We’re now entering our fourth week without any professional sports to keep us occupied, as the coronavirus pandemic continues to spread across the globe and has brought most nonessential activities to a standstill. It’s taking some creativity to figure out how to entertain ourselves while confined to our homes.

Fortunately for all you gamers out there, the World Health Organization (WHO) has actually recommended that you stay inside and play video games as a means of both staying connected to friends and keeping your mind active during these stressful and uncertain times.

Now, the folks at NBA 2K and several players around the league are teaming up to bring some semblance of basketball back into our homes with the NBA 2K Tournament that kicked off on Friday night and will continue through the next week, culminating in the championship round on Saturday, April 11.

Friday night’s opening-round action kicked off with No. 16 seed Derrick Jones Jr. and his Bucks upsetting No. 1 seed Kevin Durant and the Clippers, 78-62.

Derrick Jones RJ (Bucks) defeats Kevin Durant (Clippers) 78-62 @Khris22m dominated#NBA2KTourney pic.twitter.com/LsStt5MN94

— NBA Hustle (@Hustle_NBA) April 4, 2020

Despite the loss, KD had one of the highlights of the game when Kawhi Leonard hit Giannis with a mean crossover and bucket.

KD got the crossover going in the #NBA2KTourney pic.twitter.com/XJm6Xxk2ZP

— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) April 3, 2020

In the second game of the night, Zach LaVine’s Heat fell to Deandre Ayton’s Rockets, 57-41. While the game itself didn’t have many highlights, LaVine explained why he choose not to participate in this year’s dunk contest, saying he felt like he didn’t have anything to prove, although he is somewhat disappointed that he was never able to complete what surely would’ve gone down as one of the greatest dunks of all-time.

Zach Lavine talking about doing a 360 from the free throw line dunk #NBA2KTourney pic.twitter.com/NszEYIXcB9

— NBA Hustle (@Hustle_NBA) April 4, 2020

Ayton’s plan to distract him with idle chit-chat worked wonders as LaVine let his guard down a little bit before he realized it and suddenly found himself trailing.

Lmao Zach Lavine getting angry #NBA2KTourney pic.twitter.com/aNXudfCzET

— NBA Hustle (@Hustle_NBA) April 4, 2020

The third contest of the night pit Harrison Barnes against Trae Young, in a matchup between the Raptors and Bucks, and the best part by far was just how badly Twitter was going in on Barnes for getting drubbed early, despite Young’s relative inexperience.

Let’s see how Harrison Barnes is doing against Trae in 2K …… oh pic.twitter.com/xdb8rYvt9E

— Dime (@DimeUPROXX) April 4, 2020

It was a tough night for Barnes, as Young’s Bucks demolished the Raptors, 101-59.

The last game of the night was the most entertaining overall, and it’s no coincidence that it featured Patrick Beverley versus Hassan Whiteside. Prior to tip-off, Beverley was, naturally, feeling pretty confident about his chances, despite being a No. 14 seed in the tournament, claiming that he went 5-6 years straight without losing a 2K game against his Rockets teammates.

Former Hog Patrick Beverly getting interviewed by Hannah Storm of ESPN about playing #NBA2KTourney #wps @4029news https://t.co/btPO6aFmCG

— Mitch Roberts (@4029Mitch) April 4, 2020

And Beverley lived up to his own hype as he raced out to an early lead and wasn’t shy about letting everyone hear about it.

There goes Pat Bev pic.twitter.com/UtctbKGNPZ

— Dime (@DimeUPROXX) April 4, 2020

Beverley and his Bucks ended up running away with this one, thumping Whiteside’s Lakers by 30.

@NBA2K Players Tournament @patbev21 takes it all the way for the @Giannis_An34 flush and says he’s the cheat code!#NBA2KTourney on ESPN2 pic.twitter.com/ewaOatNcc4

— NBA (@NBA) April 4, 2020

Even with Beverley bringing some sorely-needed energy to the tournament, there was decidedly less trash talk throughout than you might have assumed, and overall, the lengthy interludes of dead air were a stark reminder of the heavy lifting the broadcast crew does on any given night, so hopefully 2K will explore some kind of solution to that moving forward.

The winners on Friday will all advance to the second round. First-round action will continue on Sunday with a four-game slate. You can see the full bracket here. The quarterfinals will begin on Tuesday, April 7, followed by the semifinals and finals on Saturday, April 11, all on ESPN and ESPN 2.

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Here are your quick and dirty, editorial-free WWE Friday Night Smackdown results for April 3, 2020. This week’s show featured John Cena answering Bray Wyatt’s challenge for a Firefly Funhouse match, a blockbuster Tucky vs Dolph Ziggler match, and more. Make sure you’re here tomorrow for the final Best and Worst of Friday Night Smackdown column before WrestleMania.

WWE Friday Night Smackdown Results:

– The Usos opened the show, and were interrupted by the New Day. The two teams argued until The Miz and John Morrison showed up, posed on ladders on the stage, and said neither team deserves a title shot. The Usos and New Day attacked the champs, but quickly turned on each other, allowing Miz and Morrison to regain the advantage and pose on the ladders again.

1. Tamina defeated Lacey Evans and Naomi. Sasha Banks and Bayley were on commentary, and Michael Cole wore Lacey Evans’ hat. Bayley interfered in the match, attacking Naomi and setting up Tamina to hit a superkick for the win. After the match, both Bayley and Banks tried to befriend Tamina, but were kicked and Samoan dropped, respectively.

– Ric Flair vs. Shawn Michaels from WrestleMania 24 was shown in full.

– Braun Strowman was announced as Roman Reigns’ replacement for the Universal Championship match against Goldberg at WrestleMania via a graphic at the end of a card recap, in passing. No reason was given, and reigns wasn’t even mentioned.

2. Tucker defeated Dolph Ziggler by disqualification when Ziggler gave Tucky a Zig Zag on the ring steps. After the match, Ziggler was going to presumably kill Tucky with the ring steps but was stopped by Mandy Rose, Sonya Deville, and then Otis. At this point, a mysterious hooded figure appeared on the video screen at a control console and showed video clips that revealed Sonya Deville was behind the text messages that kept Otis and Mandy Rose apart on Valentine’s Day. Mandy left in disgust.

3. Daniel Bryan defeated Shinsuke Nakamura by disqualification when Cesaro interfered. After the match, Nakamura, Cesaro, and Zayn beat up Bryan and Drew Gulak.

– John Cena showed up to accept Bray Wyatt’s challenge, saying he’ll squash him at WrestleMania. Cena was then taunted by Wyatt’s puppets. The Fiend appeared on the balcony, and (regular) Bray Wyatt teleported in behind Cena to say “let me in” before teleporting away.

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In these trying times, with a pandemic killing hundreds of thousands of people around the world and medical institutions preparing to be pushed to their limits, it truly is best to listen to medical professionals and heed warnings about social distancing while taking protective measures to stay inside and help flatten the curve.

With piecemeal restrictions in place in various municipalities and states, however, it’s unclear how much those efforts have helped, how long life will be interrupted and just how bad things get as science grapples with the virus, treating it and hopefully finding a cure. One thing we do know already, however, is that those that initially downplayed the virus and its impact for political reasons have done real harm to society and threatened the lives of millions of people.

There’s so much to be done and no going back on what’s been said, but The Daily Show collected some of that bad advice in a segment it called Heroes Of The Pandumbic, which largely focused on the misinformation and doubt cast by many on Fox News in the weeks before COVID-19 was detected in all 50 states and killing hundreds of people each day. Highlighting misinformation and skepticism shared by conservative voices like Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and others, it’s a direct criticism of comments from just days and weeks ago that seems downright irresponsible in current conditions, especially while cities like New York deal with a crisis they haven’t seen in more than a century.

Lou Dobbs, for example, blamed the “national left-wing media” for playing up fears of the virus to hurt Donald Trump. If you haven’t been paying much attention to conservative media, it’s a great refresher of just what’s been said in the early days of the pandemic’s rise. Tomi Lahren, for example, says she’s more concerned about stepping on a heroin needle than getting coronavirus. And on and on.

The video highlights comments from the Trump administration, including Trump himself. It also shows Hannity tracking the deaths from the virus, which he basically stopped doing when the number was at zero. As of this writing, nearly 3,000 people have died in New York alone.

One of the actors who played Barry Allen on the CW version of The Flash is dead at 16. The Hollywood Reporter shared the news on Friday that Logan Williams, who played a young version of the title character’s superhero alter ego Barry Allen, had died.

Williams played ‘Young Barry’ in nine episodes from 2014-16, was the younger version of Allen, who as an adult was played by Grant Gustin.

Logan Williams, who played a young Barry Allen on the CW’s The Flash, died Thursday according to multiple reports. He was 16.

A rep for Williams could not immediately be reached for more information, but according to Canada’s Tri-City News, his mother, Marlyse Williams, said Friday she is “absolutely devastated” over his death. No cause of death was revealed.

The story included a post from a The Flash co-star Grant Gust mourning the loss on Instagram.

“Just hearing the devastating news that Logan Williams has passed away suddenly,” Gust wrote. “I was so impressed by not only Logan’s talent but his professionalism on set. My thoughts and prayers will be with him and his family during what is I’m sure an unimaginably difficult time for them.”

A number of other actors and organizations reacted to the news as well, including the SAG-AFTRA Foundation on Twitter.

It’s initially unclear what happened to Williams, but it’s yet another tragic story in a news cycle that never seems to stop producing them these days.

[via THR]

We’re a few years removed now from the Lob City era in Los Angeles, and before the coronavirus pandemic put the season on indefinite hiatus, Kawhi Leonard, Paul George, and company had quickly transformed the revamped Clippers into one of the top contenders in the West.

The central figures of that era have since moved on to new situations around the league, to varying degrees of success. Blake Griffin has spent the last couple of seasons in Detroit while battling various injuries, while DeAndre Jordan has found his way to Brooklyn after brief stints in Dallas and New York.

Chris Paul had a couple of near-misses with title contention alongside James Harden in Houston, but has since gone on to what was a delightful surprise of a season with the Oklahoma City Thunder, who were the No. 5 seed in the West before the shutdown. Still, for Paul, it’s hard not to get nostalgic for those Lob City days.

On a recent appearance on the “All the Smoke” podcast, he remembered his team with the team fondly, particularly his pairing with Griffin.

“It’s seriously one of those things you don’t realize what you have until it’s gone,” Paul said.

“I think about it at times. And me and Blake Griffin absolutely had our issues here and there, but I actually appreciated Blake probably a lot more after I left.”

Paul went on to discuss the NBA’s unprecedented situation with the social-distancing protocols that have put the season in jeopardy, praising commissioner Adam Silver for his communication with players around the league even amid the uncertainty of how things will play out. As president of the players’ union, Paul will likely be at the center of many of the discussions on how to move forward whenever the league is able to resume play.

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The coronavirus pandemic is now affecting 181 nations—that’s practically every country in the world. While some countries are farther along in the fight and others are just getting going, some of us have been on this journey for the exact same amount of time.

For example, the U.S. and South Korea had our first confirmed coronavirus cases on the same day, January 19. We’re like pandemic twinsies.

Except our different handling of the virus makes us more akin to Arnold Schwarzenegger and Danny Devito in the movie Twins. Our strategies—and outcomes so far—could not be more different.

For one, South Korea started testing immediately on a widespread scale as soon as the virus arrived there. When they had just four confirmed cases, the government gathered together the country’s top infectious disease experts and twenty companies to start developing an effective test, promising quick regulatory approval. As a result, by the end of February, South Korea had drive-thru testing centers and the ability to test thousands of people per day.

The U.S. testing issues range from bureaucratic snafus to development mistakes to production problems, but suffice it to say our process was not efficient and our testing lagged woefully behind where it should have been.

As a result, South Korea, with a population of 51 million people, had tested nearly 300,000 people as of two weeks ago. The U.S., with a population of 327 million people, had only tested 60,000. The U.S. has since ramped up our testing capacity, but as of yesterday, we had still tested just 1 out of every 273 people compared to South Korea’s 1 out of 119.

Why does early testing matter? Because it makes it possible to locate and isolate cases early on to keep the spread under control. Early testing, contact tracing, and isolating positive cases and their contacts has clearly helped South Korea keep its outbreak better under control. As of the writing of this article, South Korea has just over 10,000 cases and 174 deaths. The U.S. has 274,000 cases and over 7,000 deaths.

South Korea flattened the curve early. We’re still on a steep upward climb with our peak still a ways away.

A doctor recently made headlines for pointing out this discrepancy in our country’s responses and how it hurt the U.S. on Fox News, clearly stunning the host (or the producers in her ear) into ending the segment abruptly. His head shake says it all.

Other aspects of South Korea’s response have also showed an impressive level of innovation and far-sightedness. For example, a doctor at a public health center in Busan created a testing booth that allows health workers to swab patients with minimal use of PPE.

Busan Nam-gu Health Center

“Health care providers require no personal protective equipment as they stand inside the booth and take samples from patients using the gloves protruding outwards,” Dr. Ahn Yeo-hyun, who works at the clinic, told The Korea Herald.

“Having the full layers of the suit on can get stifling after a while, especially with the weather getting warmer,” she said. “The booth is positively pressured to protect the person inside by blocking out air from circulating in.” She also said that disinfecting these booths takes far less time than the ones where patients went inside. “Now, it takes only about five minutes to disinfect the gloves and outer surfaces before the booth is available again for the next patient.”

Since shortages of personal protective equipment has become a universal problem, such testing facilities that don’t require as much PPE could solve at least some of the problems we’re all facing.

And then, of course, there are the small, thoughtful touches that can happen when you succeed at keep an infectious outbreak largely under control. Someone on reddit shared a photo of a care package they’d gotten from the local government in South Korea after being tested.

“Currently in Korea and had some limited contact with a confirmed case. Was immediately notified by my local govt office and tested the next day. Thank God it came back negative, but they still advised that I self quarantine for 14 days.

Got a call from a dedicated case officer today that will check in on me twice a day every day during my quarantine. Mentioned they would drop off some supplies later that day which I thought would be some hand sanitizer and a box of tissues. Boy was I wrong! There was also a lot of included literature about best practices and emergency government income for those that can’t work and aren’t getting paid. It scaled up to about 1500USD for a family of five which as a supplement is pretty helpful.

Honestly the way this whole situation was handled was so efficient, professional and actually a bit calming. Gives me hope that Korea can somewhat cope with this virus (as well as one can hope) with their aggressive testing compared to most other countries.”

That post was shared a month ago. And yeah, no one can argue that South Korea hasn’t coped well with the virus compared to most other countries.

Don’t get me wrong. I know that there are demographic and governmental differences between the U.S. and South Korea that make an apples to apples comparison tricky. But there’s no question that their early and efficient efforts to test for and tackle the virus as soon as it became known made a huge difference in their outcome compared to ours. They did exactly what infectious disease experts recommend and they did it quickly.

Perhaps our leadership could set down the “America has done more than any other country” rhetoric for a sec and learn from the successes of our neighbors across the Pacific. They clearly have a better handle on what to do and how to do it than we do. It may be too late for us to take the measures we should have taken to begin with, but we can at least try to glean whatever wisdom we can from this point on.

Don’t mind me, I’m just gonna bury my head in this pillow.

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