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The Lakers and Warriors matchup was the highest anticipated NBA play-in tournament game of the week — and, quite likely, will hold that title for years to come — and it lived up to the hype. Stephen Curry had 37 for the Warriors and, after a slow start, LeBron James and Anthony Davis came alive to lead a 13-point second half comeback to give the Lakers a 103-100 win to earn the 7-seed.

The game-winning shot came with a minute to play and the shot clock winding down for the Lakers, as the ball got kicked back out to LeBron James 30-plus feet from the basket where he drilled the go-ahead bucket over Curry.

Just a few minutes prior to that shot, James got poked in the eye by Draymond Green on a foul at the rim as Green rotated over to contest a layup, staying down and getting eye drops on the bench afterwards.

In his walkoff interview, James said he was still struggling with his sight when he got the ball on that final deep three, saying he was seeing three rims and “shot at the middle one.”

When in doubt, shoot for the middle rim, I guess. The Lakers will have until Sunday to be rested up for the Suns, as James can get that eye right and have a few extra days to let his ankle, which seemed to bother him some early in the game, heal up before they go to Phoenix at 3:30 p.m. ET on ABC for Game 1.

The fourth game of the NBA’s play-in tournament was the clear main event as the Lakers played host to the Warriors for the chance to win the 7-seed in the West and earn a date with the Phoenix Suns in the playoffs.

Early on, the superstars who headlined the matchup struggled, as it was Kent Bazemore and Andrew Wiggins who helped Golden State to an early lead, while the Lakers trio of LeBron James, Anthony Davis, and Dennis Schröder couldn’t buy a bucket.

Eventually, Stephen Curry got it rolling on his way to 37 points. Once he did, the Warriors were able to run out to a 13-point halftime lead, as Curry capped the half off with a patently absurd three at the buzzer.

The third quarter saw the Lakers finally get it going, as Frank Vogel finally went to a small lineup with Davis, who led the Lakers with 25 points, at the five, allowing L.A. to move better defensively, get out and run, and create more space offensively. With that space, LeBron — who finished with 22 points, 11 rebounds, and 10 assists — came to life as a playmaker by orchestrating what had been, to that point, a rather lifeless Laker offense and getting some big buckets of his own.

The LeBron-Steph duel the world had hoped for came to fruition down the stretch of the third, with both players trading blows as L.A. closed the Warrior lead to just two at 79-77.

The fourth quarter began all Lakers, as they had sprung to life with an 8-0 run to open the final period, taking their first lead of the game at 81-79 with 11 minutes to go and opening that up to 85-79 to force a Warriors timeout.

However, Curry and the Warriors had an answer, making their own run to tie the game at 93-93.

After a Lakers bucket to take the lead back, Golden State jumped in front thanks to a terrific find from Draymond Green to Jordan Poole for three, with Steph adding to that lead with another drive for a floater after.

From there it was back and forth into the final minute, with LeBron giving L.A. a 103-100 lead with a logo three in the face of Steph Curry as the shot clock expired on a desperation look.

Jordan Poole got an open look to tie in the corner, but couldn’t knock it down and after an empty possession from the Lakers, the Warriors for some reason didn’t call timeout off the rebound or once the Lakers trapped Curry in the backcourt and didn’t get a timeout called until 2.1 seconds remained. On the final inbounds play, the Warriors couldn’t get a shot off as the pass to Curry bounced off his hands into the backcourt and the Lakers escaped with a massive comeback win, 103-100 to secure the 7-seed and meet Phoenix in the first round.

The Warriors will go back home and host the Grizzlies on Friday for a shot at the 8-seed and a meeting with the Jazz, needing to regroup after a sensational performance that came up just short.

The upcoming biopic about Cher’s life is being announced as only Cher would do it — via a caps lock tweet. On the day before the icon’s 75th (!) birthday, she broke the news on Twitter, and a press release followed shortly after, letting fans know that Universal Pictures will handle the release of the film. She also shared that Judy Craymer and Gary Goetzman, who produced both of the Mamma Mia! films will be producing and Eric Roth, writer behind films like Forrest Gump and A Star Is Born has signed on to write the project. According to a press release, Cher will also be co-producing the film.

That’s a pretty star-studded lineup already, who can hopefully do justice to the pop diva’s tumultuous life. Judy Craymer commented that she and Goetzman feel inspired by Cher’s talent, vision, and success, and are thrilled to work on the project.

“Gary and I are thrilled to be working with Cher again and this time bringing her empowering and true-life odyssey to the big screen. One cannot help but be drawn to and inspired by Cher’s larger than life talent, fortitude, unique wit, warmth, and vision. Her unparalleled success in music film and tv has inspired generations. We could not be happier to tell her story to cinema audiences.”

That’s all the info for now, but keep an eye out for casting news and other updates as the project progresses.

2KBaby became a name worth knowing back in 2019 thanks to his breakout single, “Old Streets” — his first and only Gold-certified release and to this day his most popular song. Jump to the present and the Louisville native is back in action with his latest track, “Great White,” for which he recently shared a music video. In it, 2KBaby plays an unforgiving assailant, his gang robbing a man of a large amount of money and taking down a cop who attempts to stop him and his crew in their tracks.

The track is the latest in a string of releases that 2KBaby has shared since he dropped his debut project, Pregame Rituals. G Herbo, YFN Lucci, and Lil Durk lent a hand to the full-length effort, which delivered more of what 2KBaby had to show as an artist. “My music can be therapeutic, it can amp you up, it can make you cry,” the rapper said in a press release. “I’m tryna just make pop sh*t,” adding, “Music that’s gonna sell out stadiums. Global music that can reach everybody.”

You can watch 2KBaby’s video above.

2KBaby is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Something happened to Geraldo Rivera, and it’s not something bad. Since the 2020 election, a media figure who at best lightly chastised people like Trump when they went too far — and only infrequently, at that — has gone rogue. He’s said he supported the impeachment of his good friend, the 45th president. He’s snapped at Charlie Kirk and sparred with Don Bongino. He’s also said not-great things, but it’s he’s doing better than anyone else on his side.

On Wednesday he went arguably farther than he ever has: He criticized Israel on Fox News. For the last two weeks, the world has watched in horror as war has exploded between Israel and Palestine, the former causing exponentially more death and destruction than the latter. On Sunday, John Oliver made waves by daring to come and accuse Israel of “war crimes” — something that has rarely been said outright before.

Rivera, speaking with Fox News anchor Martha MacCallum, didn’t go that far, but he went right up to the line.

“We have dozens of Palestinian children who have been killed in the last week with American bombs,” Rivera told Fox News audiences. He called out the U.S. for “providing many of the weapons Israel is using today to kill Palestinian civilians without even demanding a ceasefire.”

Rivera then uttered three words that are like holy water to Fox News vampires: “Tlaib is right,” referring to Rashida Tlaib, the first Palestinian-American elected to Congress and an outspoken critic of Israel’s actions right now. That the weapons being used to kill civilians came in part from America, Rivera said, “makes us complicit in an ongoing crime against humanity.”

Rivera was speaking from experience. During the segment, he called the Gaza Strip under Israeli occupation “one of the most menacing places on Earth that I’ve ever reported from.” He continued:

“Everyone and everything going into and out of Gaza is controlled by Israel. Electricity, fuel, airspace, ports, cell phone service, even who gets to farm those meager fields. It’s effectively one of the world’s largest prison camps and it is being bombed with bombs supplied by the United States. It’s outrageous that we gave Israel these hundreds of millions of dollars worth of weapons without insisting on a ceasefire now.”

Rivera received some pushback, of course. Conservative pundit Katie Pavlich accused him of supporting Hamas’ violent attacks on Israeli civilians. Rivera tried to go back to his original point. “They have no place to run. Where are they going to go?!” Rivera replied, adding that “an Israeli F-16 going 500 miles an hour is going to kill civilians.” He also argued that Israel firing into the Gaza Strip is bound to result in civilian casualties. “You shoot an artillery round from a tank and you expect it to land only on the military version of Hamas?”

Surely few would expect that Geraldo Rivera would ever go completely against the Fox News party line, but then stranger things have happened these days.

The Grizzlies played host to the Spurs on Wednesday night in the first play-in game for the Western Conference, with the winner moving on to play for the 8-seed and the loser going home. After a quarter of play, it looked as though we were in for a repeat of the East’s 9-10 matchup. Memphis ran out to a 38-19 lead going into the second, as San Antonio had no answers on either end of the floor for Jonas Valanciunas and Dillon Brooks.

However, the Spurs found their footing in the second, tying the game at one point thanks to a 22-3 run and ultimately only trailing by seven at the end of the first half. Dejounte Murray, Patty Mills, Jakob Poeltl, and Keldon Johnson all did their part in the second quarter run, and suddenly, we had a competitive game on our hands.

In the second half, it was once again a back-and-forth affair with Memphis in front most of the time, quickly ripping the lead back away from San Antonio any time the Spurs made a run to take a brief advantage. Valanciunas was nothing short of sensational, dominating inside on both ends with 23 points, 23 rebounds, and three blocks. The Grizzlies saw their lead evaporate every time he sat on the bench, and when he would return, it would grow again — with the end result being Jonas being a plus-26 on the night in a 100-96 win.

Brooks finished the game as Memphis’ leading scorer with 24 points, as he continues to impress with his two-way play and aggression on both ends. Brooks gave DeMar DeRozan fits for much of the night and on the offensive end he was in attack mode when the Grizzlies needed him to create some offense.

Closing things out was Ja Morant, who had a slow middle portion of the game but came alive in the fourth with some crucial buckets. He finished with 21 points, a team high six assists, and a highlight dunk early, as he is known to do.

For the Spurs, they just couldn’t find enough buckets against Memphis’ defense to make any of their runs stick. DeMar DeRozan and Rudy each had 20 points, but both needed 21 shots to get there. Murray had a triple double with 10 points, 13 rebounds, and 11 assists, but as just 4-for-17 from the field, and as a team they shot 35.1 percent from the floor. Memphis will now move on to face the loser of the highly anticipated nightcap between the Lakers and Warriors for the 8-seed, while San Antonio will go home for the second straight year without making the playoffs.

Texas’ own Big Jade has been moving up in the hip-hop world. She recently released Pressure, whose track “I’ll Tell You What” now has a new video. It finds her posted up outside a store with a few of her friends while she delivers sharp raps. “A lot of h*es not in their bag, they’re in their bed, these b*tches lazy,” she proclaims. “Gotta watch your circle, everybody ain’t happy for you, n****s’ shady.”

It’s a highlight of Pressure, which boasts head-knocking production by BeatKing and guest appearances from fellow Texans OMB Bloodbath, Queendom Come, and more. Big Jade had began catching attention long before the album’s arrival, including joining Erica Banks in their eye-catching video for “Dem Girlz.” Jade also impressed with a number of freestyles and singles that include “Gucci Bag,” “Bonnet Freestyle,” “No Hook,” and “Groupies, all of which appeared in Uproxx’s weekly “Best New Hip-Hop This Week” column.

You can watch the video above.

Pressure is out now via Alamo Records. Get it here.

Erica Banks is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

ASAP Rocky has been teasing music from his upcoming fourth album, rumored to be titled All Smiles, for the better part of two years, but he’s been fairly tight-lipped about what, and who, will be on it. But during a recent interview with GQ, the Harlem rapper shared one person fans can expect to hear on the album.

That person is The Smiths’ legendary/notorious lead vocalist Morrissey, who is these days as known for his beloved music as he is for his controversial statements. “Anything you need him to do, he show up and do,” Rocky said about the singer. The two have spent the last year working remotely on the album, which Rocky described as a “ghetto love tale” and “way more mature” than his previous projects. The rapper previously spoke about his desire to work with Morrissey during a 2019 sit-down with Peter Rosenberg.

“I might have to f*ck with Morrissey on some Smiths sh*t,” Rocky said at the time. “Make some emo, real, retro-infusion, motherf*ckin’ 2018 sh*t, man.” Rocky also confirmed that he’s at least talked to Rihanna — who he declared as the “love of my life” — about the album, which he said is 90% complete. “I think it’s important to have somebody that you can bounce those creative juices and ideas off of.”

The Smiths is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

The deadly MAGA insurrection of Jan. 6 found violent Trump supporters attempting to overturn the a fair and just election, but they had another objective: get — and maybe even hang — Mike Pence. Not that you would know it if you talked to him. The former vice president has, just like most people in his party, downplayed the events that nearly got him killed. Heck, not even his brother seems to care.

On Wednesday, the House finally voted on launching a commission to investigate the events of that fateful day. It passed, but not with flying colors: Only 35 Republicans voted for it, with 175 against it. Among them, according to The Huffington Post, was Greg Pence, representative of Indiana and slightly older brother to Trump’s number two.

“Hanging Judge Nancy Pelosi is hellbent on pushing her version of partisan justice complete with a hand-picked jury that will carry out her pre-determined political execution of Donald Trump before law enforcement officials have completed their investigation,” the older Pence said in a statement to The Washington Post.

As HuffPo points out, using the words “hanging” and “execution” to decry a probe into an incident that nearly led to his younger brother being hung and killed is…interesting. He also says nothing about a sibling who was left to die by his two-time running mate. Indeed, Trump told his unhinged supporters that Pence the Younger could simply refuse to certify the 2020 election…which he could not, even if that’s what he wanted.

Upon finding out about Greg Pence’s decision, people found it pretty cold.

That said, others pointed out that Mike himself would also probably be against a commission into something that nearly led to his painful death.

Given the number of House Republicans who opposed the bill, it seems likely that it won’t pass the Senate. If so, they’ll be sending a curious message to the officers who saved their butts that day.

(Via HuffPo)

On Wednesday, the House did the right thing: It passed a bill to investigate the MAGA insurrection of January 6. It did so without much Republican help; 175 GOP representatives voted against it, a number of them having gone on record saying they wouldn’t participate in an inquiry into a deadly siege that left five dead. In the lead-up, those lawmakers received their own form of pushback. Democratic representative Tim Ryan scorched colleagues across the aisle who refuse to support it. And so did the officers whose lives were put in danger that fateful day.

On Wednesday, a letter was sent to the House chiefs calling out Republican lawmakers for their reluctance. Though no names were attached, it was printed on United States Capitol Police letterhead and, according to The Huffington Post, it represents some 40 to 50 officers. And it did not mince words, expressing “profound disappointment” that the likes of Kevin McCarthy and Mitch McConnell have tried to stall the investigation.

The letter goes onto discuss how Capitol officers “were subjected to hours and hours of physical trauma which has led to months of mental anguish.” Indeed, of the five people who died on Jan. 6, one was a police officiers, Brian Sicknick. Two other officers died by suicide in the days following.

It goes on:

“It is inconceivable that some of the Members we protect, would downplay the events of January 6. Member safety was dependent upon the heroic actions of USCP. It is a privileged assumption for Members to have the point of view that ‘it wasn’t that bad. That privilege exists because the brave men and women of the USCP protected you, the Members.”

“Unfortunately this letter comes to you anonymously, because as U.S. Capitol Police Officers, we are expected to remain neutral and do our jobs with honor and integrity,” it reads. “It’s unfortunate that our ‘bosses’ [in Congress] are not held to the same standard that we, the USCP, are.”

After the letter went viral, USCP top brass formally distanced themselves from the letter, underlining the fact that the organization “does NOT take positions on legislation” and claiming they weren’t even sure which officers wrote the letter.

Nevertheless, as per HuffPo, Rep. Jamie Raskin confirmed that the letter’s authors were indeed members of Capitol Police.

Did the letter arrive in time to change any hearts and minds? We may never know. But there’s still a vote in the Senate, and we’ll see what Republicans there think about the men and women in blue who protect them.

(Via HuffPo)