to look is the center spot. Philadelphia big man Joel Embiid finally lived up to his MVP potential this season and put together a dominant two-way season, with the sixth-best Estimated Plus-Minus in the league as well as the tenth-most win shares. The guy was a killer all year.

Guarding him is far more complicated than which opposing center stands next to him at halfcourt for the opening tip. There will be double-teams, stunts and more, but that doesn’t change the fact that the Wizards’ collection of castoff centers does not look up to the task. Alex Len has been starting, and though he’s seven feet tall, he doesn’t have the strength to match Embiid. A few years ago we may have felt optimistic about Robin Lopez, but Embiid’s development off the bounce means he can scoot right past the 33-year-old Lopez. And Daniel Gafford, who may be their best option, just doesn’t seem to have the physical ability or game-to-game consistency to handle Embiid in his second season.

Washington coach Scott Brooks may go away from Len as the starter in this series, but even that combined with strategic double-teams won’t stop Embiid. He’s seen it all.

Series X-Factor

Who else but Russell Westbrook? The triple-double king of the NBA came on late in the season (as he typically does), but doesn’t seem to have much of a place in this series. Westbrook will likely defend Ben Simmons, setting off a duel regarding who can control the pace of the game more effectively.

The Wizards were the sixth-most efficient transition offense in the NBA according to Synergy Sports, and Washington added an average of 1.8 points per 100 possessions when Westbrook was on the floor. But Philly’s transition defense was solid, and they have plenty of bodies to throw at Westbrook and Beal.

Provided Simmons can get to the rim on Westbrook and the Sixers can go under screens on Westbrook without him making them pay, the Sixers should win this matchup. Westbrook knocking down some jumpers could bring the Wizards’ offense alive, however, and help them steal a game or two and make the series more interesting.

A couple other names to watch: Davis Bertans, who could juice Washington’s offense even more and hide defensively on Danny Green or Matisse Thybulle; and Rui Hachimura, who is getting his first postseason test and will likely be tasked with stopping Tobias Harris.

Stat To Know

The battleground for this series could be the midrange. Washington took more midrange shots as a percentage of their offense than any team in the NBA this season, while the Sixers allowed the lowest percentage from midrange of any defense. While Philly tends to default to Embiid hanging out inside the arc when defending the pick-and-roll, he is agile enough to contain a ton of space and get a hand in the ball-handler’s face while also keeping with his man. That plus excellent help defenders across the roster make the Sixers a hard defense to crack.

Both Westbrook and Beal are comfortable pulling up from mid-range. In truth, it’s among the more comfortable looks for them in the halfcourt. The Sixers don’t mind giving that shot up, but they guard it well and don’t let teams beat them with it.

One of, if not the most heartwrenching, moment in Ariana Grande’s career is one most artists will not have to go through. Four years ago on Saturday, the pop sensation’s concert in Manchester was tragically used as the venue for a terrorist attack. A normal overseas show quickly turned for the worst as a bomb at Manchester Arena was detonated as attendees left the area. In the end, 22 people were killed and it was an incident that left the singer forever scarred. Four years later, Grande took to her Instagram story to remember the victims.

“Although grief is ever-present and our relationship to it is constantly evolving and expressing itself in different ways every day, year round,” she wrote on her Instagram Story above a list of the victims from the bombing. “I know that this anniversary will never be an easy one. Please know that I am thinking of you today.” She concluded her message and added, “Manchester, my heart is with you today and always.”

The singer’s message comes after she married her fiance Dalton Gomez last weekend. The pair were engaged since December and had been dating since early 2020. According to TMZ which cited “sources with direct knowledge” about the situation, the wedding occurred at Grande’s home in Montecito, California with “no real ceremony and few guests.”

You can view a screenshot of Grande’s post above.

There was a whole lot of anticipation for the 3-6 matchup in the Eastern Conference this postseason. On the surface, the Milwaukee Bucks taking on the Miami Heat is a ton of fun, as they are both two very respectable basketball teams, but considering how things went last year during the playoffs — Miami punking Milwaukee in the conference semis to send them home — it was hard not to get excited about the next chapter between these two sides.

It took exactly 53 minutes for these teams to rekindle their rivalry and give us an absolutely scintillating Game 1, setting the tone for what should be a delightful series. Thanks to some late heroics by Khris Middleton, the Bucks were able to draw first blood, picking up a thrilling 109-107 win.

The shot making from both teams was nothing short of terrific — every time one squad had a lead, the other seemed to come down and hit an absolutely ridiculous shot to give them the edge. For example, with just under 40 seconds left in OT and the Bucks up one, Jrue Holiday seemed to give Milwaukee just enough breathing room, corralling a Duncan Robinson miss and going coast-to-coast.

On the ensuing possession for the Heat, though, Goran Dragic responded, drilling a three from the corner to tie things up. Milwaukee went the other way, putting the ball in Middleton’s hands and letting him go to work. The All-Star forward responded by taking a contested jumper that couldn’t have looked any prettier going through the rim.

Miami couldn’t get a shot off on the other end — Holiday smothered Jimmy Butler’s attempt at a game-winner and prevented him from playing hero for the second time on the day — and as a result, the Bucks find themselves with the advantage. Middleton led Milwaukee on the day with 27 points on 10-for-22 shooting with six rebounds, six assists, and two steals.

Game 2 between the Bucks and the Heat will take place on Monday at 7:30 p.m. EST on TNT.

In late March, shortly after they announced a new deal with Triller, Verzuz shared plans for several upcoming battles. The first two were matchups between Earth, Wind, & Fire and The Isley Brothers and Method Man and Redman. A third battle between SWV and Xscape was later announced, but since then the group has gone quiet on updates with future battles. A scheduled Mother’s Day Verzuz came and went without an actual battle while potential participants and dates for the remaining three matchups were never revealed. Now, it looks like one of those battles could finally be set.

Soulja Boy took to Twitter to announce that a Verzuz between himself and Bow Wow is “official.” The rappers hopped on Instagram Live to speak about the upcoming matchup as fans watched in excitement.

“This sh*t gonna be bigger than life bro,” Bow Wow proclaimed during the livestream. “I’m happy to celebrate with you. They was throwing O in there, I saw a lot of Omarion, I’m like that’s my bro too, but O an R&B singer.” He added, “Me and you [Soulja] make so much sense. We’ve toured together, me and you got a whole motherf*cking mixtape together. We on tour right now and on top of that sh*t, n**** you got a hot new record out. The day before we do Verzuz, my movie come out… Fast & Furious 9 drop the day before.”

The end of Bow Wow’s quote of course reveals that he and Soulja’s Verzuz will take place on June 26 as Fast & Furious 9 will premiere in theaters on June 25.

The Verzuz announcement also comes after Soulja Boy was sued by his ex-girlfriend for sexual battery and domestic violence. As for Bow Wow, he was hit assault charges in 2019 after he was involved in a physical altercation with a woman who was also arrested in the matter.

You can watch a clip from their Instagram live session above.

Jimmy Butler was 3-for-18 with 15 points entering the final possession of Game 1 of the Miami Heat’s first round tilt against the Milwaukee Bucks. And then, he went full Jimmy Butler, coming up gigantic when the moment called for it and getting the Heat to overtime as the clock hit zero.

Butler was being checked by Giannis Antetokounmpo on the final possession of regulation. Antetokounmpo was happy to give him room to take a jumper, but instead, Butler saw it as a chance to get a head of steam and blow past the reigning Defensive Player of the Year. With about two seconds left, Butler made his move, putting his head down and getting to the rim.

He was a little too quick for Brook Lopez, who rotated over to try and contest Butler at the rim. Easy enough for Butler, who went underhand and kissed the ball off of the back of the rim to get the game to OT.

Butler had struggled to hit shots during the game, and while he found other ways to contribute — he had nine rebounds, seven assists, and two steals during regulation — he had the ball in his hands when the lights shined the brightest. And for the second postseason in a row, when facing off against the Bucks, Butler did what he needed to do.

Ziwe Fumudoh sat down with former presidential and current New York mayoral candidate Andrew Yang this week, and those who assumed the result would be bad news for Yang were apparently very correct according to the first clips from Ziwe.

Ziwe, whose Showtime series has garnered a reputation for putting celebrities on the hot seat and asking some very leading questions, asked Yang on Twitter earlier in the week he would appear on the show. “You would be an iconic guest,” she wrote on Twitter.

Those who knew her work pretty plainly thought this would be a tough interview for Yang, who has stumbled in his mayoral campaign in recent weeks. By Thursday night, however, Wall Street Journal reporter Katie Honan had reported Yang would indeed appear. And on Saturday, Ziwe posted a clip from the episode that involved New York legend Jay-Z. The clip, which cuts off after about 30 seconds of awkwardness, includes Ziwe asking Yang what his favorite Jay-Z song is with him unable to name a single one.

“I listened to a lot of hip-hop during like the 90s and 2000s,” Yang said when asked what he’s “vibing to” lately after a question about listening to rap music. She presses him, saying “I gotta know” what artists he likes, and he mentions Nas and Jay-Z after some hesitation.

“What’s your favorite Jay-Z song?” she asks. “I mean, he’s a New Yorker.”

Yang only says “yes” initially, and then there’s a long pause as he seems to think it over. “What is my favorite Jay-Z song?” he asks, as if to himself as well as anyone willing to give him the name of one to rescue him from the situation. Ziwe’s expression really says it all here.

The clip cuts off right as he says “it’s” after a full 10 seconds of contemplation or so. And while he may just have had a hard time coming up with his favorite, not simply struggling to come up with any songs at all, the awkward moment is the latest in a campaign that’s struggled to avoid them.

For Yang to have said yes to the interview means either no one on his staff knew what Ziwe’s deal was with these interviews, or he was simply not as prepared as he should be for the kind of questions she’d ask. But it’s also an own goal in several ways here: If Yang simply isn’t a Jay-Z fan, which is fine even for New York mayoral candidates, the easiest way to avoid falling into this trap is to not claim he spent a few decades listening to his music seconds before.

We’ll have to wait and see what he came up with when his interview on Ziwe airs on Sunday night.

Producer The Alchemist and Earl Sweatshirt came together at the end of last month for the collaboration “Nobles,” which appeared on the former’s album This Thing Of Ours. (Earl also appeared on a second track, entitled “Loose Change.”) The producer recently revealed there’s more where that came from. In fact, the two have already released a full-length album together, a while back. But there’s a catch: You’ll have to work hard to find it.

“We hid a whole album on youtube under a fake name and youtube page,” Alchemist wrote on Twitter. “Fake album cover, song titles, the whole 9. Nobody found it yet.” Naturally, this sent fans on a scramble to locate the project on streaming platforms.

Some shared their reactions — and frustrations — on Twitter about their search. “Looked for a hour can’t find sh*t ima just pretend it’s fake,” one person wrote, while another opted to wait for others to find it. “I give Reddit 3 hours before they find a Earl sweatshirt album lmao I’m not doing all this work,” they said.

This is not the first time that Alchemist spoke about the hidden album, which they released years ago. Back in January 2019, he shared a similar tweet writing, “We did one and dropped it under a fake name. Youtube. Go find it. You are the one.”

Earl Sweatshirt is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Victor Oladipo never quite looked like himself during the 2020-21 season. Between his continued comeback from a torn quadriceps and the fact that he suited up for three different teams at one point or another, it was evident that Oladipo wasn’t able to get back to the form that made him an All-Star player.

Oladipo’s stint with his third team, the Miami Heat, came to an end after only four games because of a quad injury, and as a result, he’s on the sidelines until later next year. It turns out that the quad injury might have been a blessing in disguise, because the doctor who performed his most recent quad procedure revealed that Oladipo’s prior procedure wasn’t done correctly.

“I repaired the quad tendon and did it a little differently than [he had] it done before,” Dr. Jonathan Glashow told ESPN. “The quad wasn’t really hooked up. It was torn, and I reattached it. I was amazed he was playing with what he had. I’m very optimistic that I could clear him in six months, by November. I think he’s going to play really well again.

“[The surgery] went extremely well, and it’s healing beautifully. I’m confident he’ll play next year.”

Gonna be honest: I did not know “his quad wasn’t hooked up properly” could happen. Regardless, it’s been a long road back to health for Oladipo, so here’s to hoping he’s able to put this all in the past and return to the level that made him such a good player.

You might remember a while back when Rick Santorum made some astonishingly ignorant (which is to say racist) statements about Native Americans. There was outrage. There were calls for him to be let go from his main gig at CNN. And then…nothing happened. It seemed the network would continue to employ one of their few token wingers, that people would forget what he said and move on. But someone at CNN didn’t forget and now, nearly a month after his comments went viral, Santorum was given the can.

As per The Huffington Post, CNN terminated their contract with the politician-turned-commentator, who was a senator for Pennsylvania from 1995 to 2007, during which he was one of the most outspoken conservative figures in Congress, regularly railing about, among other subjects, homosexuality. Santorum’s infamy among the left was such that sex columnist and gay rights activist Dan Savage named a neologism after his surname, which he defined as a graphic gay sex act.

But it took him making racist comments about Native Americans to finally cost him his day job. Santorum made his offending statements at a seminar for religious freedom in late April. He was talking about the pilgrims who came from Europe and took over land that was already occupied. But he didn’t think kicking people off their land as a bad thing.

“We birthed a nation from nothing. I mean, there was nothing here,” he told the crowd. “I mean, yes, we have Native Americans but candidly there isn’t much Native American culture in American culture.”

Santorum faced massive backlash over the statements, but don’t feel too sorry for him. There’s plenty of far right organizations that will hire someone who doesn’t think highly of Native Americans, and he doesn’t even have to settle for Fox News.

(Via HuffPo)

Following a decade in which he released six albums and six mixtapes, Logic called it quits after releasing his 2020 album No Pressure, which was a sequel to his debut, Under Pressure. The rapper’s retirement led to interviews in which revealed why he stepped away from the game, a mostly one-sided spat with Joe Budden, a seven-figure deal with Twitch, and more. But last month he changed his mind, forming a new duo with legendary producer Madlib called MadGic. After dropping their first track, “Mars Only Pt. 3,” in April, the pair returns with “Raddest Dad.”

On the new effort, Logic raps over Roc Marciano’s 2013 Madlib-produced track “The Sacrifice.” At the end he speaks about his alleged retirement. “I mean I retired, but I’ve been making music every single day since I retired because I love it,” he says. “And then I think what I realized was that I don’t like the industry. So I think I want to retire from the industry. That’s why I wanna do this music for free.” He adds, “Sometimes I wanna come back, but I don’t know if I should come back. I mean if I did I’d want to be independent. That’d be pretty cool.”

They teased a potential MadGic full-length on “Mars Only Pt. 3,” with Logic rapping, “Made this whole album in a lockdown, hip hop is our town / Hairline like Doc Brown but I’m killin’ it.”

You can listen to “Raddest Dad” in the video above.