Gil Scott-Heron, credited with inspiring rap, dies

Gil Scott-Heron, a U.S. poet and songwriter credited with helping inspire the development of rap music, has died at age 62, according to media reports on Saturday. Scott-Heron died on Friday at a New York hospital, National Public Radio said, citing his book publisher. He fell ill after returning from a trip to Europe, news reports said. The Chicago-born artist was called the "Godfather of Rap", a term he disliked, for his groundbreaking spoken-word performances set to music, including

"The Revolution Will Not be Televised" in the early 1970s. He recorded more than a dozen albums and was hailed as an important influence by hip-hop performers such as Kanye West. Considered a voice of African-American activism, Scott-Heron was also a musical critic of apartheid and nuclear power. After serving a prison sentence for drug possession, Scott-Heron released an acclaimed album last year, "I'm New Here".

Miami Heat closes out Chicago Bulls, advances to NBA Finals

The Heat won the Eastern Conference finals on Thursday at United Center with a hard-fought 83-80 victory against the Chicago Bulls. Miami now plays an old foe, the Mavs, in the NBA Finals, which will begin Tuesday at AmericanAirlines Arena. The Heat beat the Bulls 4-1 in the best-of-7 series with a wild comeback on Thursday that lifted Miami to its first NBA Finals since breaking Dallas’ hearts in six games in 2006. The Heat broke the hearts of thousands in Chicago on Thursday.

The United Center crowd was deflated with 25 seconds left when Bulls guard Derrick Rose, the youngest MVP in NBA history, missed the second of two free throws to tie the score at 81. The Heat trailed by nine with less than three minutes to play but rallied with an amazing 16-2 run that ended with a midrange jumper by LeBron James with 29.5 seconds left. Heat forward Chris Bosh made a pair of free throws with 16.8 seconds left, and James blocked Rose’s desperation three-point attempt to tie the score at the buzzer. James and Haslem, who doubled-teamed Rose at the end of the game, immediately hugged after capping the unlikely finish. For the majority of Thursday’s Game 5, the Heat played some of its worst basketball of the season. Wade played poorly for three quarters but came alive at the end. The performance was similar to his effort in Game 4 when he failed to score in the second half but was key in overtime. Wade favored his left shoulder throughout the game and received treatment on it during the third quarter. He finished with 21 points on 6-of-13 shooting. He looked in mint condition with the game on the line, though. His four-point play with 1:30 cut the Bulls lead to three points. Wade’s brilliance was sandwiched by a pair of three-pointers by LeBron James. His second three tied the game at 79 with 1:01 left. His midrange jumper gave the Heat the lead for good. James finished with a game-high 28 points on 8-of-19 shooting to go along with 11 rebounds and six assists. Chris Bosh, whose two free throws gave the Heat an 83-81 lead with 16.8 second left, finished with 20 points and 10 rebounds. The United Center was a cauldron of noise with 3:53 left in the fourth quarter on Thursday after Ronnie Brewer’s three-pointer to give the Bulls a nine-point lead but was silent in the final moments as the Heat took a moment to celebrate before refocusing for the finals. Wade was benched midway through the third quarter after committing his ninth turnover of the game. He started the fourth quarter on the bench with a team trainer stretching Wade’s left shoulder. His nine turnovers in less than three quarters tied a Heat postseason record. Wade entered the fourth quarter after a timeout with 10 minutes to play. His mid-range jumper from the wing cut the Bulls’ lead to 69-63 with 7:20 left. It was the Heat’s second field goal of the quarter and just its eighth of the second half. The Heat shot 33.3 percent in the third quarter but managed to outscore Chicago 19-17. The third quarter highlighted the physical nature of the series. Carlos Boozer clotheslined LeBron James during the period and whistled for a flagrant foul. The Bulls shot just 23.8 percent in the period but managed to hold onto his lead with an inspired defensive effort. Wade was called for a rare traveling violation with 6:20 left in the first half. The turnover was the Heat’s fifth of the first half and led to a mid-range jumper from Carlos Boozer that gave Miami a 12-point lead. On the Heat’s next possession, Wade again was whistled for traveling. The back-to-back turnovers highlighted a first half were the concentration that gave the Het a 3-1 lead in the series was suddenly lacking. Wade finished the first half with six turnovers. Overall, the Heat had eight turnovers compared to just six assists and was out-rebounded by the Bulls 23-14. The Bulls built a seven-point lead in the first quarter behind 19 combined points from Derrick Rose and Luol Deng. Deng’s three-pointer with a minute left in the period put Chicago ahead 25-18 but James answered with a three-pointer to end the quarter. Chicago shot 47.8 percent from the floor to begin the game while holding the Heat to 7-of-18 shooting from the field.

Eye-opener: How many games will the Eastern Conference playoffs go?

Here is the good news for the Miami Heat. It could not get any worse.

Could it?

The Chicago Bulls dealt Miami such a humiliating defeat Sunday in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference finals that it brought a smile to every Heat hater who has been hoping for this day since LeBron James sat down on national television in a Boys and Girls Club.

All of them had to be grinning as the Chicago crowd screamed "overrated" at the end of the game.

You would have to believe the only way for Miami to go is up. There isn't much more down.

The Bulls had a 19-6 margin on the offensive boards, hit 10, 3s and the league's No. 1 defense held James and Dwayne Wade to 12-for-32 from the field.

While Chris Bosh had 30 points for Miami, Chicago had 10 players score including 28 from Derrick Rose and 21 from Luol Deng.

"You play defense. You play defense hard and the shot goes up and they get an offensive rebound, kick it out for a three or get a layup or a dunk," James said. "Those are demoralizing for a defensive team. We've got to figure out a way to clean that up."

Game 2, also in Chicago, is Wednesday. Will the Bulls continue to dominate the series or will the Heat be able to clean up their act?

Rose leads Bulls past Hawks 95-83

The Chicago Bulls were looking for someone, anyone, to provide a spark, and it figured that Derrick Rose would.

It was no shocker, either that Taj Gibson provided one, too.

Rose scored 33 points, Gibson scored all of his 11 in the fourth quarter, and the Bulls beat the Atlanta Hawks 95-83 in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference semifinals on Tuesday night to take a 3-2 lead.

Luol Deng added 23 points and Chicago let out a big sigh of relief.

"It's definitely fun playing against a good team," Rose said. "Coach always said we're going to have to walk through the fire together. Every series has tested us in every way, but I think that we're sticking together."

Game 6 is Thursday in Atlanta, and a win would put Chicago in the conference finals for the first time since Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen wrapped up their second championship three-peat in 1998. They are in this position after dominating Atlanta in the fourth quarter 26-15, with Rose matching Gibson's 11 points.

Rose showed why he is the league's youngest MVP, hitting 11 of 24 shots and finishing with nine assists. It was a big improvement over Game 4 when he needed 32 shots to score 34 points, and he was particularly effective down the stretch, attacking the rim.

"It forces the defense to collapse, leads to easy opportunities for others, it leads to some second shots," coach Tom Thibodeau said. "We want to be inside-out so I thought it was huge."

Atlanta's Jeff Teague came up big again filling in for the injured Kirk Hinrich, scoring 21 for the third time in this series, but the Hawks came up short in the end.

Josh Smith contributed 16 points. Joe Johnson 15, Zaza Pachulia 13 and Al Horford added 12 points and 10 rebounds.

"We were playing for everything," Horford said. "We have to regroup again and get ready for Thursday."

It hasn't been an easy postseason for the Bulls after they stormed to a league-leading 62 wins, with Indiana pushing them in the first round and the Hawks doing the same. Even so, they are poised to advance.

The Bulls led by as many as 15 points in the first quarter but were trailing 70-69 early in the fourth when they went on a 9-0 run.

Rose started it when he drove to his left for a layup, fed Gibson a no-look pass in transition for a three-point play and added a layup that made it 78-70.

Then, midway through the fourth, he drove for a three-point play that made it 85-76. Fans were screeching "MVP! MVP!" as he buried the free throw, and after Atlanta pulled within six, Chicago reeled eight straight to make it 93-79, with six points coming from Gibson.

"Taj is a good player," Rose said. "I think he really doesn't know how good he is."

The fourth quarter aside, it wasn't an easy night for the Bulls.

Considering Chicago got 15 points each from Rose and Deng in the first half and led by as many as 15, the Hawks were probably glad to be trailing 48-42 at halftime. They kept coming at the Bulls in the third quarter.

Things got particularly tense after a two-handed dunk by Smith cut Chicago's lead to 61-60 with just over 4 minutes left in the period. He hung on the rim and Carlos Boozer gave him a forearm to the face, leading to a retaliatory shove from Smith and technical fouls for both players.

"I dunked the basketball and I go to turn and he just cleared me with an elbow to the jaw," Smith said. "Nobody is going to do that to me. I don't care who you are. I'm a man first."

Smith gave the Hawks their first lead of the game when he nailed a jumper that made it 64-63 with 1:45 remaining. Deng answered with a jumper and hit two free throws after Horford scored to make it 67-66.

Pachulia then hit an 11-footer with 9.8 seconds left before Gibson drove upcourt and fed Ronnie Brewer to give Chicago a 69-68 lead going into the fourth. Then, after a layup by Teague, Rose went off. So did Gibson, and the Bulls prevailed.

"The series is not over with," Smith said. "We have to go and play with a ton of energy on Thursday. We have to do a better job of keeping Derrick Rose out of our paint. If we do that we should be coming back here to play a Game 7."

Notes: The Hawks went big again, with coach Larry Drew sticking with the lineup that helped them win Game 4. Jason Collins starting at center, Horford at power forward and Smith at small forward, with Marvin Williams in a reserve role. ... Keith Bogans, who sprained his right ankle in Game 4, scored 11 for Chicago after being limited to free throws at the morning shootaround. ... Boozer finished with 11 points and 12 rebounds for the Bulls.

Collison guts it out with bad ankle

Jeff Foster, one of the most tenured Indiana Pacers ever, has seen about everything in the NBA. A teammate playing hurt impresses him.

Pacers point guard Darren Collison, a game-time decision, managed to play 34 minutes on a sprained left ankle Thursday.

"He played a good game," said Foster, one of only three players with 700 games in a Pacers uniform. "Anytime you play injured, it speaks a lot of the person. We're glad to have him out there."

Collison injured his left ankle Monday when he stepped on a cameraman late in the first half of Game 2 in Chicago's United Center.

The second-year point guard scored nine points on 4-for-8 shooting in the Pacers' 88-84 loss to the Bulls in Game 3.

The ankle caused some issues. Collison had just two assists and four turnovers.

But the biggest contribution for the Pacers was that he was on the court. His 34 minutes, 28 seconds were the second most of any Pacer, six seconds fewer than top scorer Danny Granger.

"It's definitely not 100 percent. I pushed it. I managed to help my team," Collison said, admitting the ankle bothered him "a little bit."

"But I'm not going to make any excuses. What happened at the end happened. I was happy to get in the game and contribute."

With the score tied at 84, the Pacers called a timeout with 55.4 seconds left. They ended up getting just a contested jumper from Collison that missed with 40.9 seconds to play.

After Derrick Rose's surging layup put Chicago ahead 86-84, the Pacers had another chance.

Pacers coach Frank Vogel had been substituting for the situation. He had Dahntay Jones in for defense on Derrick Rose. During a timeout with 17.8 seconds left, Vogel brought Collison back in to run the offense for a potential score-tying or winning play.

The possession bogged down and the Pacers settled for a long 3-pointer from Granger that missed with 2.9 seconds to play.

"We've just got to execute better," Collison said. "We didn't take some great shots there at the end."

Collison played 11 minutes in the first quarter and didn't score or have an assist. He started to get it going a little bit in the second quarter, going 2-for-2 from the field.

The Pacers had been preparing as if Collison wouldn't play, readying A.J. Price to be the starter and T.J. Ford the backup. Instead, Price played 13 minutes as Collison handled starter's minutes.

"My hat goes off to Darren, trying to lead his team," Jones said. "He suffered a rough injury and he tried to play through it. He has guts for trying to play through it."

"He looked good," said Paul George, who teamed with Jones to hold Rose to 4-for-18 shooting. "He looked like he was at full strength. Hopefully with a couple more days of rest and healing, he'll be at 100 percent."

SXSW: Jake Gyllenhaal on 'Source Code' world premiere(Video)

Festival kicked off in Austin, TX with the world premiere of sci-fi mind-bender Source Code. Austin crowds come to love and the Summit film starring Jake Gyllenhaal—who caused quite a stir with the hordes of fans, one of whom got a little camera-happy in the men’s room (dude, gross)—enjoyed a warm reception. Directed by Moon‘s Duncan Jones, the film follows Gyllenhaal’s Captain Colter Stevens, a soldier who wakes up from his tour of duty in the body of a strange man on a doomed train. Colter soon discovers that he’s part of a mission to ferret out the identity of a bomber and so, in delightfully taut eight-minute blocks aboard a commuter train bound for Chicago, he races to thwart a terrorist plot. EW spoke to Gyllenhaal on the morning after Source Code’s premiere.
EW: There are rumors that there was a rather heated scuffle in the theater bathroom last night as a fan tried to take your picture at an inelegant time?
JG: (laughs) That’s true. I think it’s an appropriate space to keep privacy. I hope that people wouldn’t disagree with me on that.
EW: Last night on stage, Duncan Jones said it was you who brought him on board Source Code. Were you a fan of Moon (the director’s beloved 2008 meditative sci fi film)?JG: I’d seen Moon and I thought this guy must have a fantastic mind. And I’d been told there was a project that he wants to make that he was interested in me playing one of the roles for. So I said of course I want to meet him. At the meeting I told him ‘Oh there’s this other script that I would really love for you to read.’ I never thought that he would want to do Source Code because he tends to write and direct his own things. But we sent it to him on a roll of the dice and five days later he was like “I want to do the movie.”
EW: Why was Duncan the right fit?
JG: What always scares me is people tend to lose character and a sense of “Why?” on a behavioral, human, psychological level when they’re dealing with something that can be entertaining. When you deal with something that is potentially commercial people just say “Oh, we’ll get to that later.” The movie was not anything I wanted to make unless it was with someone who was a real visionary. And humor too. Duncan has a great sense of humor—dirty and dark and great. I think the great thing about sci fi is there’s a little bit of a campy quality always. I don’t think anybody should take themselves too seriously in time continuum.
EW: Did you stay to watch the movie?
JG: I did. My best friend lives in Austin and he came with his girlfriend. Literally he grabbed my leg at one point and then at another time, in that scene where I jump off the train, he was like “Oh my god, what the hell?!” I was like “Yes!”