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What Yuffie’s DLC ending tells us about Final Fantasy 7 Remake Part 2 – CNET
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Author: Daniel Van Boom
Star Wars: The Bad Batch release dates — When does episode 8 hit Disney Plus? – CNET
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Author: Jennifer Bisset
Where does Neymar Rank on Brazil’s all-time great list?
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Wuilker Faríñez shuts down the Colombia offense, earns a nil-nil draw for Venezuela
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Stu Holden on Colombia’s loss to Venezuela, ‘Faríñez came up big, but Colombia should be disappointed’
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The NBA Playoffs Have Become an Injury-Plagued War of Attrition
The NBA playoffs are one of the best shows in sports. In more normal times, they’re a two-month marathon featuring a handful of the most athletic people in the world performing at the top of their games, with a lot of money—and a lot of legacy—on the line.
The 2021 playoffs have been a great show, but they’ve also become a brutal war of attrition. Many of the league’s best players have sustained all kinds of injuries after an unprecedented condensed season—which itself followed an unprecedented season interrupted by COVID-19.
This year, the postseason isn’t just about which team will win the NBA Finals. It’s also raising questions about how to run a sports league in a pandemic, why so many players are dropping, and how long it might take them to heal.
The NBA playoffs feel especially marred by the injury bug.
Injuries are a part of every sport, and they’ve affected the NBA playoffs just as much as any other competition. In 2019, the Toronto Raptors beat the Golden State Warriors in the finals, and we’ll never know if the outcome would have been different had Golden State’s stars Kevin Durant and Klay Thompson not been injured in the latter games of the series.
But injuries in 2021 feel more pervasive. Anthony Davis injured his groin in the fourth game of the first round against the Phoenix Suns, robbing the Los Angeles Lakers of effective play from their superstar center. The Lakers might have been able to overcome that if LeBron James hadn’t been dealing with a bad ankle that made him look like a shell of himself in that same series. For their part, the Suns were able to overcome Chris Paul’s bad shoulder to win that series; Paul has toughed it out and delivered what might be the defining postseason run of his career.
The Philadelphia 76ers’ MVP-caliber center, Joel Embiid, tore his meniscus in the Sixers’ first-round win over the Washington Wizards. The Dallas Mavericks’ Luka Doncic had a serious nerve issue in his neck and played through it as the Mavs fell to the Los Angeles Clippers in a seven-game first-round series. Utah Jazz guard Donovan Mitchell, another one of the game’s great rising stars, has had to work through an ankle sprain.
By the end of the first round, many of the league’s most important players had sustained injuries. Then the Brooklyn Nets, the NBA’s superteam of the moment, lost two of their Big Three future Hall of Famers, Kyrie Irving and James Harden, to health issues. Now only Kevin Durant remains healthy as the Nets try to find a way around the Milwaukee Bucks in their second-round series. (Harden appeared in Game 5 but does not appear to be at full strength.)
The data shows this postseason has been especially brutal. An ESPN analysis found that even excluding COVID-related absences, more players missed time to injury this year than in any season since at least 2009–10. All-Star players missed 19 percent of possible games this season, the highest rate ever. NBA players, especially the best of them, really are getting hurt more.
Could the NBA’s pandemic-altered schedule be the cause?
The NBA usually finishes its playoffs in mid- or late June. In 2020, the playoffs lasted way beyond that—until Oct. 11—because the league paused from March until the end of July while COVID-19 raged.
The league had no choice but to push back the start of the following season. But it didn’t delay much, and teams were back playing preseason games by mid-December. Teams played a 72-game regular season in less than five months, as opposed to the typical 82-game season in about seven months.
That condensed schedule put an enormous physical burden on the league’s players. They had a shorter offseason, and they had much less recovery time between games than they would get in a normal season. Given the intense schedule, it’s hard to see the increased injuries as just a coincidence.
Money made it happen.
It’s tempting to blame the NBA team owners and commissioner Adam Silver for subjecting players to a meat grinder of a season in order to chase as much profit as possible. But the league’s players wanted to play as much of the 2020-21 season as possible. They viewed it as their best path to protect their own financial well-being.
The players’ union agreed to the 72-game season on the timeline the NBA laid out after the league claimed it would lose between $500 million and $1 billion if it waited until January to start play—losses the players would share along with the owners.
This weird, painful NBA season happened for pretty much the same reason everything in professional sports happens: money. The league wanted to play a compressed schedule to make money. The players agreed to play a compressed schedule, also to make money.
As a result, the 2021 NBA playoffs have turned into a war of attrition. Like every year, the last team standing will win it all. But now it’s not just a sports cliché—it’s a statement of every remaining playoff team’s actual path to victory.
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Author: Alex Kirshner
Microsoft Flight Simulator adds beautiful Nordic views in its latest update
Just in time for the launch of Microsoft Flight Simulator on Xbox Series consoles next month, developer Asobo Studios has added some extra details that players will appreciate. World Update V is focused on the Nordic region (specifically Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden), bringing stunning vistas to an already visually impressive title.
A brief trailer shows the payoff for some extra attention on landscapes (so many fjords) and urban areas with detailed architecture for you to fly around showing off everything from ancient castles to modern stadiums, towers and bridges. According to the team, the new areas include “100 airports and 77 carefully selected points of interest.” You can see Lego House and Frederiksborg Castle in…
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Author: Richard Lawler
Google Meet’s hand-raising feature is getting a more visible animation
Google Meet, Google’s answer to video calling services like Zoom, is getting a collection of helpful tweaks to its hand-raising feature as part of ongoing updates to Workspace. The new changes, spotted by 9to5Google, include a new hand-raising animation, notification sound, and adjustments to how hosts are made aware of raised hands.
While the update is minor, for anyone who uses Google Meet in a large group setting or regularly attends webinars, the tweaks will be helpful — plus, the new animation really is nice.
Here’s Google’s breakdown of the changes you’ll notice as the update rolls out to Workspace users:
- An updated and improved visual icon and animation on…
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Author: Ian Carlos Campbell
The Super73-ZX Is the Vintage-Inspired E-Bike You Need
E-bikes fill a ton of different needs, from hauling kids and groceries to helping you tackle steep grades on rough trails. But if throwback aesthetics are your main priority, the new Super73-ZX is definitely worth a look. A revamp of the California brand’s original Z1 model, the ZX features a redesigned frame, vintage styling, and enough oomph to carry you and a passenger up to 28 miles per hour.
The Super73-ZX is an entry-level e-bike, but it’s a significant step up from the Z1. It’s made with a new aluminum alloy frame that’s lighter than steel, allowing for improved range, and it’s larger, which means the bike offers a better fit for taller riders. It can carry up to 325 pounds and it also comes with a new removable battery, so you can charge it up without lugging the whole bike indoors. There’s no suspension on this bike, but the large tires on the 20-inch wheels should soak up some bumps and keep your ride from getting too jarring.
The ZX is built to be as versatile as possible. With its 750-watt motor and thumb throttle, it’s set up as a Class 2 e-bike, which means you can ride it on most public streets and e-bike friendly trails, and you won’t need a motorcycle license (you can also put into Class 1 or Class 3 mode to comply with regulations in your area). Range will vary depending on factors like rider weight and terrain, but Super73 estimates the bike should get anywhere from 25 to 50 miles on a single charge. That should be more than enough juice for a day’s worth of commuting or a fun weekend ride before you need to plug it in again.
The ZX’s vintage aesthetics aren’t just for show; they also make the bike fun and easy to ride. Super73 redesigned the banana-style seat to be even more comfortable, and it’s long enough to cart around a (small) passenger, too. The tall adjustable handlebars create an upright riding position, so cruising on the ZX is almost like riding a moped—minus the whine and pollution of a gas engine.
The ZX also comes with an app that allows you to adjust your ride and download over-the-air software upgrades. You can choose from four riding modes—Eco, Tour, Sport, and Super—to fine-tune the level of boost you get from the motor. An LCD monitor on the handlebars displays your ride mode, and when you enter a destination in the app, it’ll even show turn-by-turn directions as you ride.
The ZX is available in two colors—Moon Rock and Storm Gray—and Super73 expects to begin deliveries in mid-July.
[$1,995; super73.com]
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Author: Michael Charboneau