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The NBA, in its effort to figure out a way to keep things fair for the teams in the race for the 8-seed prior to its COVID-19 hiatus, decided to institute a potential play-in series for the final postseason spot. The Eastern Conference didn’t need this, the Western Conference did, and as a result, the Portland Trail Blazers and the Memphis Grizzlies squared off on Saturday afternoon to fight for the right to take on the Los Angeles Lakers in a seven-game series.

The two teams played a tight game, and by the time the dust settled, a second was not necessary. The Blazers picked up a 126-122 victory, sending the upstart Grizzlies home and officially punching their ticket to the playoffs.

After an early feeling-out period by the two teams, Portland began asserting itself about halfway through the game’s first frame. After falling behind early 11-8, the Blazers went on a 22-3 run and took a 31-19 lead into the second. Memphis struggled to get much of anything going from the field, shooting 29.2 percent and hitting one of its five threes. Portland, meanwhile, had as balanced of an attack as they’ve had all bubble — Carmelo Anthony and C.J. McCollum both scored six points, while Damian Lillard and Mario Hezonja each chipped in five.

The Grizzlies started clawing their way back at the start of the second thanks to an 8-2 run in which every point was scored by Jonas Valanciunas, including the first six in the frame. They eventually took the lead while Lillard was on the bench, but for the remainder of the half, it was another Blazer who asserted himself on the game and guided the team to a 58-52 lead at the half.

Nurkic, playing with a heavy heart following the passing of his grandmother due to COVID-19, was magnificent. He went for 15 points and 17 rebounds while pitching in a pair of steals and a pair of assists for good measure. He was +19 in 21 minutes of work during the first half. Lillard pitched in 13 points, while Anthony and McCollum both had 10. For Memphis, Valanciunas’ 16 points and 11 boards led the way, while Morant had 11 points.

Memphis’ offense came alive in the third period. The team dropped 42 points on their opponents in the frame, giving them a 94-89 lead heading into the third, thanks in large part to the play of Morant. While he didn’t always look in control during the first half, his 10 points and seven assists in the quarter were massive for the Grizzlies.

Of course, the fourth quarter of Blazers games in the Bubble have been must-watch, thanks in large part to the play of the Bubble’s seeding games MVP. Lillard has seemingly willed his team to wins late in games, which played a gigantic role in getting Portland jumping Memphis into the 8-seed and needing only one win to make the postseason. That, ultimately, wasn’t quite the case, as his backcourt mate was the one who got the team over the hump.

The Grizzlies fought, but were never quite able to get enough separation between themselves and the Blazers to fend them off entirely. Portland kept coming close to taking the lead, and within 30 seconds late in the fourth, McCollum hit a three, followed by Nurkic cleaning up and offensive rebound, scoring, and converting an and-one to put them up by three.

McCollum, despite his broken back, then connected on a pair of jumpers, extending their lead to six with just over a minute to go.

Memphis kept doing what they could, but the exclamation point came via Anthony. Lillard found him standing alone in the corner, and Anthony — who was 0-for-5 from deep up until this point — went full Olympic Melo, knocking down a gigantic triple that decided the game.

A quick triple by Dillon Brooks cracked the door just a bit, and while Gary Trent Jr. only connected on the first of two free throws in the aftermath, the Blazers came down with the offensive rebound, Anthony went to the line, and made them both. A late three by Morant was a consolation, but it was too little, too late.

Lillard’s 31 points and 10 boards lead the team, while McCollum pitched in 29, including a number of huge buckets down the stretch. Nurkic did a little bit of everything — 22 points, 21 rebounds, six assists — while Anthony scored 21. For Memphis, Morant’s 35 was a career-high, and for good measure, he pitched in eight assists. Valanciunas had 22 points and 17 boards, while Brooks and Brandon Clarke both had 20.

With the win, Portland gets an extra day off before its showdown with Los Angeles. That series will begin on Tuesday, Aug. 18, with a 9 p.m. EST tip on TNT.

Last year’s Shazam! is one of the films that helped save the DCEU, which has struggled to match the success of its big screen counterpart over at Marvel. A sequel was a no-brainer, but, of course, who knows when that will happen. But that hasn’t stopped some online commentators from dropping “reviews” of the as-yet-unmade follow-up at places like Letterboxd. And since even Shazam! director David F. Sandberg has a lot of time on his hands these days, here’s a joke trailer he made using those very write-ups.

“We haven’t shot Shazam 2 yet but there are already reviews up on Letterboxd,” Sandberg wrote on Twitter. “I’m pretty sure that means we’re allowed to start using review quotes for marketing.”

The video lasts about 30 seconds, and it follows the tradition of draping pull-quotes over the screen in dramatic fashion — a practice critic-proof comic book movies rarely employ. Granted, the pull-quotes rarely comment on the purported quality of this, again, movie that hasn’t even been shot yet. Instead, they say things like “I’m fine with this,” and “David F. Sandberg is a sweetheart,” and “Jack Dylan Glazer Im free Thursday to paint ur nails and dance in ur room to Fleetwood Mac.” (The latter refers to the actor playing our hero’s disabled, comic book superfan brother.)

The fist Shazam! concerned an orphan, played by Asher Angel, who discovers he’s been picked by an ancient wizard, played by Zachary Levi, to be his alter ego of sorts. Its success, especially following the even bigger moneymaker Aquaman, helped right the troubled DCEU, which is now doing so well that Justice League, its semi-disastrous attempt at an all-star Avengers mash-up, was famously given a Mulligan.

Meanwhile, production on Shazam 2 is scheduled to start next spring, though, you know, who knows what will happen?

(Via EW)

In March of 2019, Nipsey Hussle was tragically shot and killed in his hometown of Los Angeles outside The Marathon clothing store that he owned, located in the Slauson section of the city. Saturday marked what would have been the rapper’s 35th birthday, so people took to social media to honor his legacy.

Tributes poured in from all corners of the celebrity world. Among them were athletes like Memphis Grizzles guard Ja Morant and Indiana Pacers guard Victor Oladipo, the former tweeting the words “It’s Nip Day” with a blue heart. Oladipa made his sentiments known on Instagram, sharing a picture alongside a much-loved quote from Nipsey: “We’re not the cause, we’re the effect.” On the music side of things, Kehlani shared a tweet that said, “happy birthday big nip.” Fellow west coast rapper Dom Kennedy also honored the late rapper by sharing several Nipsey songs in a string of tweets.

Going above and beyond, Snoop Dogg shared a new song entitled “Nipsey Blue” the day before the later rapper’s 35th birthday.

You can see still more thoughtful words from all over social media:

Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Over the past two months, Kanye West has been very active on his Twitter page, using the platform to make announcements to fans and air his many thoughts. In the wee hours of Saturday morning, West shared a slew of updates from his Yeezy clothing line, but it was a tweet with a snake emoji that caught people’s attention. The tweet reads, “Not gonna use a snake emoji cause you know why … I’m not sure if Christians are allowed to use snake emojis.” Some believe the tweet references his and Kim Kardashian’s 2016 beef with Taylor Swift.

The tweet seemed to specifically reference West’s 2016 song, “Famous,” in which he claimed to have “made that b*tch famous,” meaning Swift. The Folklore singer claimed to be blindsided by the song, saying she never approved being called a “b*tch.” Kardashian claimed otherwise, posting a tweet riddled with snake emojis with the words, “Wait it’s legit National Snake Day?!?!?They have holidays for everybody, I mean everything these days!” Swift then launched her Reputaion tour with a giant robotic snake on her stage, apparently in response.

West has yet to confirm or deny the tweet’s possible connection to Swift and Kardashian.

The tweet comes after some apparently beef between West and Drake. After the Toronto rapper’s newly-released “Laugh Now, Cry Later” single, fans pointed out that he may have dissed West on the song with lines like “Distance between us is not like a store, this isn’t a closeable gap, ayy / I seen some n****s attack and don’t end up makin’ it back,” as well as “We took a trip, now we on your block and it’s like a ghost town, baby.”

Earlier this week, the NBA announced that it will hand out awards based on the eight seeding games that occurred in the Orlando Bubble. Those awards were announced on Saturday prior to the first of potentially two play-in games between the Portland Trail Blazers and the Memphis Grizzlies, and to the surprise of no one, Damian Lillard’s torrid form over the last eight games led to him being named the Bubble MVP.

Lillard was given the award unanimously — every single one of the 22 voters put the Blazers star, who averaged a Bubble-high 37.6 points per game, atop their ballots. Devin Booker of the surprising Phoenix Suns came comfortably in second, while T.J. Warren narrowly edged out Luka Doncic for third. Rounding out the field were James Harden and Giannis Antetokounmpo, both of whom will battle it out with LeBron James for the full-season MVP award.

Coach of the Bubble isn’t a surprise either. Monty Williams, who led the Phoenix Suns to a surprising 8-0 record, comfortably won the award, with 20 of the 21 ballots placing him atop their lists. The only other coach to get a first-place vote was runner-up Terry Stotts of the Portland Trail Blazers. Rounding out the top-3 was Jacque Vaughn, the interim head coach of the Brooklyn Nets.

To wrap up the Bubble awards, the league had voters pick their All-Seeding Game first and second teams. Lillard, Booker, and Doncic were unanimous first-team selections, while Harden and Warren comfortably made it onto that squad, too. For the second-team, Antetokounmpo was joined by Kawhi Leonard, Kristaps Porzingis, Caris LeVert, and Michael Porter Jr.

Nas recently shared the first single off his upcoming album King’s Disease, namely “Ultra Black.” While the song signaled Nas’ return to the spotlight, discussions about the track weren’t so much about its quality as much as it was about his diss of Doja Cat. On the song, Nas raps, “We goin’ ultra Black, unapologetically Black / The opposite of Doja Cat, Michael Blackson Black” — a line that had fans questioning his choice to diss a black woman, especially in today’s climate. Now Doja Cat has shared her response to the diss in a video she posted to TikTok, but it turns out it didn’t seem to bother her.

“I am so offended and upset about this song,” Doja said as Nas’ “Ultra Black” played in the background. “Have you guys heard ‘Fruit Salad’ by The Wiggles?” She opted instead to put her energy elsewhere.

Nas’ diss is rooted in Doja’s Twitter scandal, which occurred back in May. Insensitive tweets from Doja’s past were uncovered by fans after she was accused of participating in alt-right and incel chat rooms on Tinychat. Soon after a 2015 song by Doja — titled “Dindu Nuffin,” in which she see seemed to mock Black peoples’ accents — was unearthed and condemned by fans as well.

As for Nas, the rapper will release King’s Disease, executive produced by Hit-Boy, on August 21.

For years and years people on the internet have been clamoring to get Idris Elba one of the most coveted jobs in the business: James Bond. It hasn’t worked, and it almost certainly will never work, despite everyone’s best efforts. But here’s some news that may make things a touch better: As per Entertainment Weekly, the acclaimed actor has signed on to produce and star in a romantic spy thriller for Apple.

The film, which has no title and no plot beyond “romantic spy thriller,” will be produced alongside Simon Kinberg, one of Hollywood’s busiest scribes, who made his directorial debut last year with the woebegone X-Men entry Dark Phoenix. But Kinberg also wrote, among others, 2005’s Mr. & Mrs. Smith, itself a “romantic spy thriller,” and a very original one. So perhaps Elba will get something that’s at least more fun and sexy than your typical 007 romp.

Apple has been edging into the film business bit by bit, funding projects like the Will Smith thriller Emancipation, the recent Tom Hanks WWII saga Greyhound, and even giving Martin Scorsese the hefty budget he needs to make his next historical epic Killers of the Flower Moon, after numerous studios didn’t want to give Martin Scorsese money to make a movie starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert De Niro. So good for them.

(Via EW)

There’s a lot of new Star Trek content coming our way, partly because its home streaming service CBS All Access needs plenty of content to fill its coffers. But arguably the most unusual is the one called Star Trek: Lower Decks, an animated series from Rick and Morty writer and Solar Opposites co-creator Mike McMahan. The show launched on August 6, with 10 episodes released at a very non-Netflix-y one week at a time. And though you do have to be a CBS All Access subscriber to see them, they did make the maiden episode available to everyone by dropping it on YouTube.

As evidenced by the Rick and Morty connection, Lower Decks isn’t a typical all-ages show. Its humor is decidedly adult, and the mayhem a lot wilder than you expect from any Trek iteration. It doesn’t even follow the usual heroes. Instead, it’s about crew members at the bottom of the food chain, hoping for promotions they’ll likely never get yet still getting involved in wild adventures. The reviews have been mixed-to-positive, but now everyone, and not just those shelling out for the umpteenth streamer, can judge the show for themselves. Alas, if you wish to watch other Trek programs, like Discovery, Picard or the forthcoming Strange New Worlds, you’re gonna have to fork over some more cash.

You can watch the first episode of Lower Decks in the video above.

(Via /Film)

On August 10, The Weeknd saw his debut album Kiss Land rise back to the No. 1 spot on the iTunes R&B chart, some seven whole years after the album’s release. The rapper took to Twitter to celebrate the rare feat, writing, “xo’s legacy is full of surprises. discography turning timeless. can’t thank you guys enough. XO #kissland.” Not long after, on a recent episode of his Momento Mori radio show on Apple Music, The Weeknd then took fans back to the Kiss Land era by playing a number of unreleased tracks.

Describing it as a “special thank you episode to the fans for showing so much love to kiss land this week,” the rapper played a remix of Lana Del Rey’s Ultraviolence song “Money Power Glory” and a demo of his Juicy collaboration, “One Of Those Nights,” from the Memphis rapper’s deluxe Stay Trippy album, among others. Other demos tracks heard on the episode included “Angel Face,” “For Your Eyes,” “Heavenly Creatures,” and “Another One of Me.”

The episode arrived after The Weeknd made a $300,000 donation to aid relief efforts in Beirut following the port city’s terrifying explosion.

You can listen to the songs on The Weeknd’s latest Momento Mori radio show here.

After a disappointing showing in the Bubble seeding games, the New Orleans Pelicans have parted ways with head coach Alvin Gentry, according to a report from Adrian Wojnarowski and Andrew Lopez of ESPN.

The Pelicans went 2-6 in Orlando and in their first day home, the team has decided to do what had been rumored for some time, dismissing the head coach who has led the team since 2015. Executive Vice President of Basketball Operations David Griffin will — despite having a previous connection with Gentry dating back to their time together in Phoenix — now have the opportunity to hire his own coach for the first time since taking over in New Orleans.

The Pelicans confirmed the move shortly after in a release.

“I’m grateful for and appreciative of Alvin’s commitment to the organization and, most importantly, the local community,” said Griffin in a statement from the team. “The City of New Orleans is richer because of his presence here. These types of moves are often about fit and timing, and we believe now is the right time to make this change and bring in a new voice.”

Under Gentry, the Pelicans had long struggled to defend consistently, even dating back to the previous era with All-NBA big man Anthony Davis anchoring the middle, when they never ranked higher than ninth on that end. It’s a reputation and difficulty that has followed the 65-year-old Gentry throughout his career.

“I want to thank Alvin for his contributions to the Pelicans and the New Orleans community,” added Pelicans Owner Gayle Benson in the team statement. “We believe that making a head coaching change is necessary at this time. I truly appreciate Alvin’s leadership, dedication and perseverance through some challenging circumstances over the past five seasons. He will always be a part of our Pelicans family, and we wish him and his family all the best in the future. Our intention moving forward is to find the right head coach that will guide this Pelicans team to compete for championships. That is what our fans deserve.”

According to multiple reports shortly after Gentry’s reported dismissal, the Pelicans are expected to follow suit with Brooklyn and pursue both Ty Lue and Jason Kidd as replacements for Gentry.

In a story at ESPN, Wojnarowski and Lopez also noted New Orleans would be interested in Nets interim head coach Jacque Vaughn should Brooklyn replace him at the end of the season. Vaughn has led his team in quite the opposite manner in Orlando, pushing the depleted Nets to a 5-3 record.

With a very promising young core that includes All-Star Brandon Ingram and 2019 No. 1 overall pick Zion Williamson, the Pelicans will have a big opportunity to take a step forward in 2020-21 under Gentry’s replacement.