GoneTrending

The Los Angeles Lakers took control of their Western Conference Semifinal series against the Houston Rockets on Tuesday evening. Powered by a Herculean performance from LeBron James, a productive night from Anthony Davis, and an ice-cold second half for the Rockets offense, the Lakers picked up a 112-102 win that put them up, 2-1, in the series. Here are a trio of takeaways based off the game.

1. [Extremely this Vine voice] LeBron James

I have no idea how the hell he’s doing this, either.

The Rockets were humming for much of the first half on Tuesday evening. On offense, the 1-2 punch of James Harden and Russell Westbrook combined for 38 of the team’s 64 points heading into the locker room, in large part because the Lakers kept turning the ball over like they were contractually obligated to. Everything was working for Houston, except for the fact that the other team had LeBron James, who scored 29 of L.A.’s 61 points in the first half.

One thing that has been true about James during his career is that he is a very malleable player. When he needs to score, he’ll do that. When he needs to set the table for the other four guys around him, he’ll do that. And on his best nights, he’ll do a little bit of everything, which was the case on Tuesday. Despite being a 35-year-old who has played in more postseason minutes than anyone in NBA history, James scored 36 points, reeled in seven rebounds, doled out five assists, and had four blocks, each one slightly more demoralizing than the next. He hit 13 of his 23 attempts from the field and four of his nine shots from three.

James is known for having an extra gear during the postseason, but still, guys with that many miles on their odometers are expected to, you know, slow down a bit. Instead, James doesn’t seem like he’s going to slow down any time soon, something that was emphatically stated in Game 3, which, as an aside, was his 162nd playoff win, the most in league history.

Of course, while James can do it all on his own, it’s preferred when he has a little bit of help around him. So let’s talk about the former Kentucky standout who raised eyebrows on Tuesday night…

2. Playoff Rondo

…what, did you think I meant someone else?

Ok so yes, Davis was out of his mind — 26 points, 15 rebounds, six assists. But something that has been established about this Lakers team throughout the 2019–20 season has been that for how good their stars are, they need some help. LeBron James and Anthony Davis can get them a long, long way, but to get over that hump, somebody else needs to contribute in a meaningful way.

Kyle Kuzma had a nice game — 14 points on 7-for-10 shooting — but Rajon By God Rondo was magnificent. The savvy veteran came off the bench and was a gigantic pest, scoring 21 points (12 of them came in the fourth quarter) and dishing out nine assists in 30 minutes of work. He shot 8-for-11 from the field and 3-for-5 from three while being a thorn in the side of Rockets players when he was on defense.

As a result, he earned one of the highest honors an NBA player can receive: a celebratory tweet from Magic Johnson.

Rondo isn’t going to do this every night. Guys 3-12 in Los Angeles are something of a crapshoot on a given night, and while this obviously has some major drawbacks, the entire thing is that someone has to play really well next to James and Davis. Getting that on a given night, combined with what those two can do, can usually get the Lakers to a pretty good place. On Tuesday, that guy was Rondo, and as always, Playoff Rondo was a treat.

3. Stuck in the mud

Considering how good Houston’s offense was in the first half, the fact that they only scored 38 points in the third and fourth quarters combined is kind of shocking. Things just went completely off the rails – while James Harden (33 points, nine rebounds, nine assists) was very good, the rest of the team got cold. They didn’t get a ton from their bench aside from a nice performance from Jeff Green (16 points), and while Russell Westbrook (30 rebounds, eight rebounds, six assists, two steals) put up big numbers, he seemed far less comfortable and in control during the second half than he did in the first.

An interesting quirk about Houston is that when this entire small-ball experiment that they have decided to take to its logical extreme works, there is nothing quite like it. They are capable of producing chaos that can throw an entire opposing team completely out of whack. It is marvelous to watch, and I will be very surprised if we don’t get at least one more game like that in this series. When it doesn’t work, though, the Rockets go from a high-powered machine to a 1987 Ford Pinto that can’t get out of first gear. Opposing sides can get their stuff too easily, while everything just looks incredibly difficult for the Rockets — they love to do the thing where Harden or Westbrook drives, leaves their feet, and either shoot a runner or whip a pass to someone in the corners or on the wing for a three. On one possession in the second half, Davis realized this was happening and just reeled in a steal with one hand like he was an All-Pro wide receiver.

You never quite know what you are going to get with the Rockets. On Tuesday, they were brilliant (at least on offense) until they weren’t. Now, they’re in a spot where they’ve lost two in a row and need to bounce back on Thursday evening or else they’ll find themselves staring down the barrel of a 3-1 deficit.

In the aftermath of a disappointing 4-1 series loss to the Miami Heat, reigning NBA MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo addressed the media and indicated a desire to “build a culture” with the Milwaukee Bucks that can “compete every single year” for championships. Along the way, Antetokounmpo also noted that the Bucks put his health ahead of Game 5 against Miami and, all told, it was seemingly a positive moment for Milwaukee in their goal to keep Antetokounmpo on board for the long term.

Shortly thereafter, though, Antetokounmpo spoke to Chris Haynes of Yahoo and provided even more optimism for Bucks-centric observers. Amid buzz that Antetokounmpo could turn down a super-max contract extension this offseason, prompting potential trade possibilities, the 25-year-old superstar firmly denied any notion of a trade request.

“It’s not happening. That’s not happening,” Antetokounmpo told Haynes. “Some see a wall and go in [another direction]. I plow through it. We just have to get better as a team, individually and get right back at it next season.”

This is music to the ears of the Bucks, even while acknowledging that Milwaukee has myriad other concerns this offseason. To put it plainly, Antetokounmpo is the centerpiece of everything the Bucks have done in the recent past and, if he is willing to jump in with both feet, the prospects of more title pursuits are infinitely easier to envision.

“If winning a championship was easy, everyone would have one,” Antetokounmpo continued. “We lost. Everyone saw that we lost. It’s disappointing, but what are we going to do? We’re going to keep working. I’ve got confidence in my teammates.”

The five-game loss to the Heat was brutal, especially when viewed through the prism of the No. 1 overall seed and outsized expectations. As such, the Bucks may be looking for more help from Antetokounmpo, with Marc Stein of the New York Times floating that the Bucks could conceivably target Chris Paul amid a potential rebuild in Oklahoma City.

If Antetokounmpo’s comments hold, the Bucks can cross at least one possibility off the list for the next few months. There is still work to do, though, and the next step is presenting Antetokounmpo with a massive contract extension with fingers crossed that he will agree to sign it.

After leaving fans to wade knee-deep in excitement for a few weeks, Blackpink shared their highly-anticipated “Ice Cream” single with Selena Gomez last month. Paired with a visual that brought fans to a fictional Candyland, the single landed smoothly while meeting the expectations of both Gomez and Blackpink’s expectations.

After debuting a new ice cream flavor celebrating their new single, Selena Gomez used a recent makeup session with YouTube star NikkieTutorials (Nikkie de Jager) to praise the K-pop group for their work ethic.

Blackpink first came up in Gomez’s and NikkieTutorials’ conversation when the YouTube star asked her what advice she’d give Blackpink, to which Gomez replied, “I think I would learn a lot more from them.”

Their work ethic is something I’ve never seen before, and I’d like to say I work hard. What I’ve found when I’ve spoken to them and met them is that they’re extremely disciplined and they are so talented that there isn’t anything that they wouldn’t strive to do. They were wonderful and I miss them

As it was a beauty vlog she was appearing on, Gomez also touched on her Rare Beauty makeup line and explained why she wanted to create it.

You can see a lot of people get affected and feel pressure to look a certain way. I immediately was like, “I want to do this, as long as I can make this something people feel comfortable in and something that’s easy but special.” I don’t want to be a competitor or a celebrity attached to something. I want my makeup to stand on its own. I think it’s a really good product, and I think what we’re doing with mental health and what we want this brand to be is truly my mission.

Check out Gomez’s conversation with NikkieTutorials above.

Borat is reportedly back. Though, when you really think about it, has Sasha Baron Cohen’s Borat ever really left us? You probably still hear “my wife” jokes from your least favorite high school friend and there have long been rumors that the character would return in the form of a sequel of some kind.

Cohen’s penchant for catching ordinary people by surprise in character has continued even during a pandemic, though that apparently wasn’t an effort to gather footage for another season of Showtime’s Who Is America? But Borat has been around in more official ways, and now according to Collider, Cohen is shopping a completed sequel to the 2006 comedy around Hollywood.

Last month, we noticed social media reports about Sacha Baron Cohen shooting something in Los Angeles as one of his most beloved characters, and today Collider can exclusively report that Borat 2 has already been shot and even screened for a select few industry types.

Collider discussed some plot points from the reported sequel, though another source of theirs disputed what they claimed would be a film where Borat himself would have to go “undercover” to interview people. Still, that source confirmed that the project exists, which at least makes it clear that a Borat 2, so to speak, is coming.

Cohen’s Borat character has already returned on Jimmy Kimmel to “tamper” with mid-term elections in 2018, and there were reports in mid-August that he had been seen filming in character. So this report certainly lines up with what we’ve seen. Whether the world is ready for more Borat is an interesting question. But when it comes to how Cohen films his movies among the American public, I suppose in some ways that question is already irrelevant.

Charm City Kings debuted earlier this year at the Sundance Film Festival, and our own Vince Mancini singled out Meek Mill for his star turn in the coming-of-age story. He also praised the movie’s stunt work, which we get a good look at (regarding the Baltimore dirt-bike scene) in this new HBO Max trailer. The film’s produced by Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith and co-stars Jahi Di’Allo Winston (Queen & Slim) as the teenage Mouse, who wants to fit in with the Midnight Clique group of bike riders while wavering between influences.

One of those influences happens to be Mill’s stunt-happy ex-con, Blax, whose interests appear to be at odds with a detective (William Catlett of Black Lightning) and the teen’s mother (Teyonah Parris of If Beale Street Could Talk), who both want Mouse to reach his full potential, rather than dig into gang life. There’s a family tragedy in the rear view mirror, which ups the emotional ante. From the synopsis:

In this gritty coming-of-age drama, fourteen-year-old Mouse (Jahi Di’Allo Winston) desperately wants to join the Midnight Clique, an infamous group of Baltimore dirt-bike riders who rule the summertime streets. His older brother, Stro, was their top rider before his tragic death — a loss that consumes Mouse as much as his passion for bikes … Blax (Meek Mill), takes the boy under his wing, the lure of revving his own dirt bike skids Mouse toward a road way past the straight and narrow.

Charm City Kings will stream on HBO Max beginning October 8.

The long-running and deeply funny show The Venture Bros. met its official end over Labor Day weekend as rumors of its cancelation were soon confirmed by those involved in making the nearly two-decade old show. Word that the beloved Adult Swim cartoon had been canceled by Cartoon Network after seven seasons was made official on Sunday, punctuated by co-creator Jackson Publick, a.k.a Christopher McCulloch, confirming the worst.

The outrage and grief among the show’s biggest fans was immediate, with many sharing their favorite moments from the show’s history and wondering what they could do to reverse its fate. A #SaveTheVentureBros hashtag cropped up on Twitter, sharing fun moments from the show and highlighting the fan support it still has among people on social media.

Publick himself mentioned that the show was canceled while he and co-creator Doc Hammer were hard at work writing what would have been Season 8, which led some to speculate that the show could be shopped around to various streaming services and networks and revived. No show seems to have an official end in the age of streaming, and multiple platforms seem keen to convert fan interest into dollar signs with reboots and revived offerings in the golden age of streaming.

That thought gained some considerable momentum on Tuesday when Hammer also issued a statement about the show’s demise. His statement about the cancelation was posted to Facebook on Tuesday and quickly spread on other social media sites as well.

As Hammer reflected on the show’s ending and the impact it’s had on fans, he had a message for those who are lamenting the loss of the show itself by asking them to support anything he made with McCulloch in the future.

“Jackson and I are are still in love with you and each other,” Hammer wrote. “Sooo if we make another baby, you gotta promise to love it. I promise it will love you.”

Many fans agreed they’ll watch whatever Hammer and Publick dream up together, but a good number of fans made it clear they still wanted more Venture Bros. first and foremost. And when asked on Facebook if a campaign to find the show a new home would help, Hammer made it clear he would appreciate the help. And write a Season 8 to give a new network to air.

Meanwhile, a SAVE The Venture Bros. page on Facebook popped up, and Hammer himself amplified its message as the group gained thousands of likes and started collecting contact information for various executives at networks and streaming platforms. Hammer then shared the info on Facebook, writing “Give ’em heck, gang!” on Tuesday night.

Whether Venture Bros. fans can get enough momentum to make an eighth season a reality is tough to say, but it’s clear a significant portion of them are willing to put in the work to see it happen. And it’s clear that at least one of its creators doesn’t mind the effort one bit.

The Milwaukee Bucks’ season came to an end on Tuesday night. The best team in the league during the 2019-20 season fell to the Miami Heat, 4-1, in a series that did not include Giannis Antetokounmpo for essentially half of Game 4 and all of Game 5 due to a right ankle sprain that required a boot.

Even beyond the additional context about his future, it was brutal for Milwaukee to have the reigning league MVP on the sideline with its season on the line. Then, of course, there is the additional context of his future. The Bucks are going to put a supermax extension in front of him the nanosecond that’s allowed, and he will have to make a decision that legitimately could end up shaping the future of the league: Does he stay in Milwaukee, or does he opt to go elsewhere in pursuit of championships?

As is legally required when a guy is in that spot, every word they speak before making to that major decision will be subject to scrutiny. The latest entry into this chapter of Antetokounmpo’s career came following the loss, when he spoke to the media and discussed his desire to build a championship culture with the Bucks.

“Hopefully we can learn from this and get better as a team and come back,” Antetokounmpo said. “Hopefully we can build a culture in Milwaukee that, for many years, we can come out and compete every single year for a championship.”

Antetokounmpo also discussed the decision to keep him on the sideline, something that he admits he wanted to avoid. However, he did express his appreciate for the organization deciding to make his health the No. 1 priority over a game.

While the exact number is up in the air, Tim Bontemps of ESPN noted that the deal the Bucks can offer Antetokounmpo is expected to be around $220 million, which would be about $80 million more than what any other team could give him.

Blackpink is currently rounding the corner to complete their comeback as the K-pop group prepares to release their new album next month. Following extremely successful singles which include the record-breaking “How You Like That,” and their latest collaboration with Selena Gomez, “Ice Cream,” the group returns with another exciting announcement: a documentary on Netflix.

Set to arrive after their upcoming Blackpink: The Album release, Blackpink shared Tuesday an all-access documentary, entitled BLACKPINK: Light Up The Sky, will arrive on Netflix on October 14.

Details on the all-access documentary have yet to be revealed, but BLACKPINK: Light Up The Sky is certainly poised to satisfy their worldwide fan base. The announcement comes after the K-pop group broke a YouTube record this year with their “How You Like That” video. The visual broke the record for the biggest video premiere ever with 1.65 million viewers checking in for the video’s release. The song was the group’s first single in more than a year. Despite their absence, the group has worked with Lady Gaga on “Sour Candy” from her Chromatica album and more recently with Dua Lipa on “Kiss And Make Up” from her Club Future Nostalgia remix album.

Blackpink: The Album is out 10/02 via YG Entertainment/Interscope Records. Pre-order it here.

Dua Lipa is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Prior to Tuesday’s Game 5 between the Milwaukee Bucks and the Miami Heat, Rick Bonnell of the Charlotte Observer noted that veteran forward Marvin Williams could be taking the floor in his last NBA game.

After all, the Bucks were facing elimination against the Heat and, without Giannis Antetokounmpo, Milwaukee was seen as the underdog to force a Game 6 against Miami. Despite a hard-fought showing, the Bucks fell short by a nine-point margin and, just minutes after the final buzzer sounded, Williams told Marc Spears of The Undefeated that he will indeed be retiring from the game after 15 seasons.

Williams, who was the No. 2 pick in the 2005 NBA Draft, was 10th among active players in games played before retiring, appearing in 1,072 regular season contests across a decade and a half. Though he did not develop into a superstar as some projected coming out of North Carolina, Williams made 828 starts in the NBA and appeared in 59 playoff games. The 6’8 forward suited up for the Atlanta Hawks, Charlotte Hornets, and Utah Jazz before finishing his career in Milwaukee, with Williams scoring nearly 11,000 points and pulling down more than 5,500 rebounds in his career.

In January, Williams told Bonnell that he wants to continue operating in the basketball world, but with “no interest in coaching.”

“I was in New York, but focused on the international basketball operations part of it,” Williams said. “I like the Junior NBA (program) where you are basically a camp counselor all around the world. Basketball Without Borders (the league’s global summer outreach), I’ve done a couple of those: I went to Africa and I went to Indonesia.

“Any opportunity I get to travel and work with kids? That’s what I would love to do.”

Though Williams is perhaps best known for being drafted ahead of both Chris Paul and Deron Williams in 2005, he carved out an impressive career, outperforming the average expectation for even the No. 2 overall pick. It remains to be seen what his next step will be, but a 15-year career is nothing to sneeze at, and Williams is exceptionally well-regarded in and around the game.

On Tuesday evening, the Milwaukee Bucks took the floor in a playoff game without Giannis Antetokounmpo for the first time since April 28, 2013. While the top-seeded Bucks performed valiantly in his absence, the Miami Heat finished off an upset series victory, outlasting Milwaukee by a final score of 103-94 in Game 5.

Here are three takeaways from what transpired.

1. Miami had to turn it on after a shaky start

Though the Heat entered as solid favorites against the Giannis-less Bucks, it wasn’t always smooth sailing. Miami scored only 11 points, while committing six turnovers, in the first eight minutes of action, and Milwaukee took a double-digit lead as a result.

Some of Miami’s issues could be traced to strong work from Khris Middleton, who opened the game with nine points and four assists in the first quarter.

From there, the Heat came alive, though, using a 30-9 blitz to take a 45-37 lead, and a buzzer-beater from Goran Dragic got things going at the end of the first quarter.

Miami held Milwaukee to 30 percent shooting and 1-for-6 from three-point range in the second quarter, seemingly setting the stage for a comfortable victory. The Bucks didn’t go quietly, though, with Donte DiVincenzo scoring seven quick points to open the third quarter.

Eventually, the Bucks climbed within one but, almost on cue, Milwaukee’s offense sputtered, failing to score for more than six minutes and allowing the Heat to zoom to a 12-point advantage. Milwaukee did maintain relative contact, even slashing the margin to four in the final three minutes, but Jimmy Butler then scored four straight and found Dragic for the eventual dagger in crunch time.

Given the absence of Antetokounmpo, this was not a performance to be disappointed with for the Bucks. Middleton, carrying the weight of the world, struggled with efficiency, but Milwaukee was competitive and pushed Miami to the point where key plays were needed to preserve the series-clinching victory.

2. An uncertain, and highly important, offseason looms for the Bucks

At this point, everyone knows the stakes. Antetokounmpo can sign a record-setting supermax extension during the off-season and, if he chooses to do so, a lot of the noise will dwindle in Milwaukee. That decision will be litigated at every turn in the coming days but, even beyond the looming decision for the reigning MVP, the Bucks have questions to answer.

Can they bank on Eric Bledsoe? The veteran point guard was named to an All-Defensive team on Tuesday and, against Miami, he performed at a high level on that end of the floor. On the flip side, Bledsoe converted only two of his 12 attempts from the floor in Game 5, leaning into the perception that he falls short on the offensive end in playoff settings.

What about Mike Budenholzer? The former NBA Coach of the Year is established as a fantastic culture builder, lifting the Hawks to impressive heights during his first head coaching stint and transforming the Bucks into the best regular season team in the NBA. Still, Budenholzer did absolutely nothing to quiet doubters about his playoff coaching style during this run and, if anything, he could be on the hot seat if the Bucks elect a nuclear option.

Remember that Malcolm Brogdon decision? Without litigating it yet again, the Bucks had the ability to bring Brogdon back and they chose not to do so. Milwaukee did get some value in a sign-and-trade but, in observing this series, it is impossible ignore the contributions he might have made.

How aggressive can Milwaukee be? Even if Antetokounmpo signs up for the future, the Bucks don’t have much, if any, salary cap flexibility and Antetokounmpo is due for a substantial pay raise. If Milwaukee was worried at all about the luxury tax previously, that will be an issue moving forward, and the Bucks will need to reassure Antetokounmpo that they are the place to provide him with a championship situation.

That might be a tall task after this series but, if nothing else, the Bucks did string together a heck of a regular season. In a few weeks (er, months?), they may be able to take solace in that but, at the moment, this feels like a monumental failure, even with the caveat of Antetokounmpo’s injury absence at the end of the series.

3. The Heat are live underdogs in the Eastern Conference Finals

Miami will have a rest advantage in the Eastern Conference Finals, even if the Boston Celtics manage to close things out in Game 6 against the Toronto Raptors on Wednesday. If that doesn’t happen, the Heat will have even more time to rest but, broadly speaking, Miami is probably the underdog in the next round.

That isn’t a shot at a Miami team that executed brilliantly against Milwaukee, but the Heat were a dreadful matchup for the Bucks and that was on full display. Against teams better suited for their attack, the Heat will need to be even better to reach the NBA Finals, though it helps to lean on a pair of genuine stars in Jimmy Butler and Bam Adebayo.

Miami’s next step will be quite interesting, with Erik Spoelstra given a bit of time to prepare for his next challenge. This is a team that, at its best, can deploy lights-out offensive lineups with shooters like Duncan Robinson and Tyler Herro. In the same breath, Miami can pivot to defensively stingy units with Andre Iguodala and Jae Crowder, all while pressing the right buttons with the strength of a top-flight head coach.

A full-blown series preview can’t arrive until Boston and Toronto are done battling but, in the coming hours, Miami will be able to rest and prepare for what should be an entertaining and uber-competitive series with a trip to the Finals on the line.