Back in July, San Diego Comic Con bowed to so-so reviews and lackluster attendance, even though everything was available to anyone with an internet connection. One reason for the disappointment? It was lacking any Warner Bros. content. As it happens, the studio was saving everything for its own virtual con, namely this weekend’s DC Fandome. And the first thing out of the gate was a brand spanking new trailer for Wonder Woman 1984.
The sequel jumps from World War I to the Reagan era, pitting Gal Gadot’s Diana Prince against two foes: a media mogul played by Pedro Pascal and a nerdy archeologist played by Kristen Wiig. The former is reportedly modeled after Donald Trump while the latter eventually turns into Cheetah, a villain who first appeared in comics back in 1943.
Chris Pine’s Steve Trevor is also back, having apparently not died — or whatever! We’ll find out — in the 2017 original. While there’s plenty of fighting and golden lassoing and even a few glimpses of Wiig in her supervillain digs in, the trailer also finds room for Steve to try on some choice ’80s fashions.
DC Fandome will run all day Saturday, with panels on James Gunn’s The Suicide Squad, Aquaman, Shazam!, and of course that much-hyped “Snyder Cut” of Justice League.
You can watch the trailer for Wonder Woman 1984, which (allegedly) hits theaters on October 2, above.
Toronto Raptors head coach Nick Nurse is the 2019-20 NBA Coach of the Year, the league announced on Saturday. The second-year head coach won the award for the first time in his career, becoming the first coach to be selected as Coach of the Year in both the NBA and NBA G League. Nurse also becomes the third Toronto coach in history to win the honor, following Sam Mitchell in 2007 and Dwane Casey in 2018.
Nick Nurse’s high school coach Wayne Chandlee joins TNT to announce him as the 2019-20 NBA Coach of the Year. pic.twitter.com/07he51qX2C
On Saturday, Nurse’s high school basketball coach, Wayne Chandlee, appeared on TNT to personally give him the news. Nurse joined the Inside the NBA crew for an interview, but was surprised by the cameo and the news.
“Thanks a lot, man,” Nurse told the TNT crew after they showed Chandlee’s video. “That’s really cool. Coach Chandlee’s a great man. A great man, a great coach. Had him come to training camp just about every year for as long as I’ve been coaching back in in the States so it kind of all started with him. So that’s really cool that he got to come on here today.”
According to the voting results, the Toronto coach received 90 first place votes. Milwaukee Bucks coach Mike Budenholzer and the Oklahoma City Thunder’s Billy Donovan rounded out the top three, with five and four first place votes, respectively.
One year after leading the Raptors to their first-ever championship, Nurse has helped the team continue to succeed this year — despite the loss of Finals MVP Kawhi Leonard to the Los Angeles Clippers in the offseason. This year, Toronto finished the regular season in 2nd place in the Eastern Conference with a 53-19 overall record. Early this year, Nurse led the Raptors to a franchise-record 15-game winning streak that culminated on Feb. 10.
Since arriving in the bubble at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida, the Raptors have impressed and are currently leading the Brooklyn Nets 3-0 in the first round of the playoffs.
Sia has dropped her third release of the year, “Riding On My Bike,” which will appear on At Home With The Kids, a compilation album set to arrive on August 28. Comprised of both original and classic tracks, the album will see its proceeds going to the charity Save the Children. The song was once rumored to appear on Sia’s unreleased Ice Cream album, a nursery rhymes project composed by her and Larry Golding in the mid-2000s.
Sia’s new single arrives after the pop singer stopped by The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon to deliver an at-home performance of “Together” with Maddie Ziegler back in June. This was the second time this year she performed a new song for fans via livestream, the first being the radiant debut of her “Saved My Life” single, which arrived during her livestream performance on Americares’ COVID Is No Joke benefit show in May. Sia also revealed that she has two albums “waiting to go,” which will arrive after the release of her upcoming film Music.
The upcoming At Home With The Kids compilation album will have 23 songs and include guest appearances from notable names such as Tove Lo, Chromeo, Portugal. The Man, and Midland.
Listen to “Riding On My Bike” above and check out the At Home With The Kids tracklist below.
01. Portugal. The Man –- “Tomorrow”
02. Sia -– “Riding On My Bike”
03. Royal & the Serpent -– “The ABC Song”
04. Shelley FKA DRAM -– “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star”
05. Chromeo -– “Georgy Porgy”
06. Kyle -– “Pickle”
07. Anderson East -– “I Ain’t No Zebra I’m a Bumblebee”
08. Gnash –- “Night Night”
09. Christina Perri — “It’s a Small World”
10. Ema Jo Cobb -– “Hawaii”
11. Midland –- “Farmer John”
12. Ben Abraham -– “Eat Your Food”
13. Charlotte Cardin -– “Hush Little Baby”
14. Charlotte Lawrence -– “Lavender’s Blue”
15. IV Jay –- “Rock A Bye Baby”
16. Matt Maeson -– “Giants”
17 Chloe Moriondo –- “Oh My Darling Clementine”
18 A/J from Saint Motel -– “Big Ol World”
19 A Thousand Horses – “The Golden Rule”
20. Aaron Raitiere -– “If You Love Yo Mama”
21. The Knocks -– “Star Design”
22. Tove Lo –- “Buzz Buzz Hop Hop”
23. Winona Oak -– “Who Can Sail”
At Home With The Kids is out 08/28 via Atlantic. Pre-order it here.
Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
As you may have noticed, the first John Wick had a lot of kills — about 80, to be semi-exact. (And we’re just talking about the first one.) But it wasn’t always that way. In a new interview with ComicBook.com, one of the initial entry’s directors, Chad Stahelski, says that when he first read the screenplay for the film that incidentally wasn’t always called John Wick, the number of deaths was way low. Way, way, way low.
“It was much more contained. I think only three people died in the original script, two were in a car crash. It was very, very minimal, and it was slightly different,” Stahelski told the publication. That obviously changed. “I’d always had this idea about Greek mythology and how to tell more a fablestic kind of story, make a surreal action movie so it wasn’t so grounded and gray, just something different.”
Can you imagine a John Wick in which he doesn’t shoot roughly 20 people in the head in the span of a minute? Or one where the tragic murder of his unimaginably cute puppy doesn’t lead him into a murderous rage? Luckily Stahelski and uncredited co-director David Leitch made sure you never have to see that John Wick. The kills were even upped in the sequels. ComicBook.com estimates that John Wick 2 boasts 128 deaths while the threequel slims that down to a comparatively more modest 94. Perhaps in some alternate universe people are watching a much more artful and humane version of the bloodbath we all know and love.
Since we just covered the best whiskeys for beer fans, we figured it was time to flip that script and cover the best beers for whiskey fans. It was easy to split the whiskeys for beer lovers into two groups: Whiskeys that were aged in beer barrels and whiskeys that simply pair well with a pint of beer. This exercise breaks down similarly. There are great lagers, pilsners, and other lighter beers that pair well with a glass of whiskey. Then there are all the beers that are aged in whiskey barrels.
To help us figure out which ones you should drink, we asked a handful of bartenders for their input. Perhaps unsurprisingly the barrel-aged stout was a clear favorite amongst the whiskey fans. While Goose Island Bourbon County was the first. Still, there’s so much more beer out there for the whiskey lover.
“Irish, Canadian, and American whiskeys all have very distinct, yet very different flavor profiles,” Anthony Aviles, the general manager of Jack Dusty in Sarasota, Florida, tells us. So which bottle you choose is absolutely dependent on the type of whiskey drinker you are. Luckily, there are countless barrel-aged beers, barley wines, and even brown ales perfect for any whiskey palate. Here’s what the bartenders picked.
This is the perspective beer for any whiskey fan who loves a great Manhattan. It’s an imperial stout aged in both Bourbon and cherry bitters barrels. It’s smooth, rich, and nuanced. Careful though, it registers at 11.2 percent ABV and 28 IBU. This is a whopper of a libation.
Stouts, barley wines, and quads are a great style for whiskey fans. Bold, pronounced flavor, sweet, boozy, and sometimes barrel-aged. You can’t go wrong with any stout from Wakefield. Hill Farmstead Aaron is hands down the best barley wine out there. There are lots of great Trappist brewed quads out there. The Godfathers of them all is Westvletern 12, Chimay Blue, and Rochefort 10.
Oskar Blues Ten Fidy
Meredith Williams, bartender-at-large in Philadelphia
Oskar Blue Ten Fidy is the best beer for whiskey fans. This bourbon barrel-aged imperial stout is bursting with rich, caramel notes and robust flavors.
Founder’s “KBS” bourbon barrel-aged stout from Grand Rapids, Michigan is a big imperial stout brewed with a massive amount of coffee and chocolate and then bourbon barrel-aged to perfection. If whiskey and stout had a kid, this would be it.
Kentucky Bourbon Barrel Ale
Tommy Ergle, bar manager at Dr. BBQ in St. Petersburg, Florida
Without a doubt, Kentucky Bourbon Barrel Ale. It is a Kentucky-born Irish red ale that has been aged for six weeks in freshly-decanted bourbon barrels. It’s an incredible sipping beer that gives you the same feel (and tasting notes) of a well-crafted bourbon.
Allagash Curieux is my recommendation. It’s got this great vanilla flavor with light citrus and it’s aged in used whiskey barrels. So, it adopts some of those residual flavors. It’s a strong beer so if you decide to take that ride, remember to get a ride later.
Anderson Valley Bourbon Barrel Stout
Jerry Shaffer, food and beverage manager at Embassy Suites Napa in Napa, California
Bourbon Barrel Stout from Anderson Valley because it’s aged in bourbon barrels. It has rich chocolate, roasted barley, and a beautiful mahogany head.
Boulevard Bourbon Barrel Quad is aged in used wood that used to hold whiskey. They add cherries during aging, which makes the resulting beer taste a little bit like a Manhattan. Pay attention and share; the ABV is north of eleven percent, which can be troublesome because it’s delicious.
Something with a big body and flavor profile is what I enjoy pairing with my whiskey, especially later in the day. One of my favorites right now is Cigar City White Oak Jai Alai IPA. It’s both local and robust enough for pairing with a straight pour.
Harviestoun Ola dubh Special Reserve
Damian Langarica, head bartender at a.bar in Philadelphia
This definitely is a very unique beer and one of my all-time favorite beers. Ola dubh Special Reserve from Harviestoun Brewery in Scotland is an imperial porter aged in scotch barrels. I believe they produce four different types (a 12 year, 16 year, 18 year, and 21 year). They can be a little bit pricey but are totally worth it.
I love any of Bearded Iris’ darker beers like an imperial or milk stout with a whiskey. I prefer Triple Ripple. The dark bitter notes in the beer pairs perfectly with oaky spice in whiskey.
Tough question, but I believe Founders Brewing Barrel-Aged Underground Mountain Brown is the answer. The beer spends a year in oak casks soaking up all of the flavors of the barrel. This imperial brown ale is a mouthful of rich coffee notes.
When Bring It On landed in theaters 20 years ago, it ushered in a different kind of teen comedy. Gone were the John Hughes days of pining after men in red sports cars and forging fragile friendships from days in detention. Instead, high school had become a satirical battlefield where some of the most unfair, outdated social customs were thrown in the trenches, stuffed with grenades, and blown up for the world to view their uglier entrails. Clueless pioneered the art form, and Bring It On perfected it, upending tropes and making cheerleaders (leaders of the social caste at that age) the underdogs. These were people that you rooted for, laughed at, and wanted to be like — not because they were pretty and popular, but because they were strong, driven, and could stick a front handspring step-out round-off back handspring step-out round-off back handspring round-off full twisting layout.
Ranking the cheers of Bring It On is pointless — they’re all flawless — but for the film’s anniversary, we decided to dive into the movie’s opening dream sequence. It’s a routine that sets the film’s very high bar. A masterclass in storytelling. A risk-taking introduction to a film no one believed we’d be talking about decades later. A GIF-able empowerment anthem?
Here’s how Bring It On’s cheeky opening number got made.
The Pitch
Universal
For writer Jessica Bendinger, who’d spent time covering the late ’80s hip-hop scene in New York for Spin Magazine, the genesis of Bring It On was a childhood spent watching ESPN cheerleading competitions on her aunt’s couch and an abiding love for Public Enemy’s Yo! Bum Rush the Show. But getting a studio to sign onto a teenage satire centered on cheerleaders took some convincing. Like, years of convincing. The project languished at Universal for years before getting a pick-up thanks to the interest of names like Tom Hanks and Silence of the Lambs director Jonathan Demme. But that didn’t mean that anyone had high hopes for how the movie would turn out.
Jessica Bendinger (writer): We were in pre-production before we had a director. That’s how little confidence and attention was being paid to the movie.
Peyton Reed (director): Yeah. I got sent the script by my agent. It was called Cheer Fever at the time. I had been looking for a script to do my first feature, and I really loved the idea of doing a high-school movie. I really didn’t know that much about competitive cheerleading, and Jessica had written this thing that just painted such a vivid portrait of that world and that subculture. It was funny, and it was extremely visual, and it was something that I’d never seen in a movie before, and those things all appealed to me.
Bendinger: Thank goodness.
Reed: That whole first three pages, that was the opening cheer, which I think remained almost verbatim within that first draft. I don’t think we changed it much at all. It just grabbed you from the beginning, and it confronted your preconceived notions about cheerleaders, and it introduced all these characters, and it was just funny, and I was like, “Wow. This is different. I haven’t seen this in a movie, and as a movie-goer, this is something I want to see.” I felt like you could really surprise people.
It was only after I read the script and eventually signed on to do the movie that I found out that Jessica had been trying to get this made for a long time. You sent it out to a ton of people, right?
Bendinger: I had 28 pitch meetings and 27 “No”s. Late summer of 1996, in an old Saab with no air conditioning. I drove around studio to studio trying to get somebody to buy it, and I’d pretty much given up by the time I finally ended up at Beacon [the company that would eventually produce the film].
Reed: I think it’s one of those things [where] studios always say they’re looking for something new and different, but the thing that scares them the most is something new and different. Really, Jessica’s perseverance got the thing made.
Welcome To Cheer Camp
Universal
The cast of Bring It On was comprised of a group of largely unknown actors. Kirsten Dunst was brought on as the lead with Gabrielle Union playing her rival and Eliza Dushku as the lovable outsider who introduces audiences to this world of camp and chaos. But the rest of the lineup was untested and unprepared for the physicality of pulling off competition-level routines, so the producers sent them to cheer camp.
Lindsay Sloane (Big Red): When this was being cast, there was another cheerleading movie called Sugar and Spice that was being cast at the same time. It was weird because it was like rival cheerleading films, but being a girl in that age group in L.A. trying to get a job, it just felt like a madhouse, people rushing to try to get into one of these movies.
Nicole Bilderback (Whitney): Oh, that’s right. I believe I [auditioned for] that.
Sloane: When I got cast as Big Red, I remember reading the script and being like, “Oh my God, I’m horrible.” But it’s also why I loved playing this part because I got to be unapologetically who I was and unabashedly sexy and confident. The irony is I literally thought I was getting fired every day from this movie. The fact that I was playing someone that was so badass was such a contradiction to what was happening in my inner soul because I showed up, and there was actual cheer camp to learn these cheers. I showed up a week into all of the girls already being at cheer camp. I just assumed we were all actors that just lied and said we knew how to dance and cheer to get a job.
Bilderback: I was actually a cheerleader when I was younger. I remember I went in and I read for the casting director and for Peyton. We had our slides and we basically just had to perform our scenes. The call back of course was in front of literally all the studio executives and the producers and it’s a huge intimidating deal. We had to not only do the scenes with our lines but then we had to choreograph a two-minute cheer. If I remember correctly, it was pretty badass. I choreographed a cheer dance to “Micky,” which is at the end of the movie. That was not planned.
Sloane: I think in the audition maybe I did a split and maybe I did a cartwheel, but they didn’t really do a thorough investigation of who has the ability and who doesn’t. So I walked into this cheer camp and they had mixed our actors with professional cheerleaders and they had already learned one major cheer by the time I got there, and I walked into the gym and saw the cheer and was like, “Oh shit, I’m toast. They are going to so quickly see that I do not know what I’m doing.” So the entire shoot up until the very last day, as a running joke, I was like, “So do I still have a job?”
Anne Fletcher (Choreographer): She’s so wrong. She was so perfect. I don’t even know what she’s talking about.
Sloane: I showed up, I was like, “Oh, this is real. There are people throwing actors up in the air.” I mean, I wasn’t in any of the stunts, so I got saved that way. There was one girl, I don’t know if anyone has talked about it. I don’t remember her name, but I also wouldn’t say it if I remembered it, but someone did get fired after the first week of dance practice.
Fletcher: I was an assistant choreographer and dancer for years with Adam Shankman. So it was actually my first movie on my own. It just was completely out of my wheelhouse. We were in San Diego when we shot this. We had a handful of younger kids who were the base of both teams — this is what they do is competition cheerleading, and then I would plug in our actors. The cheerleaders themselves, they’re accustomed to that every day. But for the actors, they don’t know anything about this. So it was a lot of fun being with them and watching them fall and figure it.
Bilderback: It was Monday through Friday, every day. We’d wake up early, we’d get picked up, and then we would head to a gym that is specifically for cheerleaders. We started with learning all the dance routines, and then of course we had to train and learn specific stunts before actually putting all the routines together. While we’re doing it mind you, we’re having to learn the lines for the film. It was just full-on. Of course, we’re also all hanging out afterward and drinking, because we’re young and it was like a college experience. So when you’re young and you’re drinking, no matter how late we’re all up the night before, we were still able to get up early in the morning and still function and learn everything. It was a ton of hard work.
Sloane: We thought, “It’s going straight to video so let’s have the time of our lives.”
(Almost) Getting Cut
Universal
The film’s opening cheer sequence plays on the “just a dream trope” but its tongue-in-cheek tone sets up the film in a very singular way. Bendinger and Reed both believed that was the perfect way to kick off the movie, but they faced pushback from studio execs.
Bendinger: Jon Shestack, God bless him, did ask about cutting it. And I said, “Are you fucking kidding me?” First of all, people either love or hate cheerleaders. There’s no middle ground. You have to let them know we’re in on the joke. You’ve gotta talk about performative femininity and internalized misogyny. Obviously, I couldn’t say that back then, but you’re addressing all this stuff that we can now speak about. There were some notes about the lingo from the not-so-cool kids who didn’t get it.
Reed: For me, that opening does three things right off the bat. It’s some of the most efficient screenwriting I’ve read because you are introducing a handful of characters right off the bat, and then secondly, it confronts the audience’s preconceived notions about cheerleaders in a really funny way, and three, it just sort of announces the energy of the movie. It comes at you from the very beginning. It has the energy of a cheerleader. It’s like the movie itself is a cheerleader. That’s what grabbed me from the beginning.
Fletcher: It sets up the camp.
Sloane: Most teen movies were set up the exact same way. I felt like this instantly went into that dynamic. I also think that everyone’s little shout out was a nice little moment, like a glimpse at who they’re going to be in the film. Then you do go into a trope high school movie moment where she’s having the dream that she’s naked, but it just felt representative of much larger stakes. This is not just about a girl who wants to be liked and wants to be popular. This is a girl who wants to be very good at the thing she’s committed a huge chunk of her life to, and she’s strong, and she’s fit, and she wants to succeed. I loved the messaging of it.
Bendinger: I fought for that. The producer of a giant flop, I will not shame him and name the movie, but I will say this. He said to me, “Girls don’t go to movies.”
Reed: That’s one of the most wrong-headed comments I’ve ever heard about the movie business. It’s just wrong.
Bendinger: Thankfully, I didn’t listen to him.
Finding A Comedic Rhythm
Universal
Shooting the opening scene took the cast a full day filled with multiple takes in a crammed auditorium with 100 extras looking on. In the script, Bendinger described the vibe as Clueless meets Strictly Ballroom, but it was up to Fletcher and Reed to interpret the dance, and the foundational tone for the film, in a two-minute frenzy of short skirts, sexual innuendos, and hilariously literal dance moves.
Fletcher: The way Jessica wrote the words and the way the song was orchestrated, it just spoke to me that it had to be literal choreography. There’s obviously cheerleading-esque choreography in the opening number, but If you watch it, it’s literal. The girls are doing the movements of the words, because I’m like, “That’s the only way I can see this being hilarious. It’s so stupid.”
Sloane: I remember all of us, we made up those [quick character intros] on the day. It was like, “What do you want your little move to be?” and us trying to think of a move that represented who we were.
Fletcher: We worked together. Actors will know their characters way more than any even more than the director because that’s their only job. So I always go to them and ask “Do you have an idea? Do you want to try something? Let’s talk about that.”
Bilderback: I remember thinking, “It’d be kind of funny to slap my ass.” I was kidding. I was joking, but then [Anne] was like, “Actually, okay, so show me what you were thinking.” Then Anne came up with the part that I do at the very end with my hands — my fingers sliding across each other.
Reed: I think the opening cheer might have been the first routine that we shot. I’m sure we had like a day. It was very fast.
Fletcher: Trust me. I’ve had directors ask me how I should shoot something as a choreographer, and there’s no shame about that. To shoot dance, it’s a different thing. Peyton never asked me. Peyton is so rock solid. I tried to design it in a way that they could shoot it and have fun shooting it, like the crazy lines, the separations, the overhead shots, the peeling apart of the line. Certain things, I just wanted to make sure that Peyton had fun.
Bendinger: I talked about Esther Williams, which Esther Williams implies overheads because it was all water shots and synchronized swimming. Busby-Berkeley-esque. All that stuff introducing the Toros, the single shots of introducing all the different cheerleaders. That was all in the script. You could feel the energy of it from the page, but he totally met the opportunity and rose to the challenge.
Reed: And that energy was fun. I really did genuinely feel like a camp counselor on that movie, because everybody got along great, but they’re kids. They were teenagers.
Sloane: I remember being in the school gym all day long for that one and having really long breaks, and then you have to reboot and do it all over again.
Bilderback: It’s actually really hard because you’re having to do it over and over again. It is a lot of technicalities that I don’t think people think about.
Sloane: I think we maybe did it for 100 people at one point. We didn’t get the energy of really doing it for a full gymnasium or people. You’re wanting the 100 people to really fill the space and make it still feel like it’s so many but it’s just like, you get one slow clap at the end of it. But we were so enthusiastic that we clapped for each other.
The Legacy
Universal
The film’s sharp takedown of everything from sexism and high-school social hierarchies to cultural appropriation is finally starting to be appreciated, 20 years later. The cast and crew knew they’d made something special once filming was done, but the reaction to the film, and its lasting power was something that no one expected.
Reed: We did do some screenings early on for cheerleaders. I remember it because a couple of our actors put on disguises and snuck into that test screening so they could see the movie before everybody else.
Sloane: I snuck into a test screening because it was in Chatsworth, which is where I grew up and I was just like, “It’s a sign. I have to be there.” So I put on a wig and a baseball hat because I knew that if Peyton saw me, he’d be like, “Sloane, get out of here.” I remember sitting in the front row because it was the only seat that was left, and then all of a sudden this movie starts and it is larger than life and it blew my mind. Everything worked. It was so funny. It was so inspiring.
Reed: I remember going around opening night and driving around the various theaters in Los Angeles all over town and just being thrilled that anybody had shown up.
Bilderback: [At first] we were like, “Okay, we’re doing a cheerleading movie.” But we didn’t care because we knew it was a big studio, we knew that the producers involved were huge. Of course, we’ll do it because we’re getting paid, and we’re actors, and this is what we do. But we had no idea that it was going to be as successful as it was. And then when it was, all of a sudden, we’re like, “Hell yeah, we did a cheerleading movie!”
Sloane: I don’t think that I had the wherewithal in my youth to realize that we were a part of a feminist film and that the message was so inspiring. I love this message of this movie. I was just listening to the words in the opening song and how empowering those words are, “Hate us because we’re beautiful, well we don’t like you either.” We’re not sorry. We’re hot, and we’re good. It’s become like an anthem that people play to lift them up and give them the confidence that they need in life.
Bendinger: I think we were talking about [a lot of] things — whether it’s cultural appropriation or socioeconomic inequality or becoming a better person, going on the journey of being from being shamed and humbled to trying to make something right and still making more mistakes. Growth is not perfect. We learn our moral compass through sometimes being a few degrees off, and to me, I’m very proud that that is there. I hope it’s a powerful proxy for people. It’s not about being perfect, but it’s about engaging in the journey in a meaningful way and being willing to make those mistakes. That’s the heart of the movie that touches me that I’m glad that’s so intact.
‘Bring It On’ celebrates its 20th anniversary on August 22, 2020.
There was a lot of chatter about the Blazers potentially being a nightmare first-round matchup for the Lakers, a narrative that gained traction after a stunning Game 1 win for Portland. But after a blowout victory for the Lakers in Game 2, some of that talk may have been inflated. The real marquee matchup in the opening round might just be between the Clippers and the Mavs.
It’d been a dogfight through the first two contests, with Kawhi Leonard reminding us why he’s one of the best in the game and Luka Doncic quickly and emphatically establishing himself as a historic talent. Beyond the two superstar duos, both squads are loaded, and their respective supporting casts have made a major impact in the series.
But the Clippers seized control of the series on Friday night, taking Game 3, 130-122, behind a monster effort from Kawhi once again, as he finished with 36 points, nine rebounds, eight assists, and one monster flush.
Here’s what else we learned from Game 3 on Friday night.
Stop Me If You’ve Heard This One, But The Clippers Are DEEP
The Clippers led by 14 points at halftime, thanks in part to an 8-point outburst from Lou Williams off the bench in the second quarter and 18 first-half points from Kawhi, who shot 7-for-11 to start the game. But they also got eight points from Marcus Morris, nine points from Ivica Zubac, and eight points from Landry Shamet in the first half, including his vicious jam on Boban Marjanovic.
Shamet was finished, as he drained a buzzer-beater to end the third quarter and give the Clippers a 17-point lead heading into the final frame. He would finish with 18 points on the night.
You never know where it’s going to come from with the Clippers. In most cases, it’s coming from everywhere, all at once. They had seven total players in double-digit scoring, and Los Angeles was just too much on Friday night, on both ends of the court.
Luka Had A Rough One By His Lofty Standards
Luka made history in his first two playoff games, scoring 70 total points, besting Kareem Abdul-Jabbar for the second-highest mark for any player in their first two postseason outings, just behind George Mikan. But even before the injury that caused him to check out of the game early, he somewhat came crashing back to Earth on Friday night.
It was a tough start for Luka in this one, as he went 3-for-9 in the first quarter and 1-for-4 from three. He was also 1-for-5 from the free throw line to start. Credit, of course, goes the Clippers’ stingy defense for making life difficult on Luka and the rest of the Mavs.
But Doncic was getting it done in other ways, and before leaving the game with an injury in the fourth quarter, he posted a triple-double: 13 points, 10 rebounds, and 10 assists. Luka went down late in the third quarter with a leg injury and had to hop to locker room as he was unable to put any pressure on his ankle. He quickly returned and checked back into the game in the fourth quarter, but was visibly wincing, and mercifully exited the game for good after that. The Mavs are still awaiting the x-ray results.
Kristaps Porzingis (34 points, 13 rebounds) stepped up to help shoulder the load, as did Seth Curry, who had a career playoff high 22 points on 9-for-11 shooting and perfect 4-for-4 shooting from downtown.
George has had a nightmare start to the postseason. He finished the game with 11 points on 3-for-16 shooting and 1-for-8 from behind the arc. It’s third straight game that George has shot woefully from the field, and both he and the Clippers have to be wondering what exactly is going on. It’s not worth panicking over yet, but it’ll be something to keep an eye on as this series goes on.
Until then, Los Angeles will have to continue to rely on their considerable roster depth while George finds his shot. The Mavs will try to even the series when Game 4 tips off on Sunday at 3:30 p.m. ET on ABC.
Earlier this week, Travis Scott delivered great news to fans as the Houston native announced a new song, which his first solo release of the year, would arrive at the end of the week. Keep true to that promising, Travis has arrived with the new song, “The Plan.” The song is set to appear on the soundtrack to Christopher Nolan’s upcoming project Tenet and if Travis’ new track is any indication, the film won’t be short of excitement.
The song arrives after Travis’ GQ profile which is where Nolan first spoke of the rapper’s contribution to his upcoming film. “His voice became the final piece of a yearlong puzzle. His insights into the musical and narrative mechanism [composer] Ludwig Göransson and I were building were immediate, insightful, and profound.” The song also serves as arrives after Travis landed his third career No. 1 single with his Kid Cudi collaboration, “The Scotts.” The song joins Travis’ other chart-toppers, “Sicko Mode” and “Highest In The Room.”
After Chase B confirmed that Travis was working on his upcoming album, Travis revealed in his GQ profile that he and Kid Cudi are indeed working on a joint album. Despite being “hesitant to offer details,” he revealed that he and Cudi have “Some fireness!” in-store for fans on their upcoming album.
The Mavs and Clippers were back in action in a pivotal Game 3 on Friday night, with their first-round series knotted at 1-1, and each team looking to take the upper hand during a whirlwind opening week in the NBA playoffs in Orlando.
It was a tough battle through the first three quarters, with the Clippers mostly putting the clamps down on the Mavs, and Luka Doncic in particular, as he hasn’t been quite able to find his scoring rhythm in Game 3 or build on his phenomenal performances earlier in the series.
And there was a scary moment in the third quarter for Luka as he went down with an apparent leg injury after coming down awkward in the lane. Luka remained on the ground for several minutes, then headed straight for the locker room.
He did, however, return and was available to check back into the game after making his way back to the bench. But Doncic was visibly wincing as his hobbled up and down the court and eventually left the game for good in the fourth quarter. Eventually, he checked himself out of the game, and soon after, the Mavericks made it official and ruled him out for the remainder of the contest.
Luka bumps into Lou Williams, subs himself out and walks into the locker room in pain pic.twitter.com/l7HCiMaNoz
Master P says he’s been supporting his incarcerated brother C-Murder ever since he was sentenced to life in prison in 2009, and according to the rapper, that’s much more than others can say. Born Corey Miller, C-Murder’s incarceration has once again made headlines thanks to Kim Kardashian announcing she’s flexing her attorney skills to reopen open the rapper’s case. Others like Meek Mill have praised the movement, but Master P is skeptical about C-Murder’s newfound support.
Just last week, Master P thanked Kim K for supporting his brother and reminded everyone that overturning his case is “not gonna be easy.” But Master P has now backtracked on his gratitude after stumbling upon C-Murder’s recently-created Instagram account. In a lengthy message posted to his social media, Master P got real about everything he’s done for C-Murder and said he hasn’t gotten any appreciation in return. “You gotta have a heart for people that really helped you. Monica just got divorced last year, so I’m thinking like, that’s your ride or die?” P said, referring to C-Murder’s ex-girlfriend who originally connected Kim K to the case.
Master P went on to say he’s reached his limits with offering financial support to C-Murder. “The ATM, I’m pulling the plug off. Because people that’s ungrateful and don’t appreciate me, even my own family members — they forget. I’m an ATM, I get it. That’s what I am. And now I’m a square because I’m not in the hood? I’m only not in the hood because I did the right thing and I changed.”
Meek Mill is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
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