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It’s interesting that the teaming of Alexander Skarsgård and director Robert Eggers on The Northman was kind of an accident. Skarsgård and Eggers did have a dinner scheduled to discuss another project, but it’s only after the two started talking about their mutual interest in Viking culture did Skarsgård realize, oh, maybe this is the director for The Northman. And the result is a vicious tale of revenge, culminating with a naked sword fight on top of an exploding volcano.

The last time I interviewed Skarsgård was for Godzilla vs. Kong and he was a good sport about realizing not many people were going to watch Godzilla vs. Kong to see his character, famed geologist Dr. Nathan Lind. (By the time that interview ended, the questions had devolved into things like, “Did you film on location in the center of the earth?,” and “How long did you train as a geologist?” with Skarsgård giving hilarious answers.) But, this time, Skarsgård is front and center as Amleth, who is hellbent on avenging the death of his father by the hands of his uncle, who has no sense married his mother. (Yes, The Northman is based on the same source material as Hamlet is, but, as Skarsgård points out, Hamlet doesn’t feature a naked sword fight on top of an exploding volcano.)

And speaking of Godzilla vs. Kong, Skarsgård has some troubling news about King Kong himself, who sounds like he’s fallen into some of the traps of Hollywood and fame.

This movie rules.

Oh, thank you.

That’s the whole interview.

Thank you. That’s a great chat.

So I spoke to Robert Eggers. Last time you and I spoke, you said you courted him for The Northman. How do you talk him into this? Because he seems like a very headstrong fellow.

He is. I didn’t have to court him much, to be honest. It was meant to be, it really was, to speak Viking language, fated. I knew the type of Viking movie I wanted to make. I knew I wanted it to be an epic Viking adventure story. But I wanted it to be based on the Icelandic sagas. I wanted it to kind of have that tonality, that laconic language: The harsh, stark, language of characters — it was something I had never seen on a big screen. I’d never seen that captured.

But now in retrospect, it’s nothing like really his other two movies. Which I didn’t realize back then. How did you know then he would be perfect for this? Considering it’s a lot more action than we get in his other movies.

Exactly. And I didn’t go into that meeting thinking like, oh, he’s the guy.

Oh?

The Witch was playing in the theaters when we met. So I had just seen it. And, like you said, it’s a completely different movie, but it’s evident that you’re dealing with a filmmaker whose attention to detail is absolutely extraordinary. Who has an ability to make the audience feel transported to a different time and place. And who deals with the supernatural in a very unique way – where it feels alien and supernatural to us watching it in modern-day society, but to the characters on screen experiencing it, it’s not supernatural to them. It’s real because they genuinely believe in the supernatural. But, again, there was nothing in that movie that made me think, oh, he can pull off a big old action-adventure movie.

Well, that’s what’s kind of remarkable about you two teaming up like this.

But that meeting, we were supposed to talk about another project. Rob had just returned to New York from Iceland and had fallen in love with the culture and the people and Norse mythology. So we ended up just talking about Viking culture and I was really impressed by his knowledge and his take on it. And him talking about spirituality in the mindset of the Viking. I knew that the essence, the core of the movie is exactly what I was dreaming of making. So after that meeting, I called Lars Knudsen, my producing partner on it. And just said, “I had the most amazing meeting with Rob. And for some reason I think he could be perfect for our Viking movie.” Again, because of his interest, his passion, his knowledge, and the way he wants to blur the lines between the natural and the supernatural, was something that was so fascinated by. And then that’s how we kind of got started on this.

He mentioned that the final fight scene on the volcano was very tough on you.

Yeah. It was an intense week. It was towards the end of the shoot. So it was almost Christmas and freezing cold. And obviously at night. And we’re naked, covered in blood and sweat…

I mean right there, just even saying that out loud, there’s a movie. “We’re freezing, we’re naked, we’re covered in blood.” You guys got yourself a movie right there.

Yeah! And not only are there a lot of long choreographed fight scenes in the movie, but this was also the emotional climax. So this demanded more of all of us. But I was just so excited about the possibility of that scene. I’d seen the storyboard. There’s an image made by an artist of these two Vikings fighting on top of an erupting volcano. And it just was the most extraordinary image on something out of a Renaissance painting. And that got me through that week of pain and fatigue. If we can get even close to that, then it’s totally worth it.

It’s one of the more stunning-looking fight scenes I’ve seen in a long time.

Oh, wow. That really means a lot, man. It’s the climax of the movie, so there are a lot of pretty technically difficult and pretty impressive fight scenes in the movie. But you got to go out with a bang. You’re making a big Viking epic and you’re dealing with Norse mythology. You’ve got Valkyries, you got gods, you have a character at that moment who is about to enter Valhalla. You kind of got to go big in that moment. And you can’t go much bigger than a fight on top of an erupting volcano.

I saw you were saying how you didn’t get cast in smart roles…

I’m definitely not complaining about the roles I’ve gotten in the past 15 years. I’ve been one of the luckiest motherfuckers on the planet and had the privilege of being able to kind of choose projects for at least 10 years now. I was referring to the beginning of my career.

Well, I didn’t want you to forget Dr. Nathan Lind. Last time we spoke we talked about all the time you put in training as a geologist…

I’m all about authenticity. Method actor, man.

Also, I did some research after that interview. It turns out you did not actually film Kong vs. Godzilla in the center of the earth on location. That was a sound stage.

The aftertaste is quite sour, because of the success at the box office of that movie, Kong turned into a fucking diva.

Oh no.

No. He won’t even, like, pick up my call anymore.

That’s not right.

He was a pure talent man. He was really something and sweet and humble when we shot the movie. And then now, dude, just hanging out at the clubs, like with sunglasses and just a bad crowd. An entourage, moving around with assistants. He’s just being mean to people. And it’s really sad to see when that happens to someone who had so much potential.

The people who seem to get ahead in your industry are the people who are kind. And to hear this about Mr. Kong, that is disappointing.

That’s why he hasn’t worked since.

Oh, by the way, the interview you did with Kirsten Dunst, you brought up Tootsie and how your first crush was Jessica Lange. And it hit me, both you and Jessica Lange have worked with Mr. Kong.

That’s true! That’s true.

If you ever run into her, you can share your experiences with King Kong.

I met her at an awards show years ago. But I got a bit… obviously because that was my first crush on Tootsie. So I got a bit awkward and uncomfortable and I kind of had to extract myself from that conversation.

I mean, what are you supposed to say in that situation?

Yeah. I know.

I was thinking, I’ve seen the comparisons of The Northman to Hamlet. Do you want people thinking it’s Hamlet? This feels a lot different than Hamlet.

Sure. Why not? I mean, yes, you have the family structure, the dynamic is based on Prince Amleth of Jutland from the 12th century. And it’s by Saxo Grammaticus, but it’s probably an even older story. So it’s probably from Iceland in the 10th century, the original story.

I feel like Hamlet just tries to kind of annoy his uncle to death. Your character has a different approach.

Hamlet is also quite passive. A lot of the play it’s him, internally, should I, should I not? Amleth is…

Not passive. He’s not a passive guy.

No. Hamlet does not end up fighting naked on top of a burning volcano.

He certainly does not.

Shakespeare really dropped the ball on that one.

He did.

He’d have real success if he only fought his uncle on top of a burning volcano.

I think we can all agree Hamlet needs a rewrite with a naked sword fight on top of a volcano.

That’s the one.

You can contact Mike Ryan directly on Twitter.

Rudy Giuliani‘s “passion” for making the most grotesquely embarrassing comments possible was in peak form on Easter Sunday. Instead of enjoying a nice ham dinner or holding hands with a bespectacled bunny, the former-New York City mayor launched an attack on Nikole Hannah-Jones, the creator of The 1619 Project, which “aims to reframe the country’s history by placing the consequences of slavery and the contributions of black Americans at the very center of our national narrative,” according to the New York Times.

“All that stuff we’ve been going through with burning the flag and kneeling during the national anthem and taking down statues of George Washington is to get us to hate our country. It’s not just meaningless or silly conduct or annoying conduct. There’s a purpose to it!” Giuliani said. “The people that organize it know what they’re doing. They’re getting us to hate America when you write [The 1619 Project], that stupid woman is the one that said parents should have nothing to do with the educations of their children.”

The Masked Singer contestant Giuliani also called Hannah-Jones “this New York Times arrogant jerk,” which is rich coming from a guy who worked for Donald Trump. In all fairness to Rudy, though, he may have gone on a sexist, racist rant, but his Easter could have been worse: at least he didn’t cut the line at the White House Easter Egg Roll.

(Via Raw Story)

When it was first announced that Kanye West had dropped out of Coachella’s Sunday night headlining slot just weeks before the festival, one of the names floated during the flurry of speculation about who would replace him was Doja Cat. In the time since her name had first appeared on the flyer for the canceled 2020 edition of the festival, that name had jumped up three lines and gotten several font sizes larger. Now that that long-delayed Coachella debut has happened, it’s clear that Doja’s name should have jumped up one more line.

While Doja isn’t technically a total Coachella rookie – she joined Rico Nasty onstage in 2019 – this is her first time appearing on the festival’s lineup. In 2019, Doja was still primarily known as the “Mooo!” girl in most online circles but since then, she has proven that she’s no joke. Her Hot Pink song “Say So” was the breakout hit of 2020, climbing all the way to No. 1 on the Hot 100 propelled by a TikTok trend, a Nicki Minaj remix, and a spicy (and ultimately unfulfilled) promise.

Yet, throughout that incredible run, Doja was never afforded the opportunity to perform it for real, in front of an audience of fans who were there to see her rather than whatever award show she happened to be on. Likewise, when “Streets” also took off thanks to its own massive viral moment on social media (Google “silhouette challenge” if you’re unaware), Doja was unable to take the show on the road, so it was probably hard to get a bead on just how big she’d gotten in over the course of the year leading up to the release of her third album, Planet Her.

But now, we’ve definitely seen all the evidence we need to say that Doja should have headlined Coachella 2022 – and will more than likely do so in the near future. An exuberant set with flash and color, Doja’s performance had all the components of legendary sets like Beyonce’s. She gave us costume changes and a creative stage design; she served choreography and dazzling live arrangements of her growing collection of past hits. She even returned Rico Nasty’s favor, bringing out her old friend for a zany rendition of their collaboration “Tia Tamera.”

That last one is notable because that’s the sort of thing a headliner does: Lend their platform to bequeath just a bit of their notoriety to a deserving successor. Doja and Rico are more like peers, but it’s likely that bringing Rico on during Doja’s set exposed her to a much wider audience of both attendees at Coachella and fans watching the livestream at home. Just imagine how much bigger that audience could have been with Doja closing out the festival.

Doja’s set synthesized all of the experiences and strategies she’d picked up over a year of performing almost solely for television. Sure, she’s always had a gift for showmanship, but that confidence doesn’t always translate to a big stage – it did Sunday night, though, and in spades. She showed a picture-perfect handle of how to perform to both the crowd at the polo grounds and to the cameras, flashing her broad, genuine smile at just the right moments to accent a particularly deft show beat, and display her well-practiced vocal skills with ease and charisma.

It’s fitting that she was also just about the culmination of Sunday’s showcase of genre-bending hip-hop (and yes, Doja Cat is very much a hip-hop artist). If Friday and Saturday were about surveying where hip-hop is and its probable future, then Sunday saw the various permutations the genre can accommodate when the boundaries are ignored. Throughout the day, hip-hop spread its wings, delving into acts that challenge the genre’s status quo with their sonic experimentation – acts like Compton house-hop rule-breaker Channel Tres, rebellious rabble-rousers Run The Jewels, and eclectic journeyman Denzel Curry, who brought his own X-Wing from Star Wars to the Sahara stage.

It gave me a lot of joy to see the crowd spilling out of the Sahara tent at Channel Tres electrifying afternoon set (probably stemming from hometown pride), while Run The Jewels drew a sizable crowd of their own to the main stage just a few minutes later. Vince Staples, fresh off his tour with Tyler The Creator, worked on expanding his set with nods to his newly released album, Ramona Park Broke My Heart. During his set, he bantered with a fellow Long Beach native in the front row, teasing him for confusing the city’s east side with Vince’s beloved Norf Norf.

UK rapper Dave ended up being one of the few exceptions to the unofficial “hip-hop at Sahara” rule in effect this weekend, blessing the Mojave tent with a scintillating performance that saw him rap, sing, play his guitar (sadly, not the flamethrower one from the BRIT Awards), and share the stage with an enthusiastic fan from London named Spike. Spike didn’t just know every word; he performed with Dave like they’d been rehearsing all week, blowing away the artist as much as the crowd.

Doja Cat capping off this lineup inadvertently became a pretty pointed statement on how expansive hip-hop has become. In recent weeks, the debate over whether or not she counts as a rapper intensified after veteran rapper Remy Ma refused to classify her as one. With a Coachella set that leaned into displaying her rap skills, backed by a wide array of musical styles from Afropop to hard rock, Doja Cat didn’t just prove that she’s a rapper. She also made a pretty solid argument that she is one of the biggest and best rappers — and performers — on the planet. The next time we see her name on a Coachella flyer, it might just be in the big print after all.

Fans know that music aside, Lizzo is a magnetic and entertaining personality. She got to show that off to a larger audience this past weekend when she was both the host and musical guest on Saturday Night Live. Given that music is her day job, it found its way into the show beyond her performances, including in a sketch about Black Eyes Peas, which pokes fun at the group.

The skit was presented as studio footage from a session where the band recorded multiple hits, and after the group performed a bit of “Boom Boom Pow” for producers (Lizzo and Aidy Bryant), Bryant noted, “Those were actually the temp lyrics that we sent to describe the beat of the track.” Lizzo added, “Yeah, you were supposed to replace them with your own lyrics. You know, like, with words.”

After going back and forth on that song some more, they move on to “I Gotta Feeling,” with Lizzo and Bryant showing amazement at the song’s simple lyrics. Bryant then instructed, “Everyone yell a refrain together, something that feels true to who you are as a group.” The band responded, “Mazel tov, l’chaim!”

They also made a nod to “Let’s Get It Started,” or rather, the original version of the song, the controversially titled “Let’s Get R*tarded.” Noting the song’s title is a work in progress, with just “Let’s Get” confirmed so far, Bryant notes, “It has to be something that we can say forever.” Lizzo assured, “We can figure that out later.”

Historical accuracy isn’t necessarily the most important thing in an SNL sketch (for example, this wasn’t actual Black Eyed Peas studio footage), but it’s worth noting (or maybe it isn’t) that the sketch’s fictional recording session was set in 2008, but “Let’s Get It Started” was released in 2004.

Watch the sketch above.

Last Week Tonight provokes thought and giddiness well on several fronts. This combination has led to the greatest moments of the show, which frequently involve host John Oliver going hard on a serious subject but taking a momentary diversion into out-of-context WTF-land. That was the case with his first pandemic deep dive taking time to sum up Bridgerton as with a jizz-blanket label, one that still makes me laugh to no end. This week, he returned to bad-cop behavior with a deep dive on police interrogations.

Things got ugly with the host detailing the Reid Technique, which involves many shady components, including being allowed to fabricate evidence to elicit confessions from innocent suspects. In addition, Oliver cites a disturbing fact, which is that a majority of states don’t even require police to fully record interrogations, so that juries may see it in open court. Rather, 20 states leave it “up to the police, who might only record the confession.” As Oliver pointed out, “[Y]ou just cannot get the full story from seeing one short clip. Imagine if the only clip you’d ever seen from One Tree Hill was this.”

From there, oh boy. Oliver (shortly after the 15:00 in the above clip) dove into the CW teen soap opera’s most infamous scene, in which a golden retriever gets stoned. He’s hanging out in a hospital, where some dude carries in a for-transplant heart and trips over the dog’s leash. Said heart spills onto the floor, and the munchies-inspired dog rushes forward and gobbles away. That heart was meant for bad-dad Dan, who looks on in a combination of shock and dismay. His son, Lukas, isn’t upset by this turn of events. Dog takes off with heart. End scene.

Oliver crowns this the GOAT of TV clips:

“Do you want to know what One Tree Hill is about? It’s about a high school basketball team. You’d have no way of knowing that from that clip. All you would know is that it would contain the most perfect 20 seconds of television that has ever existed.”

This truly is a remarkable snippet of TV, and for the curious, The Ringer previously published a fantastic oral history to that effect. Earlier in the episode, Oliver also roasted Dr. Oz for several reasons, including his right-wing way of blaming Biden for inflation but also “[going] to a grocery store dressed like Dexter before a serial murder.” You can watch the full episode on HBO Max.

There’s not really a roadmap for getting your rap career back on track after a crowd-control incident at one of your concerts leaves ten people dead, but Travis Scott is attempting to create one. Despite being dropped from the Coachella lineup this past December following the previous month’s Astroworld tragedy, Scott performed at an afterparty, according to reports from TMZ and E!.

At a La Quinta, California function, about ten minutes away from the Empire Polo Club, where Coachella’s Saturday night festivities headlined by Billie Eilish were wrapping up, Scott reportedly grabbed the mic at 3 a.m. and even got behind the turntables. The party was put on by the David Arquette-owned West Hollywood club Bootsy Bellows and a source at the party told E!, “Travis got in the DJ booth with the DJ Chase B. He played the bangers but ‘Goosebumps’ was the crowd please [sic].”

This is the second time Scott has performed since the Astroworld tragedy, as he made an appearance at a pre-Oscars event last month. He’s not exactly keeping a low profile anymore, as a series of four billboards promoting his upcoming album/project Utopia appeared on the Interstate-5 road to Coachella last week. The four billboards each read a part of a phrase that when put together read: “PSST……Looking for UTOPIA? WRONG WAY,” and then the fourth billboard just featured the logo for Scott’s label Cactus Jack.

Multiple times per week, our TV and film experts will list the most important ten streaming selections for you to pop into your queues. We’re not strictly operating upon reviews or accrued streaming clicks (although yes, we’ve scoured the streaming site charts and ratings) but, instead, upon those selections that are really worth noticing amid the churning sea of content. There’s a lot out there, after all, and your time is valuable.

10. (TIE) The Kardashians (Hulu series)

Yes, this is happening again. Kim Kardashian and fam are back, and beyond the lead-up controversy, there’s plenty of reason to enjoy speculating whether real-or-not-real is the case in the debut episode. You’ll know the scene in question when you see it (Tristan Thompson amazingly freaks out because he thinks it’s about him, when it isn’t), and the gang attempts to sound like The Godfather while Kim Kardashian vows to go scorched earth against anyone who goes against the fam Kris Jenner is one wild mastermind.

10. (TIE) Turning Red (Pixar film on Disney+)

Pixar’s offerings have been uneven lately, to say the very least, but they’re back in fine form with this rager that’s one of their best offerings in a decade. Female adolescence is at the forefront, and things get existential again, much like in Soul. Be ready to laugh and cry and feel broken down while thanking this movie for the experience. This one does the trick much better than Judy Blume’s Are You There God? It’s Me Margaret if you know what I’m saying. Give up and surrender to the panda. You won’t be sorry, and you might gain some much needed perspective from tucking into this delightful yarn.

9. Bad Vegan (Netflix series)

The story of famed vegan restauranteur Sarma Melngailis, who fell from grace in the clutches of Anthony Strangis, is truly one of the stranger grifting stories out there these days. The show’s subject has followed up on her revived notoriety by protesting how Netflix marketed this show is at least one seemingly unorthodox way. There’s an odd Alec Baldwin connection in there, and Sarma’s food enchanted Gisele and Tom, Woody Harrelson, and Owen Wilson while it was hot. Then Sarma and her fake dog-immortality/black-ops dude squandered $2 million of investors’ and employees’ dollars, but at least ol’ Leon is still kicking.

8. Taboo (BBC One/FX series on Hulu)

Tom Hardy’s almost always intense, but he gets cryptic here in this 2017 series that a lot of people are recently discovering. He’s portraying The Devil Delaney with “taboo” romantic interests, all while he’s back to take over his later father’s business interests, if only he can stay alive long ago to do so. And if he can also shake off the super confident character portrayed by Jessie Buckley. They’re a captivating combo while this show’s atmospheric touches makes up for any storytelling shortcomings.

7. Woke (Hulu series)

The Marshall Todd and Keith Knight-created series about “Keef Knight,” cartoonist, picks up in world where business = wokeness. Keef and his ragtag group of friends are attempting to do the activist thing while also climbing that ladder further as a marketable artist. Those worlds collide in a world where talking trashcans also exist, so expect heavy nerding here and razor-sharp satire. Lamorne Morris, T. Murph, Blake Anderson, Sasheer Zamata, and JB Smoove star, and Maurice “Mo” Marable is still executive producing, so you’re in good hands.

6. Bridgerton (Netflix series)

Alright, so this season isn’t quite as sexed up as the original outing, but the love life of Anthony Bridgerton is still captivating as heck while the show, overall, maintains its momentum without the show’s first-season MVP. Really, though, they should have at least talked about The Duke more, or let people know how he and Daphne are doing together while physically apart. Still, one can’t resist this gem, which will run for multiple more seasons, so get caught up already.

5. Outer Range (Amazon Prime)

This ain’t Yellowstone, but it could draw in a rabid crowd on its own merits. Josh Brolin portrays a rancher in Wyoming, and something very strange is taking place out on that terrain. And wildly, that terrain could make you momentarily think of those expansive scenes in No Country For Old Men with Brolin’s character. Here, he’s dealing with a supernatural mystery and a missing young woman, and there are other forces at work, naturally, where humans might be more frightening than whatever a black void is dealing out. Stay tuned for revelations and a profit-hungry family, so in other words, there’s plenty of drama.

4. Tokyo Vice (HBO Max series)

Heat and Miami Vice reboot director Michael Mann heads into the neon-soaked grittiness of the Japanese underworld. An American journalist (Ansel Elgort) and a dogged detective (Ken Watanabe) are doing their best to put a stop to some yakuza action, and Elgort put a ton of prep into this role, including learning a hefty amount of Japanese. It’s a slick crime thriller with less Heat than one would prefer, but it’s an engrossing slow burn of a watch so far.

3. Atlanta (FX series on Hulu)

Donald Glover’s brainchild has returned after four years, and for sure, it’s good to have the core four back. That would be Glover as Earn, LaKeith Stanfield as Darius, Zazie Beetz as Van, and Brian Tyree Henry as Paper Boi. A chunk of the season goes down in Europe, which adds several new shades for the show’s special brand of cultural critique, and it’ll be sad to see this show go, but surely, the big finale will eventually hit the right notes of scathing and surreal.

2. Moon Knight (Disney+ series)

Oscar Isaac and Ethan Hawke are now in the MCU, baby. If you can get past the questionable accent work here and enjoy the snarky Egyptian god, everything else falls into place. Oscar is putting in some immensely difficult work here, going through all the mental and emotional paces of a character plagued with dissociative identity disorder. He’s also able to get physical, too, and his hero (notably) becomes an Avenger in the comics. Hopefully, he’ll link up with them in the movies. Fingers crossed.

1. Better Call Saul (AMC series on Netflix)

Season 6’s storm clouds are upon us, so prepare yourself for all of the ensuing Jimmy/Gene/Saul madness by heading to Netflix to binge the most recent installment. Yes, everyone seems to be very worried about Kim Wexler, and the show will soon collide with the Breaking Bad timeline, so there’s a lot of loose ends to tie up in the meantime. Also, there’s a incredible cameo in the works, so sit tight, Cinnabon watchers.

By now, everyone is quite familiar with the scramble that Coachella organizers were facing when Kanye West opted to pull out of his headlining performance at the festival. After what can only be described as an extremely troubling reaction to his ex-wife, Kim Kardashian, and her new relationship with Pete Davidson, the rapper finally stopped his incessant attacks on the pair, and is now reportedly taking so much needed time off to get himself right. For that, we all applaud him. But the Yeezy-sided gap in the lineup was not going to fill itself, and eventually, organizers nailed down The Weeknd to take on the role.

Abel Tesfaye is the perfect man for the job, but Doja Cat’s performance right before his headlining set had plenty of fans asking… why didn’t just she just take the final slot? Not only did Doja come on point, with multiple outfit changes, tons of incredible choreography, and even a collaboration with Taco Bell (might this be the one she warned us about?), but she also brought out fellow female rapper Rico Nasty to perform their early joint track “Tia Tamera.” And that song, mind you, is an ode to Doja’s own set of twins. Girl power, right? Check out footage of the pair performing together below.

The Phoenix Suns looked like a team that wanted to make a statement in the first half, as the reigning West champs and this year’s best team in the NBA smothered the Pelicans in the first half, leading by as many as 23 and taking a 19-point advantage into the halftime break.

Like their Eastern Conference 8-seed counterparts, the Pelicans looked gassed in the first half having come out of the play-in from the 9-seed, as heavy legs were not helpful when dealing with the immense pressure applied on the defensive end by the Suns. The result was a 34-point first half and it looked for all the world like a blowout was imminent. However, New Orleans found its second wind in the third quarter and outscored its entire first half total with 37 points to pull to within eight of Phoenix, as the Pelicans pounded the offensive glass to get second chance opportunities and turned into the aggressors after struggling with the Suns physicality and pace early on.

However, as has been the case all season, the fourth quarter was the Suns time to shine, and Chris Paul absolutely took the game over, scoring 17 of the Suns first 20 points of the quarter, dominating in every possible facet to push the Suns back in front by as many as 16 after New Orleans cut the lead to six.

It was a vintage Paul performance, and despite the best efforts of CJ McCollum to answer with some big buckets of his own, New Orleans just didn’t have the horsepower to close the gap again on a Suns team that remains undefeated when leading after three quarters. Paul finished the game with 30 points, 10 assists, and seven rebounds, singlehandedly stopping New Orleans’ second half run. Deandre Ayton was big, particularly in the first half, with 21 points and nine rebounds, while Devin Booker had 25 points and eight rebounds also doing much of his damage in the Suns dominant start.

The Pelicans deserve credit for their fight down the stretch, as it would’ve been easy to fold at halftime, as McCollum led the way with 25 points, eight rebounds, and six assists, while Brandon Ingram and Jonas Valanciunas each chipped in 18. There will be some positive takeaways for New Orleans from that second half run, particularly as they had some success playing small-ball, but the fourth quarter showed why they have such an uphill battle in knocking off this Suns team, as Phoenix simply is a monster in the final period because of how well they execute thanks to the steady hand of the Point God.

When the Milwaukee Bucks took a 32-16 lead late in the first quarter on Sunday night, it looked for all the world like the reigning champs were going to run the Chicago Bulls out of the building in the first game of their title defense. However, the Bulls showed the grit and resiliency that got them to the playoffs this year despite a bevy of injuries, and clawed their way all the way back into the game, even taking the lead on a few occasions in the second half, dragging the Bucks into the mud in what was a throwback to early 2000’s Eastern Conference playoff basketball.

Ultimately, Giannis Antetokounmpo and the champs were too much to handle for Chicago, with the two-time MVP leading the way with 27 points and 16 rebounds on the way to an ugly 93-86 win — but the Bucks will happily tell you they all count the same.

Early on, the Bucks size was overwhelming the Bulls, as Giannis and Brook Lopez got loose to start, pouring it on in a 9-0 run to start and eventually taking a 16-point advantage in the first quarter.

However, to the Bulls credit, they weathered the early storm and kept themselves attached in the first half, trailing by just eight at the break thanks to some big shots by Zach LaVine.

Nikola Vucevic also stepped up to give them a much needed interior presence against Milwaukee’s bigs, scoring 24 points and pulling down 17 rebounds on the night.

In the third quarter, the Bulls had their best spurt of the game, going on a 13-0 run to erase the Bucks’ lead and take a three-point advantage of their own on a Coby White three, as he gave them a jolt with 12 points off the bench.

From that point, the two teams would trade blows and leads, and neither offense could really get going in the fourth quarter, making for some real tension down the stretch. Giannis found himself in foul trouble, picking up his fifth in the fourth quarter and for a brief stretch in the closing minutes, he was on the bench when Mike Budenholzer made the bizarre decision to try and go offense-defense with his star to keep him from fouling out, but ended up trapping him on the bench during an important stretch — but got away with it.

The championship experience of the Bucks showed itself in their late game composure, as Jrue Holiday and Lopez each had some big shots and finishes to push Milwaukee to a fairly comfortable lead down the stretch.

Lopez finished the night with 18 points and five boards, once again showing his value to this Bucks team on both ends, while Holiday and Khris Middleton mostly struggled with their shot, combining for 25 points on 10-of-29 shooting. Still, they did enough to get the win, particularly on the defensive end where they kept the Bulls’ stars from having consistent success, as LaVine and DeMar DeRozan each had 18 points but needed 44 combined shots to get there.

The Bulls will try to take some positives away from the way they battled and how they held up defensively against the Bucks, but they’ll need LaVine and DeRozan to find a way to get loose if they’re going to be able to make this a series going back to Chicago.