Author: GoneTrending

The Philadelphia 76ers left New York feeling like they’d been robbed after Game 2, voicing their frustration with the officiating after a wild sequence saw the Knicks erase a 5-point deficit in the final 27 seconds of action.

There was a question of how they would respond in Game 3 back home in Philly, and after two quarters of play, it looked like we were in for another dog fight as New York led 58-55 at the break. Whatever the message was from Nick Nurse in the locker room was the right one, because the Sixers came out and blitzed the Knicks in the third quarter, winning the period 43-27 to take control of the game on their way to a 125-114 win.

Leading the way was Joel Embiid who had 18 of his 50 points in the third, as the reigning MVP (for a few more days) put up a new playoff career-high. Embiid was highly efficient to get his 50, going 13-of-19 from the field, 5-of-7 from three (including three straight at one point in the third), and 19-of-21 from the free throw line.

Helping the cause was Tyrese Maxey, who added 25 points and seven assists on the night, including a couple threes early in the third quarter to kick-start the Sixers big run.

The Knicks would make a fourth quarter push to get the game down to single digits late, but unlike in Game 2 there were no late game heroics to be found for New York. Jalen Brunson did his best to give New York a chance, finally breaking out of his slump with 39 points and 13 assists on the night.

Offense wasn’t the issue for New York, as they got solid contributions again from Josh Hart (20 points), OG Anunoby (17 points), and Isaiah Hartenstein (14 points). The issues were on the other end of the floor where they got carved up by Philly, which shot 54.7 percent from the field and 48.4 percent from three. The whistle was also a bit different, as the Sixers (led by Embiid) paraded to the free throw line with 33 attempts, knocking down 28.

The game wasn’t without a little controversy, as Embiid picked up a first quarter Flagrant for a dangerous play after getting knocked to the ground and grabbing Mitchell Robinson’s leg as he went up for a shot. He was able to keep his emotions in check from there, though, and channeled his energy into the best playoff performance of his career. The Sixers will hope to build on this showing to even the series in Game 4 on Sunday afternoon (1:00 p.m. ET, ABC), while the Knicks will have to figure out how to get their defense back in form to try and pick up a road win.

After being completely inept offensively in the first two games in Cleveland, the Magic found their rhythm back in Orlando for Game 3. The Magic had to hold home court in Game 3 to have any hopes of making this a series, and they did so in a big way, absolutely destroying the Cavs in a 121-83 blowout.

It was a reversal of fortunes from the first two games where Cleveland cruised to double-digit wins while the Magic were stuck in the mud. Back home in central Florida, the Magic found their offensive rhythm and were able to crack the code of the Cavs defense to finally unlock the paint. Paolo Banchero led the way with 31 points, 14 rebounds, and five assists, as he authored his best game of the series, hitting 13-of-26 shot attempts, including 4-of-9 from three.

Offering Banchero support was Jalen Suggs, who looked fresh despite an injury scare in Game 2, scoring 24 points on 9-of-11 shooting on the night, getting downhill to the rim and also knocking down three threes.

By halftime, the Magic were in full control, leading 61-45, but the floodgates opened in a 35-16 third quarter that saw them put the game to bed early. Orlando’s defense was sensational and their offense finally had some rhythm and flow to it, getting the Cavs into rotation and taking advantage of space they finally created by lifting the lid off of the rim.

It wasn’t an outrageous three-point shooting performance from the Magic by any means (13-of-37) but it was enough to lift the Cavs defense higher and open up the paint more for them to attack the rim where they are at their best. Franz Wagner chipped in 16 points and eight assists, and it was the best performance from Orlando’s backcourt as a whole. Along with Suggs’ big night, Cole Anthony and Markelle Fultz came off the bench to combine for 21 points on 8-of-13 shooting, as the Magic’s wings finally got the support they needed from the backcourt to divert some defensive attention.

On the other side, the Cavs found themselves in the same funk Orlando had been in, shooting just 39 percent from the field including a woeful 8-of-34 performance from three. Jarrett Allen was the only Cav from their main rotation to hit 50 percent or more of his shots (5-of-6), as the backcourt duo of Darius Garland and Donovan Mitchell went a combined 8-of-26 for 18 points in a rather hideous night for the Cleveland guards.

We’ll see how the Cavs bounce back in Game 4, as they were carrying all of the positive momentum as the series left Cleveland but now have to lick some wounds themselves. For a young Magic team, finally seeing things go right in the postseason is a big dea, and they’ll be looking to build on this performance. Orlando will look to pull back even in the series on Saturday afternoon at 1 p.m. ET on TNT>

The biggest shock of the 2024 NFL Draft came when the Atlanta Falcons picked Washington quarterback Michael Penix Jr. with the No. 8 overall pick. While many of the projections pegged the Falcons as a team that would select a defensive player, the team went in the completely opposite direction, as they took the fourth quarterback off the board and got their signal caller of the future.

There’s just one problem: The team’s high-profile offseason acquisition plays quarterback. Back in March, the team signed Kirk Cousins on a 4-year deal with the first two years guaranteed. He can make up to $180 million on the deal, which is not the kind of investment teams tend to make before they pick a quarterback. And according to multiple reports, the decision to pick Penix came as a surprise to Cousins, too, because while he apparently got told that the team would consider picking a QB at some point, he wasn’t told that the pick would come at No. 8.

Now, while the Falcons don’t have to keep Cousins in the loop, it is not usually a good thing when the decision to select your quarterback of the future catches your franchise QB off guard like this. Now, the relationship between the two will assuredly be put under the spotlight during the 2024 season and beyond.

All available evidence indicates that Tate McRae is very happy with The Kid Laroi, who publicly confirmed their relationship during his The First Time Tour stop in Dublin, Ireland, on April 14. That did not prevent her from bodying a cover of Ariana Grande’s Billboard Hot 100 chart topper “We Can’t Be Friends (Wait For Your Love),” a bonafide breakup anthem.

McRae performed the song during her headlining Think Later World Tour concert in London earlier this week. A fan-recorded video made the rounds on X (formerly Twitter), and by the end of McRae’s rendition, the person recording the video was audibly sobbing.

Someone named Maureen asked, “omg did someone ask her to sing it or did she just do it?” The McRae fan account @t8mcraetours responded, “she said before she sang ‘this is my first cover this tour’ so she probably wanted to do it herself.”

McRae’s tour in support of her December LP Think Later will continue throughout the UK and Europe until late May. The North American leg is scheduled to kick off on July 5 at Cowboys Music Festival in her hometown Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Grande has not confirmed any plans to tour in support of Eternal Sunshine, so McRae’s cover might be the closest anyone gets to hearing it performed live — at least in the immediate or intermediate future.

After a ton of chatter this week about trades that were expected in this year’s NFL Draft, when Thursday night arrived the first nine picks were made without anyone moving up or down. As such, it was mostly chalk in those picks, with one major surprise as the Falcons took Michael Penix Jr. at No. 8 overall.

However, after the Bears added Rome Odunze to Caleb Williams in their draft haul, the Jets arrived at the No. 10 pick with JJ McCarthy still on the board and Minnesota itching to add a quarterback. Rather than risk the Jets taking McCarthy or another team trading up for the former Michigan signal-caller, the Vikings pulled the trigger on a trade that sent a fourth and fifth round pick to the Jets in order to move up a spot to get their guy, getting a sixth rounder in return.

By taking McCarthy, the Vikings get who they hope will be their QB of the future, while giving him time to develop behind Sam Darnold (if they feel that’s needed). The Jets, meanwhile, still get the guy they wanted (offensive tackle Olu Fashanu) while adding a couple mid-round selections by taking advantage of their leverage in the 10th spot knowing what Minnesota wanted.

The trade also made Draft history, as it was the first time in NFL history five quarterbacks went in the top-10, as Williams, Jayden Daniels, Drake Maye, Penix, and McCarthy all got their names called early on Thursday night.

The Atlanta Falcons made one of the most surprising NFL Draft picks in recent memory. With the No. 8 overall pick in the 2024 NFL Draft, the Falcons decided to select Washington signal caller and Heisman Trophy finalist Michael Penix Jr., giving them a successor for whenever the Kirk Cousins era comes to an end.

The move came way out of left field, as many mock drafts had the Falcons attempting to add a defensive player for new head coach Raheem Morris. While Penix is an interesting prospect, you’d be hard-pressed to find too many people who thought he would go in the top-10 (JJ McCarthy was widely expected to be the fourth QB off the board), let alone to a team that has its starting quarterback for at least a couple years.

The move is especially surprising considering that the Falcons signed Kirk Cousins to a big money deal over four years earlier this offseason. Cousins, a veteran signal caller, went to Atlanta to be the team’s starter, and while anything can happen, it is a bit curious to take a signal caller who is going to turn 24 in May — if Cousins plays out his contract, Penix won’t take a snap as the team’s starter until he is nearly 30 years old.

The silver lining is that Penix is a good player, and has one of the best arms in this Draft. Regardless, this marriage of team and player will certainly come under scrutiny, as it’s worth wondering if Atlanta could have used this to fill a bigger need.

The first two games between the Sixers and Knicks have been tense battles that both went New York’s way, but for the most part they had avoided too much chippiness. However, after the crazy ending to Game 2 that saw the Knicks absolutely steal the game — with some controversial no-calls in the closing seconds — the frustration levels were elevated for the Sixers coming into Game 3 in Philly.

Joel Embiid had voiced his anger with the lack of calls in Game 2, and the physicality of the series continued in the first quarter of Game 3, leaving the 2022-23 MVP on tilt. After not getting a call on the offensive end and getting knocked to the ground on the defensive end, Embiid couldn’t contain his emotion and frustratedly (and dangerously) grabbed Mitchell Robinson by the legs and pulled him down from the ground as the Knicks center went up for a finish.

That sparked a brief kerfuffle and sent the referees to the monitors where they looked at the replay that showed a clearly dangerous and unnecessary play by Embiid, and upgrade the foul to a Flagrant 1.

It was certainly the right call, as Embiid cannot be grabbing at guys down low like that, but also you don’t want to toss a star like Embiid in the first quarter of the game. That said, the big fella is going to have to control his emotions as he deals with the physicality that’s being allowed in this series (and across the league as a whole in the playoffs).

Caleb Williams has been the overwhelming favorite to be the No. 1 overall pick in the 2024 NFL Draft for quite some time. On Thursday evening in Detroit, that finally came to fruition, as the Chicago Bears used the pick they acquired last year from the Carolina Panthers to select the former Heisman Trophy winner to become the face of their franchise.

Last year, Chicago had the top pick, which it sent to Carolina in a deal for D.J. Moore, picks that turned into Darnell Wright and Tyrique Stevenson, and a 2025 second-round selection. But the most prized possession was the 2024 first-round pick, and after Bryce Young’s difficult rookie year, that turned into the top selection this time around.

While the Bears could have kept Justin Fields under center and used this pick to get him some help, the team instead decided to send the former first-round selection to the Pittsburgh Steelers. This cleared the way for them to select Williams, who Bears fans hope will become the franchise QB they’ve long coveted.

One of the most dynamic playmakers to enter the NFL at his position in some time, Williams started his collegiate career at Oklahoma before following Lincoln Riley to USC in 2022. While he flashed during his year as a Sooner, Williams became the latest signal caller to win the Heisman Trophy under Riley during his first year in Los Angeles, as he completed 66.6 percent of his passes for 4,537 yards with 42 touchdowns and five interceptions for a team that went 11-3. He also ran for 382 yards and 10 touchdowns.

While he put up good numbers in his final collegiate campaign — 68.6 percent completion, 3,633 yards, 30 touchdowns, five interceptions, 142 rushing yards, 11 rushing touchdowns — poor offensive line play and an even worse defense plagued the Trojans season, as the team went 8-5 and ended the regular season losing five of six games.

As a player, Williams is an electric playmaker with his arm and with his legs, and his ability to make magic happen when things break down is perhaps his most impressive trait. While there are concerns over how frequently he fumbles and whether he can stay patient in the pocket, those are wrinkles the Bears will happily try to work out, as the best version of Williams would be one of the top quarterbacks in the NFL.

Look what Kendrick Lamar started. Long story short: Lamar ignited multi-pronged rap beef with his verse on Future and Metro Boomin’s Billboard Hot 100 chart-topper “Like That,” which J. Cole responded to with “7 Minute Drill,” but he immediately regretted it and scrubbed it from streaming services. Last weekend, Drake posted “Taylor Made Freestyle,” among his Kendrick diss tracks, to his social media channels. Lamar has yet to respond, but Tupac Shakur’s estate did.

On Wednesday, April 24, Billboard reported that the Shakur estate was “threatening to sue Drake” for “Taylor Made Freestyle” because it used AI to generate Tupac’s voice. Billboard relayed the estate felt it was “‘a flagrant violation’ of the law and a ‘blatant abuse’ of his legacy.”

“In a Wednesday cease-and-desist letter obtained exclusively by Billboard, litigator Howard King told Drake that he must confirm that he will pull down his ‘Taylor Made Freestyle’ in less than 24 hours or the estate would ‘pursue all of its legal remedies’ against him,” Billboard reported.

So, it’s probably not a coincidence that Drake’s “Taylor Made Freestyle” posts have disappeared from his social media accounts as of Thursday evening, April 25.

“Taylor Made Freestyle” also featured AI-generated vocals from Snoop Dogg, who responded as you’d expect Snoop Dogg to respond to such nonsense.

“They did what?” Snoop said in a video posted to his Instagram. “When? How? Are you sure?” He sighed, showed his Death Row Records jacket, wished everyone a good night, laughed, and added, “Everybody calling my phone, blowing me up. What the f*ck? What happened? What’s going on? I’m going back to bed. Goodnight.”

The NBA Playoffs are great for a lot of reasons, but one of them is we get high level basketball every night on national TV. That also comes with the benefit of getting the Inside the NBA crew on our televisions most nights throughout the week, instead of just once on Thursdays.

While it’s great for us, having to interact nightly ratchets up the tension between Charles Barkley and Shaquille O’Neal, as they get on each other’s nerves much quicker than usual because they’re around each other every night. On Thursday, we got our first real Chuck and Shaq blowup of the postseason, and it was one of their dumber arguments in recent memory. Typically, one of them takes a dig at the other, but this time it felt like they both were trying to say the same thing in a slightly different way and just kept getting mad at each other.

In a discussion about the best players coming out and setting the tone, the two started yelling at each other about whether it’s the star’s job to get other players going. Shaq insisted it wasn’t, while Chuck said it was. However, they were really arguing two different things, but got madder and madder with each other.

Chuck’s argument was that the star has to keep the other guys engaged on the court, keeping them in the flow, especially when there’s help being sent at the star. Shaq also noted the star kicks it out when he gets doubled, but thought the argument was about getting guys ready emotionally, insisting that’s on each player to be mentally ready to get going.

As is usually the case, there was not really a common ground found in the two-minute-long argument. Instead, they just dropped it and moved on thinking the other was an idiot when, in truth, I think they mostly agree on this issue and were arguing two different points.