For the fourth and final time this year, two playoff locks will duel for the chance to improve their records in the East as the Philadelphia 76ers take the flight to Boston, Massachusetts for the second time this season in a game against the Celtics on ABC at 8:30 p.m. ET.
Philly is prepared to enter their second-straight week of Saturday night competition, for they were able to surprise a bunch of experts with a 17-point victory against the visiting (and now declining) Los Angeles Lakers. Another formidable foe awaits this Sixers team, though the full-blown attack from the Celtics won’t be dealt as severely as previously perceived. Kemba Walker was said to have experienced discomfort in his left knee, presumably evident in their win over Golden State where he only scored 13 points on an average 5-of-13 shooting night.
Luckily, the three-time All-Star is avoiding serious injury by sitting out the next couple of games in letting his sore knee get healthy again and in his place on the offensive end are Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown, who both have at times been the rock on both ends of the floor when Walker was off of his game. Also, the suddenly resurgent aggressiveness of Gordon Hayward has helped in multitudes recently, scoring 23 or more points in the last three games against the Pelicans, Heat, and Warriors.
It’s fair to call the untimely passing of Kobe Bryant a source of extra motivation for Hayward, being that he was the last defender to ever be matched up with Bryant in his career-finale 60-point game when he was in Utah, but seeing this additional burst of confidence from Hayward is really enriching to C’s fans who only wanted to see the former All-Star they signed in the 2016 offseason to look the part. Tatum and Brown supply the offense and defense, but Hayward has shown he isn’t afraid to isolate and knock down those tough-but-efficient looks from inside the perimeter and in transition.
But what the Celtics will sorely lack in is more than just offensive productivity tonight, as their big man situation is moderately compromised with the furthered missing of Enes Kanter. One of the only rim protectors that actually does well stopping Joel Embiid won’t be on the floor or in the rotation at all, and though the C’s have won five of their last six and two-straight, it’s hard to see them putting up a fight with a team that already has their number, and the seasonal series lead, against them.
Some other headlines concerning this Sixers-C’s matchup tonight: Al Horford makes his return to Boston for the first time as an on-court participant, and return to the starting lineup due to his scratch from the active lineup against Atlanta because of his knee soreness. As a team, Philly has won six of their last eight, but still don’t impress anyone with their 9-16 record away from the Wells Fargo Center.
Boston is 19-5 at home on the parquet, and after beating Miami at home to start the week, possesses the third seed in the East. Philly is sixth in the conference and with tonight being the second of four consecutive road games for the Sixers, sweeping the Celtics and winning the seasonal bragging rights is a must for a team that’s still looking to flip the perceptions of them not being good enough to hang with the other Eastern elites.
As we said goodbye to the year 2019 and enter into the new decade of 2020, we could also say goodbye to modern television and cinema as we know it. Made evident from last night’s Golden Globe awards some of the nominees up for awards were from made streaming services such as Netflix, Amazon Prime, Disney+ and so on. It is abundantly clear we’ve entered a new era of entertainment.
There is one show on Apple TV+ that should get your attention and that is “The Morning Show,” inspired by ‘ Top of the Morning: Inside the Cutthroat World of Morning TV.’ written by journalist Brian Stelter. The book documents Stelter as a media reporter of the New York Times and the several daytime shows, their host, and events he oversaw such as the rivalry between Good Morning America and the Today show over morning television ratings. The book focused heavily on Ann Curry’s replacing Meredith Vieira on the ‘Today Show.’
The Golden Globe-nominated ‘The Morning Show,’ pulls back the curtain on the people that help America wakes up by taking a deep dive into the modern workplace in the ascension of the #MeToo Movement.
(Before we move any farther I would like to issue a spoiler alert, as I will be reviewing the entire series)
Premiering on November 1 with episodes 1-3 This drama drops you directly in the line of fire as fictional broadcast network UAB is now in crisis after firing of Moring show host Mitch Kessler (Steve Carell) for his sexual misconduct scandal. Now America’s favorite morning news show is under the spotlight as it becomes the news. Mitch’s Co-host Alex Levy (Jennifer Aniston) grows furious with both mitch and the network for keeping her in the dark about the scandal. Alex sees this as a chance for the network to hit a hard reset on its show, she fights to remain as a top news anchor.
Elsewhere viewers are introduced to conservative reporter Bradley Jackson ( Reese Witherspoon) goes viral after a video of her angrily fact-checking a coal mine protester is posted on Youtube. See this as an opportunity to move forward from the Kessler crisis, Bradley is offered a chance to come on The Morning Show for an interview.
After Bradley’s meltdown is presented to Alex she is skeptical about Bradly being unaware, she’s on camera. Alex presses Bradly about this believing it was a publicity stunt and talks down to her in a condescending manner. Bradley’s unwillingness to back down has piqued the interest of Network head Cory Ellison (Billy Crudup) later calls Bradley and asks to meet her so they can discuss her future.
In Episode 2 ” A Seat at the Table” beginnings with Corey allowing Bradley to interview for the opening seat left by Mitch, while Alex is scrambling to secure her job by renegotiating her contract with co-host approval rights. Following a secret meeting with Mitch, Alex was informed the UAB was planning on moving away from her because of her low fan approval rating. Amid this chaos, Alex is preparing to receive The Leadership in Journalism award. (Which Corey told her the network paid.) Cory invites an unwitting Bradley to the event honoring Alex and seats the women next to each other. Alex feeling threatened that Bradley is the choice as her replacement, she threatens to leave the show if her demands aren’t meet Cory scoffs at the demand for co-host approval and calls her bluff. In an act of desperation, Alex put UAB in a difficult position announcing Bradley as her new co-host during her speech.
So that leads us into episode 3 ” Chaos is the New Cocaine,” UAB is now forced to scramble and prepare for Bradley’s debut on The Morning Show on Monday, so the team prepares to work all weekend to prep her. The growing pains are apparent as Bradley struggles to
The staff of The Morning Show is in turmoil over the announcement. Alex has told the press that Bradley will debut the following Monday, so as the team prepares to work all weekend to prep her, Alex arrives to assert some control over the proceedings. Meanwhile, a frustrated Bradley has not even decided if she will accept the job. Mia Jordan asks Chip to be Bradley’s producer and announces herself in the position before he has offered it to her. Forced to go along with Alex’s announcement or lose face, network head Fred Mickland is furious, but Cory sees Bradley as an opportunity to reinvent the show and eventually be rid of Alex. Bradley is unhappy with her initial wardrobe and camera tests, so she challenges the copy Mia is providing her, and dispenses with the clothing chosen for her by Alex. Fred summons Alex to browbeat her in front of a room of network executives, but she informs him that he lost power over the show long ago, and from now on they will be doing things her way.
The choice of Bradley was purely a power move on Alex’s part to show that UAB that they need her for the morning show to succeed little did she know that Bradley would be the watchdog of UAB nightmare. For a company that was trying to cover up its involvement in having knowledge of Mitch’s behavior and allowing the toxic masculine in the workplace. Bradley habit of speaking as if it was just you in her got her the nickname Two F**Ks Jackson, and her debut on The Morning show was no different going off-script from the on-air persona the show hopes to promote once mentioning her struggles as a teen, including having an abortion. This revelation incites controversy but it also galvanizes the younger, pro-choice audience. Alex is then convinced to give Bradley the interview with one of Mitch’s accusers, but Bradley’s persistence to find the truth has the accuser reveals more than the producers had planned. Mitch’s accuser states that the relationship was consensual but being in work environment were everyone knows something as personal as your sexual history embarrassed her to point where she was forced to quit to escape this toxic work environment. This then prompted an investigation launched by human resources into Mitch’s conduct, with most of the crew offering their support to Mitch and denying knowledge of his sexual misconduct.
That interview is what set Bradley’s mind to find out the dark history of UAB and its tendencies to quite Mitch’s accuser. From Episode 5-10 views are given small pieces of information that help to put the puzzle together. We travel back to the fall of 2017 in the episode entitled ” Lonely at the Top,” taking the real-world event of the Las Vegas shooting in 2017. Hannah Schoenfeld (Gugu Mbatha-Raw), a junior booker at the time, was asked to travel with the crew upon Mitch’s recommendation after the coverage of the story raps Mitch lures Hannah into his hotel room with the promise of a funny movie after a depressing workday. His predatory behavior toward women in the newsroom as revealed as he forces himself on to Hannah. The four-minute scene of the actual assault and rape is very difficult to watch as we see Hannah feeling powerless as her eyes go cold. Mitch used her body like it was nothing much than a toy for his pleasure and dispose of Hannah once he finished. She realizes this when Mitch doesn’t even acknowledge her in the hallway giving Hannah the motivation to reported Mitch’s harassment to the network chairman, she was then offered a promotion as a talent booker in exchange for not rocking the boat.
This is very important because it gives Mitch creditability to his claim the board knew of his behavior for a while and silences thoughts who would shed light on his misconduct. Unforturney this new information has Bradley asking Hannah to corroborate Mitch’s statement bring back those mortifying memories cause Hannah to spiral back on the dependency of drugs to numb the pain. In the season finale, Hannah found dead from an overdose, after Mitch approaches her to help him take down network executives (and the network, in turn, offers her a new position in Los Angeles).
The news of Hannah’s death brings Alex and Bradley to the same page to report UAB on The Morning Show for its involvement in covering up and allowing Mitch’s predatorial behavior in the work environment. In the height of the MeToo Movement, this show fundamentality breaks down ho the abuse of power, corporate corruption, lead to a culture of silencing women.
If you want to check out the Golden Globe-nominated ‘The Morning Show,’ and you own an iPhone you’re in luck. Apple is allowing you to have Apple TV+ free for a full year. Check out the trailer below:
The second game of Friday’s doubleheader on ESPN…is a somber one, to equally write about and watch. The Portland Trail Blazers prepare to face the Los Angeles Lakers with the chance to string together a possibly playoff-inducing three-game winning streak, but as the aura in the air suggests, a win or loss wouldn’t make that much of a difference, would it?
This is easily set to be one of the most emotional nights in the history of North American professional sports, as this is the official first time that the Los Angeles Lakers play a basketball game since the untimely passing of Laker legend Kobe Bean Bryant.
LeBron James, the 20-year long good friend of Bryant, leads his bunch of men that currently own the best record in the Western Conference onto the Staples Center floor in an attempt to not just get their 37th win of the season, but play for the chance to put some smiles on the faces of Lakers fans, followers of the late legend, those who were graced by all of the memories given to them during his 20-year career, and those who just want to see a celebration of life done in the best way possible: on the court.
Looking beyond the emotions of tonight, the Lakers have lost three of their last six, and while that may speak some optimism for these Blazers who are finally climbing out of the Western cellar, Los Angeles has easily dispatched the Blazers the last two times they’ve played them this year and should do so again tonight, now that Carmelo Anthony isn’t to take the floor tonight in his bereavement process of grieving his friend that, prior to his transition, promised to show up in the front row with his daughter Gianna, another victim of the unfortunate incident, with him to watch Carmelo return to the Purple and Gold version of the Staples Center to play the Lakers.
That very grieving process is being done by everyone in the stadium, who are all to wear gold Kobe shirts donning both numbers 24 and 8 (half of the arena will wear 24, the other 8). So much so that the unpredictability of this matchup is serving as the second-most salient topic of conversation. Damian Lillard is HOOPIN’, and that’s meant as seriously as possible. He’s doing all that he can to get the Blazers into the postseason picture, literally averaging 44.3 ppg. in the last three games. He is putting up some MVP numbers and is actively putting together the sixth-best four-game stretch of points scored in the history of the league, still with the No. 2 scoring backcourt in the league only behind Russell Westbrook and James Harden in Houston.
LA isn’t so bad, either. But for a team with 36 wins that only has three double-digit scorers in LeBron James, Anthony Davis and Kyle Kuzma (could be two at the end of the week, if Kuzma is shipped in a trade deal) and a team that locks up on the defensive end, now fifth in the league in total defensive rating, this Lakers team is scary to go against and almost impossible to beat at home with their team-wide 48.4 shooting percentage.
But again, this game – this atmosphere, really – is one so unpredictably sentimental that it is worth the watch on ESPN tonight at 10:30 p.m. The eyes of the entire sporting world will collectively be on it, anyway.
For the first game on what will be an extremely emotional Friday NBA on ESPN doubleheader, the undermanned Dallas Mavericks will participate in a battle of Texas, visiting the 29-18 Houston Rockets in the Toyota Center at 7:30 p.m. ET.
Perhaps the biggest storyline heading into this one is the absence of Dallas’s lifeblood-giver as Luka Doncic is to miss this game due to the All-Star rolling his ankle in a practice to prepare for tonight’s game. Confirmed as recent as this afternoon, the manageable ailment will take two weeks to heal. The Mavs have been down this rocky road earlier this year and did pretty well while Doncic was away tending to another ankle injury to the same leg, going a respectable 2-2 with wins coming against the Houston Rockets and Milwaukee Bucks.
And of course, they’ll surely miss the scoring aficionado’s 28.8 ppg., but they have managed in beating both of those elite teams without Doncic in the starting lineup. Kristaps Porzingis took on the challenge of leading his Mavericks in all the box score statistics without his fellow European frontcourt mate, averaging 16.8 points off a steadily-rising 39 percent shooting. It’s also worth adding that a year ago today, the announcement that Porzingis was being dealt to the Dallas Mavericks in a trade with the New York Knicks was made, amidst a flurry of drama and mistrust with the Knicks organization’s direction and desire to build a contender.
But if they’re to say “no Luka, no problem” at night’s end, they’ll have to do so by mapping out the blueprint that multiple teams have done so in beating the Rockets, which explains one, very simple rule: Double/trap/Blitz James Harden when the ball sticks at the top of the key. Regardless of Harden’s now hideous season (and almost career)-low three-point shooting numbers at 22.5 percent from deep, he’s still James Harden and it’s probably only a matter of time until he snaps out of his funk, so it’ll be up to all Dallas guards like Tim Hardaway Jr., Dorian Finney-Smith, Jalen Brunson and bigs like Porzingis and the newly-implemented Willie Cauley Stein to make a difference when switched onto him, that is if they decide to play Harden 1-on-1.
Still, he and Russell Westbrook will walk into Chicago in a couple of weeks as All-Stars, thanks to Westbrook’s picking up of Harden’s recent slack with his 35.5 ppg. in the last two games he’s played in. Houston has only won two out of their last five, with two recent losses coming by way of a loss to Utah in which Westbrook sat out on Monday and a consecutive loss to the Portland Trail Blazers, which saw Westbrook carry the load for backcourt rotation that looked despondent and uninterested after their shots stopped falling. Their core is also banged up since Clint Capela is forced to sit this one out with a heel injury.
In what has been an awkward year for both teams, (Dallas still working out the kinks of utilizing both KP and Doncic into the lineups before the playoffs begin and Houston trying to figure some new things out offensively so that their schemes don’t go stale) both Houston and Dallas are knotted in the West as it pertains to their record. And yet, it is the Dallas Mavericks that have the upper hand in the division when looking at the win differential, considering that they beat the Rockets earlier this year.
This will be the second these two Western factions see each other in the regular season and won’t see each other until after All-Star Weekend in the months of March and April so every win counts against a division rival, especially for these two streaky teams that are looking for some stability ahead of the All-Star Break.
