Review The Heat

(EW.com) A comedian who didn't risk looking foolish wouldn't even be in the game.

In The Heat which has the scruffy honor of being the first female buddy cop action comedy Melissa McCarthy does more than risk looking foolish she risks coming off as borderline insane like a dissolute biker turned homeless person like she's royally out of control.

Is it any wonder that she shocks the audience into laughter in more scenes than not With her naughty angel features and her italicized gumption that's so stylized it turns sarcasm into a blunt witted form of sincerity McCarthy plays Shannon Mullins a proudly slobby lethal weapon of a Boston police detective who favors fingerless leather gloves keeps an arsenal of firearms (including a rocket launcher) in her refrigerator and doles out cut to the quick insults the way that most of us say ''Hello ''

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Mullins gets paired with her opposite number Sarah Ashburn (Sandra Bullock) an uptight by the book FBI agent in ugly off the rack pants suits. Ashburn may be great at catching criminals but she's so smug about it that she drives even her FBI boss (Demian Bichir) crazy.

The laws of the buddy cop comedy are as basic familiar and inviolable as the rules of checkers. A pair of law enforcers get yoked together and they don't pretend to like each other. One is a tut tutting straight arrow the other a wild card screw up. And no matter how thick the jokes get the gods of gunfire and major vehicular damage must be served.

There's no reason to think that this time honored testosterone formula with two actresses now planted at the center of it would change all that much and in The Heat it doesn't. Except in one crucial way.

The director Paul Feig possesses a highly developed radar for the alternating currents of competition and camaraderie in female relationships. As he proved in Bridesmaids (2011) the one other major film he's directed Feig understands how women who don't like each other express their antipathy in ways both more direct and less direct than what men do.

In The Heat Feig stages scenes like Richard Donner ( Lethal Weapon ) with a touch of George Cukor ( The Women ). He has made a piece of smash and grab policier pulp that through the interplay of Bullock and McCarthy spins to its own snarly/confessional feminine beat.

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There's a very funny scene in which Ashburn and Mullins who have teamed up to nab a drug lord go undercover at a dance club where Mullins tries to transform Ashburn's ''bank teller'' outfit into something halfway clubby. She rips off Ashburn's sleeves then her pant legs revealing a pair of Spanx. Yet even as Mullins is shredding her partner's clothes and shredding her ego even more her hilarious lack of mercy comes off as a version of sisterly compassion. Forget the mid level dealer whose phone they're out to bug. She's trying to save this poor woman from herself.

Ashburn's problem is that she's all head and no instinct a kind of Quantico trained robot she doesn't know how to bond. McCarthy plays Mullins' repugnance at her partner's inhuman professionalism with a cringing spontaneity as when she puts up her hand for a high five and Ashburn has to go and wreck it by slapping and then clasping that hand. (It's far from the only time in the movie when Mullins looks like she wants to throw up a motif you would not see in a male buddy comedy.)

As long as these two are at loggerheads The Heat has a catchy lock and load hostility. It's much more clever than say the two Bad Boys films and less cartoonish than either the Rush Hour movies or the Lethal Weapon sequels (though not Lethal Weapon itself). With Bullock doing a variation on her Miss Congeniality geek tomboy who has to bloom character and McCarthy letting her acidly oddball observations rip the two actresses make their interplay bubble.

When Mullins confuses Ashburn's overly fussy pair of pajamas with a tuxedo it's all wrong yet somehow right. And when the partners go to an old man's bar and do shots all night dancing to Deee Lite's ''Groove Is In the Heart '' the drunken craziness is infectious enough to make you want to join them.

But once these two get to be friends the comic tension dissipates and the film's boilerplate drug dealer plot takes over and goes on and on. The Heat is fresher than a lot of the male centric movies it takes off from because there's little about aggressive guy banter that hasn't been worn to the ground by Hollywood.

You can tell how much the times have changed when Ashburn gets an oyster shucking knife stuck in her thigh then pulled out then shoved back or when she performs a graphic emergency tracheotomy and the blood gushing grossness is in every sense a gag.

It's genuinely jolting (in a way that I suspect may prove highly commercial) to see women go through these motions. But the motions are still market tested and machine tooled. Even when they're channeling the happy madness of Melissa McCarthy.

Grade B

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Roland Emmerichs 6 Second Review of White House Down (VIDEO)

Blockbuster director Roland Emmerich ( White House Down 2012 Independence Day ) is Moviefone's Guest Editor from June 24 28. Look for more videos and some White House Down secrets from him throughout the week.Don't get us wrong Mr. Moviefone's 6 Second Reviews are great but one from the film's director That's pretty cool too.

Roland Emmerich has three words to say about his latest action movie White House Down but we're not going to tell you (you have to watch for yourself). While it may seem hard to cram a review into only six seconds for a movie that features a White House invasion a sitting president (Jamie Foxx) kicking butt and tons of explosions Emmerich sums it all up pretty succinctly.

Check out his 6 Second Review. Are you planning to see White House Down this weekend

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Gallery 'White House Down' New York Premiere White House Down New York Premiere

NEW YORK NY JUNE 25 Channing Tatum (L) and Roland Emmerich attend the 'White House Down' premiere at the Ziegfeld Theater on June 25 2013 in New York City. (Photo by D Dipasupil/FilmMagic)

White House Down New York Premiere

NEW YORK NY JUNE 25 James Woods (R) and guest attend the 'White House Down' premiere at the Ziegfeld Theater on June 25 2013 in New York City. (Photo by D Dipasupil/FilmMagic)

White House Down New York Premiere

NEW YORK NY JUNE 25 Channing Tatum attends the 'White House Down' premiere at the Ziegfeld Theater on June 25 2013 in New York City. (Photo by D Dipasupil/FilmMagic)

White House Down New York Premiere

NEW YORK NY JUNE 25 Jamie Foxx attends the 'White House Down' premiere at the Ziegfeld Theater on June 25 2013 in New York City. (Photo by D Dipasupil/FilmMagic)

White House Down New York Premiere

NEW YORK NY JUNE 25 Maggie Gyllenhaal attends the 'White House Down' premiere at the Ziegfeld Theater on June 25 2013 in New York City. (Photo by D Dipasupil/FilmMagic)

White House Down New York Premiere

NEW YORK NY JUNE 25 (L R) Joey King Channing Tatum Maggie Gyllenhaal Jamie Foxx and Garcelle Beauvais attend the 'White House Down' premiere at the Ziegfeld Theater on June 25 2013 in New York City. (Photo by D Dipasupil/FilmMagic)

White House Down New York Premiere

NEW YORK NY JUNE 25 Maggie Gyllenhaal attends the 'White House Down' premiere at the Ziegfeld Theater on June 25 2013 in New York City. (Photo by D Dipasupil/FilmMagic)

White House Down New York Premiere

NEW YORK NY JUNE 25 Channing Tatum (L) and Roland Emmerich attend the 'White House Down' premiere at the Ziegfeld Theater on June 25 2013 in New York City. (Photo by D Dipasupil/FilmMagic)

White House Down New York Premiere

NEW YORK NY JUNE 25 Maggie Gyllenhaal (L) and Jamie Foxx attend the 'White House Down' premiere at the Ziegfeld Theater on June 25 2013 in New York City. (Photo by D Dipasupil/FilmMagic)

White House Down New York Premiere

NEW YORK NY JUNE 25 Channing Tatum attends the 'White House Down' premiere at the Ziegfeld Theater on June 25 2013 in New York City. (Photo by D Dipasupil/FilmMagic)

White House Down New York Premiere Arrivals

NEW YORK NY JUNE 25 Actor James Woods (R) attends 'White House Down' New York premiere at Ziegfeld Theater on June 25 2013 in New York City. (Photo by Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images)

White House Down New York Premiere

NEW YORK NY JUNE 25 Jamie Foxx attends the 'White House Down' premiere at the Ziegfeld Theater on June 25 2013 in New York City. (Photo by D Dipasupil/FilmMagic)

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Blackhawks parade attracts thousands in Chicago

Chicago Blackhawks captain Jonathan Toews holds the Stanley Cup during the team's championship celebration in Chicago.(Photo Andrew Weber USA TODAY Sports)

CHICAGO (AP) Showered with confetti and cheered by screaming fans the Blackhawks wound their way through downtown Chicago on open topped buses Friday to celebrate the team's stunning Stanley Cup victory.

Thousands of fans who ditched work and painted their faces red and black roared as the buses moved past carrying waving players in red jerseys including forward Jonathan Toews who cradled the bar hopping silver trophy.

Before dawn crowds jammed entrances to the rally site in Grant Park along Lake Michigan where the parade was headed. Some die hard fans camped out overnight ready to sprint to the big stage at the front of the park the minute police swung barriers aside.

Some fans hauled homemade versions of the silver Stanley Cup including one fashioned from an empty beer keg.

One supporter along the parade route held a sign that said Thank you guys. Another said Best 17 seconds of my life referring to the pair of goals scored just seconds apart in the final minutes of the Hawks' 3 2 victory over the Boston Bruins on Monday night.

THANK YOU Blackhawks salute Boston with full page ad

Twenty somethings Courtney Baldwin and Meghan O'Kane from the city's suburbs slapped together a homemade Stanley Cup out of a jumble of jugs and plastic bowls painted grey. Early in the morning it was not yet full of frothy beverage.

It will be this afternoon Baldwin said.

The Blackhawks gave the city something to celebrate as the Cubs and White Sox grind through another lost summer and after the Bears failed to make the playoffs in each of the last two seasons.

And fans took note.

We love the Blackhawks. This is history and this is a championship unlike the Cubs O'Kane said taking a shot at a team that hasn't won a World Series since 1908.

PHOTOS CHICAGO CELEBRATES BLACKHAWKS TITLE

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For the Blackhawks it was the second time they have brought the Stanley Cup home in four seasons.

This season's victory was dramatic. Trailing Boston until the final minutes Chicago scored twice in 17 seconds. Delirious fans bolted from bars to celebrate in the streets. Car horns blared.

The party roared overnight and into the next day as the team returned from Boston and making good on an NHL tradition toted the Cup around bars and restaurants to the delight of onlookers and fans who tried to keep up.

Sarah Schmidt 22 who grew up in Chicago and made the pilgrimage to Friday's celebrations from Milwaukee telling her boss she was taking the day off no matter what and hoping she would still have her bar tending job when the party was over.

I can't miss this she said.

Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published broadcast rewritten or redistributed.

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Review White House Down is satisfyingly stupid

(EW.com) Roland Emmerich may never win an Oscar (I'm going out on a limb here) but he gets my vote as the greatest practitioner of good bad movies working in Hollywood today.

I don't mean that as a backhanded compliment. Seriously. It takes a certain kind of genius to crank out blockbusters as spectacularly silly as Independence Day The Day After Tomorrow and 2012. And the main difference between Emmerich and fellow maestros of mayhem like Michael Bay is that he actually seems to be in on the joke. He knows his movies are preposterous nonsense and he embraces it.

John Hodgman explains why men in action movies wear those white tank tops

In his latest big budget excuse to blow up 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue White House Down Emmerich doesn't waste time with anything as conventional as a setup he just dives right in introducing us to Channing Tatum's John Cale a divorced Capitol police officer itching to be a Secret Service agent to impress his daughter (Joey King).

While his job interview in the West Wing is going south right wing mercenaries take over the White House demanding $400 million. Meanwhile Cale's daughter has been taken hostage and the president (Jamie Foxx) is left unguarded. Guess who steps in to protect the POTUS

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Emmerich and screenwriter James Vanderbilt ( The Amazing Spider Man ) rip off Die Hard beat for beat. But when you're having this much fun why quibble The entire film is merely an excuse for Tatum to squeeze off machine gun rounds in a muscle baring tank top Foxx to do his cool cat Obama impression right down to chomping on Nicorette and Emmerich to revel in what he does best blast the sets (and plausibility) to kingdom come.

Comparisons between this and last March's similarly themed Olympus Has Fallen are going to be inevitable so let me just say that Emmerich's is the D.C. disaster flick to see. Skip it and you'll be depriving yourself of one of the summer's most satisfyingly stupid pleasures.

Grade B

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For Celtics trade of Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce is end of era

BOSTON Six years ago the fans here celebrated the Celtics' steal of Kevin Garnett. A half dozen years later they were experiencing the other end of the era and the sad feeling that they were the victim now instead of the lucky thieves.

Not only was Garnett leaving the Celtics in the trade that was finalized late Thursday night but Paul Pierce was also going with him. The departure of Pierce is going to be felt most deeply of all here. He was a Celtic for 15 years and 24 021 points the team captain who sobbed as he raised the 17th banner above the parquet court. Dealing him was the next worst thing to trading away Larry Bird.

Danny Ainge the president of the Celtics has often recalled the conversation he had as an All Star shooting guard in the 1980s when he urged his predecessor Red Auerbach to forget sentiment and trade away Bird and Kevin McHale for outstanding offers that were on the table toward the ends of their careers. Auerbach responded a few months later with a stunning trade He sent Ainge to Sacramento.

Now Ainge finds himself making the hard choice that Auerbach didn't make and doing it for much less than the offers for Bird and McHale would have earned three decades ago. Fans are going to look at this deal with disappointment Pierce Garnett and Jason Terry were sent to Brooklyn for three first round picks (in 2014 2016 and 2018) and a bunch of contracts including a year of Kris Humphries at $12 million and three years worth $10.1 million annually for Gerald Wallace who turns 31 next month.

MANNIX Celtics set to send Garnett Pierce to Nets for picks players

In the new collective bargaining agreement first round picks are more valuable and harder to come by than ever. There were few options for trading Garnett who has two years and $24.4 million remaining on a contract with a no trade clause that was negotiated when the Celtics hoped to extend the era around the tight relationship of Garnett and coach Doc Rivers. When Rivers left the plan of employing Garnett as a mentor for young players left with him.

The Celtics realized they were going to endure the pain eventually and so it was best to have the teeth pulled as soon as possible. Don't let it drag on as Ainge counseled Auerbach years ago.

It made no sense to keep Pierce on a losing team especially when he had already said he couldn't muster the inspiration to participate in another rebuilding program and his inclusion might help convince Garnett to assent to this trade. If the Celtics must be bad for a season then at least their timing is good because the draft of 2014 promises to be excellent beginning with projected No. 1 pick Andrew Wiggins.

This isn't going to be the last deal the Celtics make to acquire assets and position themselves for a new era. Ainge insisted Thursday that he was planning to rebuild around 27 year old Rajon Rondo an exceptional talent who can do just about everything but lead. The Celtics improved after Rondo suffered a torn ACL in January they were 18 20 in games he started and that was when he was surrounded by Garnett Pierce and Terry. Now he'll be supported by Jeff Green Gerald Wallace and Avery Bradley and who knows who the head coach will be.

The Nets have improved a roster that appeared to have no promising future after losing a Game 7 at home in the first round to the undermanned Bulls. They figure to be impressive in the regular season when healthy. But how at the end of the long year are they going to be able to run with the younger legs of Miami Indiana and Chicago when four of their top half dozen players will be Garnett (who will be 37) Pierce (36) Terry (36) and Joe Johnson (32) They have little depth to support a starting five that is going to demand caution in terms of minutes and their only young contributor is Brook Lopez who isn't athletic.

Rivers was gone on Sunday and by the end of the week the six years of contention had been crated up and packaged off to Brooklyn. Rivers Pierce and Garnett were links to the championship tradition of the 1980s and beyond. Garnett in particular was cited by Celtics majority owner Wyc Grousbeck with elevating the standards of the franchise across the board.

Can they find a coach who believes in the proud traditions and who is capable of developing a new era Will Rondo participate or will he be the next to go There are hard questions left for the Celtics to answer but the most painful week is behind them. They and their fans now have some sense of what it was like to be on the wrong side of that trade for Garnett in 2007. The celebration in Brooklyn is happening at the expense of the Celtics now.

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2013 NBA draft grades Eastern Conference teams

Georgetown's Otto Porter Jr. won't be moving very far to play for the Wizards.(Photo Joe Camporeale USA TODAY Sports)

A wild NBA draft is over after trades galore and one huge move that had nothing to do with the draft and won't even be official for another two weeks. So who won

USA TODAY Sports' draft grades take into account only what happened on draft night that was relevant to the draft itself. They are not weighted for the impact of the players so that a team with only one second round pick could get an A or an F depending on what the team did with its pick even though the selection might not have much impact on the franchise's future.

NBA DRAFT Pick by pick breakdown

BIG FALL Noel vows to make teams pay

With that said here are the 15 Eastern Conference teams listed alphabetically

ATLANTA HAWKS

New faces No. 16 C Lucas Nogueira No. 17 PG Dennis Schroeder No. 44 C Mike Muscala No. 47 PG Raul Neto SG Jared Cunningham

No team has more rebuilding to do this offseason than the Hawks who entered the offseason with three players locked into contracts for next year. Nogueira and Schroeder were the top two foreign prospects in the draft. Both have tremendous athleticism and could play next year at least in limited roles. Muscala is one of the most skilled big men in the draft. Neto is a starter in Spain's top league. Cunningham the No. 24 pick in last year's draft was more or less handed to them by the cost cutting Mavericks and could be useful. All five of these players could be solid bench players for years to come. That's impressive something no other team came away from this draft able to say.

Grade A

GALLERY NBA draft first round

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BOSTON CELTICS

New faces No. 13 C Kelly Olynyk No. 53 C Colton Iverson

While the grade below won't be based on the Celtics' massive trade with the Brooklyn Nets the moves need to be taken together. Boston is starting over. Are Olynyk and Iverson the type of players to build around Both would have been nice fits on last year's Celtics but neither has much upside. Olynyk has a nice jump shot but so do starting forwards Brandon Bass and Jeff Green. In the aftermath of the night's biggest trade the Celtics' draft choices feel flat.

Grade C

BROOKLYN NETS

New face No. 22 C Mason Plumlee

Again the trade with the Celtics is important context for the draft pick. The Nets needed a power forward and Plumlee can play both forward spots. He's also full of athleticism and energy which will be good alongside aging Kevin Garnett and skilled but soft Brook Lopez. The Nets did the right thing with this pick which is good because they need youth now that they've tacked on three of the oldest players in the NBA to their already past its prime core.

Grade A

CHARLOTTE BOBCATS

New face No. 4 C Cody Zeller

Zeller wasn't expected to go quite so high but he really is a great fit for the Bobcats. His athleticism will pair well with Bismack Biyombo in a pairing the Bobcats hope will emerge over the next few years as one of the NBA's best. Zeller is more developed offensively Nerlens Noel or Alex Len and the Bobcats were challenged there. They will need Biyombo and Michael Kidd Gilchrist to develop on defense though because they were as bad on that end and Zeller won't be much help. He may not have a tremendous upside and probably would have been available a few spots lower but Zeller makes sense. And kudos to the Bobcats for recognizing their already young roster didn't need any extra rookies.

Grade B

VIDEO Zeller talks Bobcats

Cody Zeller believes he will fit in nicely in Charlotte with up and comers Kemba Walker and Michael Kidd Gilchrist.

CHICAGO BULLS

New faces No. 20 SG Tony Snell No. 49 PF Erik Murphy

The Bulls came out of this draft with exactly what they needed. Snell is a shooter who can defend both wing positions. Murphy is a tough big man who can hit three pointers from the corner a la fellow Florida product Matt Bonner of the San Antonio Spurs. Both players came at good values and should be ready to contribute to a team that expects to contend next season with Derrick Rose back. There was no overthinking no scheming. The Bulls had two picks and used them on two good players and good fits.

Grade A

CLEVELAND CAVALIERS

New faces No. 1 PF Anthony Bennett No. 19 SF Sergey Karasev No. 33 SG Carrick Felix

No one expected this. That said it's not bad. Bennett ranks right behind Noel for most upside in this draft and he gives the Cavaliers a scoring complement to Tristan Thompson. They should be able to play together either in small lineups with Thompson manning center or big ones with Bennett sliding to small forward. Noel is much more similar to Thompson than Bennett is. Karasev may be the best shooter in the draft and Felix may be the best one on one wing defender. Neither was a great pick but they could both have roles off the bench next season. The Cavs also came out with two future second round picks in a trade of the No. 31 pick. This wasn't a great draft for the Cavaliers but they were in a tough spot and came out OK.

Grade B

VIDEO Bennett surprised to go No. 1

UNLV forward didn't know he would be draft's biggest surprise.

DETROIT PISTONS

New faces No. 8 SG Kentavious Caldwell Pope No. 37 F Tony Mitchell No. 56 PG Peyton Siva

The Pistons had an excellent second round which isn't much of a consolation for all the Michiganders hoping for Trey Burke in the first. Burke made a lot of sense for the Pistons who haven't had a good point guard since Chauncey Billups. But Caldwell Pope should fill the starting shooting guard role admirably. He has all the tools for the trade. Given the pick the Pistons probably were hoping Ben McLemore a better prototypical shooting guard would fall to them. Mitchell is very athletic and can play both forward spots and Siva is a hardened winner who could be a solid backup. He's not Burke though.

Grade B

VIDEO Caldwell Pope eager to start with Pistons

Georgia guard looks to make immediate impact in NBA.

INDIANA PACERS

New face No. 23 SF Solomon Hill

The Pacers needed to find another perimeter player but a combo guard would have made more sense. Hill is a power forward in a small forward's body and though he could make an impact as a bruising athletic defender and rebounder he also might have been available 15 spots lower. The Pacers then traded their second round pick to the Celtics meaning they didn't pad their thin backcourt at all. Adding Hill could help if they trade Danny Granger though.

Grade C

MIAMI HEAT

New face No. 50 SF James Ennis

The Heat bought their way into this wild draft seemingly on a whim picking up a pick for cash considerations. Ennis is a player at the position the Heat need least who doesn't play to their style at all so the choice was curious. There were so many good centers in this draft who could have helped Miami had it went after an earlier second rounder.

Grade C

MILWAUKEE BUCKS

New faces No. 15 SF Giannis Antetokounmpo No. 43 SG Ricky Ledo

No team swung for the fences quite like the Bucks. In five years Antetokounmpo and Ledo may be two of the 10 best players from this draft. Antetokounmpo has huge upside as much as anyone outside the top seven. He also was the youngest player in the draft and probably is two or three years away from coming to the NBA. The Bucks may have drafted him with the intent of keeping cap space open for free agency but for a 2013 playoff team with big holes to fill the choice seemed strange. Ledo could be a contributor next season though. He's mostly an unknown because he was ineligible to play last season. Look back at these picks in five years when a clearer picture is formed.

Grade B

NEW YORK KNICKS

New face No. 24 SG Tim Hardaway Jr.

The Knicks took the head on approach to this draft. They picked one of the best players available and left making no other moves on the night. Hardaway definitely clashes with sixth man J.R. Smith so his selection could mean Smith won't be re signing with the Knicks after all. That only makes sense if the Knicks had made up their minds on Smith before the draft because Smith is better than Hardaway at this stage. They had bigger needs but Hardaway was a good value.

Grade B

ORLANDO MAGIC

New faces No. 2 SG Victor Oladipo No. 51 PF Romero Osby

Credit goes to the team that doesn't veer off its plan even as all chaos breaks out. The Magic went into the draft targeting Oladipo and didn't blink after the Cavaliers selected Bennett first. Noel and McLemore had more upside at No. 2 but Oladipo makes sense for a franchise trying to turn itself around. He's a high character high energy player who also was the most exciting player in college basketball last season. He and Osby who has a shot to make the team show the Magic are taking defense seriously. But they may have played it too safe in the process.

Grade B

VIDEO Oladipo opens up on Magic

New Magic guard Victor Oladipo is ready to join a cast of young up and coming players in Orlando.

PHILADELPHIA 76ERS

New faces No. 6 C Nerlens Noel No. 11 PG Michael Carter Williams No. 38 PG Nate Wolters No. 54 PF Arsalan Kazemi

Jrue Holiday is an All Star. He represented the 76ers last season in the midseason showcase. He's a young talented hard working point guard a commodity in the NBA. So was Noel worth it That all hinges on how he recovers from knee surgery and how well the New Orleans Pelicans do with Holiday as their 2014 first round pick could be very valuable. The Sixers addressed the hole at point guard very quickly then again. Carter Williams and Wolters are both big and will struggle to defend faster points. There are going to be big chemistry questions for Carter Williams and swingman Evan Turner. But the Sixers obviously were willing to blow things up and be bad for a year in hopes of winning the Andrew Wiggins sweepstakes (with their own pick as the Pelicans' pick is protected next year).

Grade C

VIDEO Nerlens Noel's whirlwind draft night

TORONTO RAPTORS

New faces None

The Raptors took in a mediocre draft from the sidelines. They have a decent roster in progress and some free agency options to weigh. That probably was the right move for them.

Grade B

WASHINGTON WIZARDS

New faces No. 3 SF Otto Porter Jr. No. 36 SF Glen Rice Jr.

The Wizards made the smart pick then they made the smart trade. Porter is the perfect fit for this team even though he lacks the upside of many of the available options. He will step in and start from Day One. And Rice will be the team's top backup wing if not this year then soon. They dealt the Nos. 38 and 54 picks for Rice who arguably was the best player in the NBA Development League last year but slipped for off the court issues.

Grade A

VIDEO Otto Porter happy to stay in D.C.

Georgetown star will stick around Washington D.C. after being drafted No. 3 by Wizards.

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Fewer Waves at Wimbledon as Talk Turns to Return of Serve and Volley

But there was nothing no plaque being hammered onto a green wall to commemorate a wild Wednesday no upset shocked victims receiving treatment no orange soled shoes visible inside what the British call a dustbin.

Instead order had been restored at Wimbledon even if Roger Federer Jo Wilfried Tsonga and Victoria Azarenka were no longer around to appreciate the amenities and even if Maria Sharapova was hanging around only to watch her boyfriend Grigor Dimitrov dig deep into a fifth set before rain ended the suspense for the night.

Thud Thursday still featured a few more slips on the slick grass as well as two more retirements from the veteran Frenchmen Michael Llodra and Paul Henri Mathieu that brought the tournament total to 12 after two rounds.

But there was no sign of Wednesday s electricity the sense of possibility that made stars feel vulnerable and outsiders feel as if this day simply had to be the day they could crash the party.

By early afternoon Thursday it became apparent that for all the upsets and the superlatives the 81 year old coach Nick Bollettieri called Wednesday easily the craziest day of tennis I have ever seen Wimbledon had not been kicked that far off the rails after all.

Although Rafael Nadal and the defending champion Federer are out after two rounds the No. 1 seed Novak Djokovic and No. 2 Andy Murray have yet to lose a set. Djokovic advanced on Thursday with a 7 6 (2) 6 3 6 1 victory over Bobby Reynolds a 30 year old American qualifier whose departure left the United States with no men in the third round in singles for the first time since 1912 (when no American men played at all).

As for the women s draw Serena Williams the overwhelming favorite and defending champion remains hale and hearty. She underscored the pecking order with a 6 3 6 2 victory over Caroline Garcia 19 of France who confessed that Wednesday had given her however briefly a little more zip in her step.

It does give you ideas she said.

But Williams had other ones and she said she followed the tumult closely.

The first thing I do is I m like O.K. Serena stay focused she said. This happened before. I don t know when. I want to say it was the U.S. Open though. A lot of players were losing. I thought definitely want to stay focused and stay serious. So that s what I did again yesterday.

Garcia lifts her eyes to the sky well before she tosses up the ball to serve and it ultimately seemed like a fine idea to seek help from above in light of Williams s current form. Williams rolled to her 33rd straight victory and has also won 28 straight sets which meant that after all the drama tinged news conferences and pretournament public apologies she could settle into a much more lighthearted vein on Thursday.

It included a debate about a would be battle of the sexes with Murray.

Opening question Andy Murray has challenged you to a showdown in Las Vegas. What is your answer

Williams He s challenged me

That led to discussion of Williams s long ago match (and defeat) against the cigarette smoking German journeyman Karsten Braasch in Australia in 1998.

I was really young I m a lot more experienced now Williams said before considering Murray.

He s probably one of the top three people I definitely don t want to play she said. But yeah maybe we can have a little bit of a showdown. That would be fine. I get alleys. He gets no serves. I get alleys on my serves too. He gets no legs. Yeah.

Williams will get the chance to feel young again in her next match when she faces Kimiko Date Krumm the enduring Japanese player who at nearly 43 is the oldest woman in the Open era to advance to Wimbledon s third round in singles.

The two have never played and if anyone can throw Williams off rhythm it is Date Krumm who once almost chopped and changed tactics enough to knock the other five time Wimbledon champion in the Williams family (Venus) out of the singles.

I did see that match I think I lost four years of my life watching that match so I will definitely be talking to Venus Serena Williams said.

But even as Williams talked about the future there was still plenty of talk about the past (as in Wednesday) about Federer s increasingly evident fade and about the revival (even if ephemeral) of the serve and volley style that has most of the middle age former stars on the grounds licking their chops with something that could be called nostalgic anticipation.

We all want to see serve and volley back said Mats Wilander 48 a former world No. 1 from Sweden.

It was back in full risk taking flow on Wednesday on Centre Court as 116th ranked Sergiy Stakhovsky decided that the only way to nudge the odds in his favor was to deprive Federer of time by following his serve to net preferably after delivering a serve to his weaker backhand wing.

Such clarity can help a tennis player. If you have just one legitimate option sticking by that option is the easiest path to take. The enormous surprise was that Federer even in his diminished 2013 state could not find a way to solve the riddle and he will drop to No. 5 or worse in the rankings after the tournament.

His chances of winning an 18th Grand Slam singles title are not over but his days of doing it as the favorite certainly seem to be done. Federer a seven time Wimbledon champion still hit some brilliant shots but he also hit too many shaky ones to avoid putting an exclamation point on the long flowing Fitzgeraldian sentence that was Wednesday.

Thursday was much more suited to Hemingway even if it ended in typical English fashion under umbrellas.

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