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Like father, like son.

Days after Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, who played Jaime Lannister on HBO’s Game of Thrones, considered donating to a petition to remake the polarizing final season, his on-screen dad also weighed in. Charles Dance told Pop Culture that he continued watching Thrones after his character, patriarch Tywin, was “killed off in the lavatory, because I thought, it’s a fantastic television show, you know? I was very lucky to be part of it… There were storylines [where] I wanted to know what was going to happen to these people!” He wasn’t aware of the fan petition to “remake Game of Thrones Season 8 with competent writers (1.9 million signatures!), but now he is, and agrees with the sentiment:

“I know that the finale satisfied a lot of people. It also disappointed a lot of people, and I’m afraid I am in the latter camp… If there was a petition, I would sign it.”

Now, before you say “shots fired at showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss,” Dance added, “I think David and Dan raised the bar when it came to television screenplay writing. They are phenomenal. And for the whole thing to end up as a committee, I just thought, ‘Hmm, no.’ I would say I was somewhat underwhelmed.” I’m not sure what Dance is getting at there — Benioff and Weiss were credited as the sole writers for four of the six episodes in season eight, and the other two writers, Dave Hill and Bryan Cogman, had been working on the show for years — but “underwhelmed” is an apt word to use. Game of Thrones season eight wasn’t objectively terrible, especially compared to other final seasons of prestige shows, but it was disappointing. That being said, please don’t support the season eight remake. I beg of you. That’s what the prequel is for.

(Via Pop Culture)

Travis Scott and Kid Cudi united as The Scotts earlier this year for a self-titled single, and the endeavor was a success: “The Scotts” reached No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart (the first chart-topper for Cudi). It turns out the two made more than one song together, as Scott says in a new GQ profile that he and Cudi have a collaborative album on the way.

The feature notes that Scott is “hesitant to offer details” about potential upcoming work with Cudi, but he did confirm that the two are working on a joint album. It seems they’ve made strong progress, too: When asked “what he and Cudi have in store for the project,” Scott said, “Man, a lot. Some fireness!”

The piece also describes Scott playing one of the new songs: “He hits play on one of the tracks. It doesn’t have a title yet, but it’s the craziest thing he’s played for me so far. ‘I know where I’m going / I know when it’s time,’ Cudi hauntingly croons over a smooth beat. Scott is doing a two-step in front of the soundboard before the beat morphs from a bouncy summer groove to a menacing riot that sends him thrashing about.”

Elsewhere, the story addresses a piece of music he wrote for Christopher Nolan’s upcoming film Tenet, and the director described Scott’s contributions to the movie as essential, saying, “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.”

Read the full feature here.

Jake Paul is in some “trouble,” as Joe Rogan has heard, and he expressed as much on a recent podcast episode of the Joe Rogan Experience. That level of interest is about as far as it goes for Rogan, but his guest, comedian Tim Dillon, took the ball and ran with it. What results pretty much conveys Rogan’s state of mind as he moves from L.A. to Austin, Texas. In short, he’s happy to get away from the Hollywood scene, and he’s not exactly obsessed with discussing Paul, but he’ll go along for the ride.

To recap a little bit on the Jake Paul situation, the YouTuber recently saw his Calabasas mansion raided by the FBI shortly after local authorities in Scotsdale, Arizona, dropped charges against him in connection with a May “looting” incident at a mall. The feds ended up seizing weapons from Paul’s home, which pointed toward what the bureau later confirmed was an investigation into “allegations of criminal acts” related to Arizona events. It’s not looking fantastic for Paul if local authorities are working in conjunction with the feds, but he didn’t seem too concerned while brushing off the matter before allegedly holding a boxing match at his home.

For Dillon and Rogan, it’s all looking a lot like an L.A. thing (even though the mall incident took place in Arizona). “Was it an arsenal thing or because he was stealing from the mall?” Rogan asked of the FBI raid. In response, Dillon (jokingly) suggested that Paul should get “more weapons” and even some “Anthrax.” Dillon then reasoned, “When L.A. falls, these are the only f*cks that are gonna be able to do anything.”

To which Rogan responded, “It’s not a bad idea.” From there, Dillon and Rogan both admitted that they feel out of place in L.A., and one can’t really blame them, even if jokes about Anthrax probably aren’t the wisest idea.

Watch the relevant clip between Rogan and Dillon below.

Oftentimes, artists release multiple editions of their albums. In the case of Taylor Swift’s Folklore, she dropped a deluxe, physical-only edition of the release, and it features a bonus track, “The Lakes.” In the near-month since the album came out, that song has not been available on streaming platforms, since, again, it was only available on the physical release of the album. Now, though, Swift has made the deluxe edition of Folklore available for streaming, so now fans don’t need to dig out their CDs or vinyl records to hear “The Lakes.”

Swift also shared a lyric video for the song, and it’s a simple visual, showing just a looping, slowly panning shot of flowers and brush as the words are displayed on the bottom-right of the screen.

Aaron Dessner previously said of the track (one of the handful on Folklore that Jack Antonoff produced/co-wrote instead of him), “That’s a Jack song. It’s a beautiful kind of garden, or like you’re lost in a beautiful garden. There’s a kind of Greek poetry to it. Tragic poetry, I guess.”

The song arrives shortly after Swift shared an Easter egg-revealing video for “Cardigan.”

Listen to “The Lakes” above, and read our review of Folklore here.

President Donald Trump said on Monday that he plans to pardon a “very, very important person” today, leading to much speculation about who those VVIP (not as catchy as MVP, tbh) could be. Did I say “much speculation”? I meant, “Everyone thinks it’s the same person.” We know it’s not National Security advisor Michael Flynn and whistleblower Edward Snowden, as Trump personally ruled them out, and his previous pardons include far-right stooge Dinesh D’Souza and former-United States Army First Lieutenant Michael Behenna, who was convicted of war crimes. So, who could it be?

If you finally (blissfully) forgot about Tiger King, I’m sorry.

Back in April, Trump was asked whether he would pardon Joe Exotic, the Tiger King subject who is serving a 22-year sentence in prison for “various crimes of animal abuse and attempted murder for hire.” Trump replied, “I don’t know. I know nothing about it. He has 22 years for what? What did he do?” It’s the most honest thing he’s said at president. Exotic, real name Joseph Allen Maldonado-Passage, later wrote a letter asking to be pardoned. “Let’s hope President Trump will… make this right and grant me a pardon,” it reads. “Keep my story alive and be my voice. Keep asking for that pardon.”

We’ll see if he got his wish today (UPDATE: he didn’t; it was Susan B. Anthony).

Quite the third-act twist for the Nicolas Cage movie.

(Via Reuters)

Everybody loves Foo Fighters leader Dave Grohl, but a fan named Pat Finnerty may love the rocker more than just about anybody. Throughout the pandemic, Finnerty — a musician from Scranton, Pennsylvania — he hosted livestreams in which he challenged himself to learn all the parts of classics songs by Billy Joel, Huey Lewis, and Peter Gabriel in under an hour. This past weekend, though, he got even more ambitious. His goal was to record Dire Straits’ “Money For Nothing” and get Grohl to join him and sing Sting’s classic “I want my MTV” lyric.

He actually did it.

Nine hours into the livestream event on Saturday, Finnerty managed to replace his cardboard cutout of Grohl with the man himself. Actor Andrew Sikking joined the broadcast, and Grohl, who was at a dinner party with friends, emerged on screen and asked, “What the f*ck are you guys doing?” Finnerty then explained himself and the journey he took to get to this point. The two chatted for a few minutes, then Grohl fulfilled his destiny and sang the line. He also hopped behind a drum set and started to play the song with Finnerty before they got distracted and chatted for about 20 minutes.

Finnerty spoke about the moment with Rolling Stone, saying, “Grohl was as cool as I knew he would be. I’ve always wanted to host a talk show and corona has kind of given me one. I want it to grow so that I could do cooler sh*t, because I have ridiculous ideas that I think will all work. […] The messages that I’ve been getting all day were, ‘It’s so inspiring what you did, because you set a goal and you achieved it.’ Like, I’m this f*cking nobody and I got to Grohl in nine hours because I believed in it.”

Back in May, Lori Loughlin and husband Mossimo Giannulli pleaded guilty in the college admissions scandal. They undoubtedly did so to avoid prison time even though the deal left the possibility open that some prison time was on the table. And of course, they were hoping for a judge to go easy on them despite agreeing to charges involving wire and mail fraud, which are federal crimes. The deal involved hefty fines and community service, along with anywhere between 2-5 months behind bars.

The exact sentence, of course, was left up the court, which will make a declaration on Friday, August 21, and if prosecutors get their way, prison time is almost certainly in the cards. According to Variety, the U.S. Attorney’s Office has asked the judge to make good on giving Loughlin and Giannulli two and five months in prison, respectively speaking, due to their participation in a scheme to admit their two daughters into the University of Southern California while as faux recruits to the crew team. Here’s more from the prosecutor’s memo:

“The crime Giannulli and Loughlin committed was serious. Over the course of two years, they engaged twice in [a] fraudulent scheme. They involved both their daughters in the fraud, directing them to pose in staged photographs for use in fake athletic profiles and instructing one daughter how to conceal the scheme from her high school counselor.”

Have mercy? The prosecutors do concede that Loughlin was “less active” in the scheme than her husband but still participated in coaching her daughter to make certain statements to school officials, and of course, there were faked photos involved to convincingly apply for the crew team. It’s not looking good, and the prosecutors want to make an example of the seriousness of these fraud-based crimes. We’ll see how strict or lenient the judge is feeling this Friday.

(Via Variety)

Long before he was streetwear royalty… before he landed the job as the artistic director of Louis Vuitton menswear… before Off-White… zip ties… global DJ sets… Coachella… before he would rise so high in the game that he’d hit an inevitable era of backlash, controversy, and questions about his legitimacy and continued relevance, Virgil Abloh was — like his sneaker-designing contemporary and former mentor Kanye West — just a teenage kid sketching shoes in his spare time. But unlike your average sneakerhead, Abloh actually sent those ideas to Nike. And though nothing came of those early sketches, by 2017, after a brief stint as an architect, an internship in Rome at Fendi, and the successful launch of his own fashion label, Abloh’s swoosh dreams finally came true when he designed “The Ten,” a collection that would go down in history as the greatest sneaker collaboration of all time.

Since Abloh first reimagined 10 of Nike’s most iconic shoes in 2017, he’s gone on to design almost 50 different colorways across Nike’s vast roster of sneaker silhouettes. They haven’t all been great. Hell, even “The Ten” could’ve used some editing. But Abloh’s brightest design moments catch eyes, spark conversations, and create trends — a trifecta that even the most well-respected designers can’t often lay claim to.

“What we’re talking about here is larger than sneakers, it’s larger than design culture… It’s nothing short of state-of-the-art design,” Abloh said of his debut collection with Nike. “These 10 shoes have broken barriers in performance and style. To me, they are on the same level as a sculpture of David or the Mona Lisa. You can debate it all you want, but they mean something. And that’s what’s important.”

Thus far in his career, Abloh’s greatest contribution to the world of streetwear isn’t found in just one specific sneaker or brand or collaboration. It’s in his ability to recognize and reflect what sneakerheads all around the world have known for decades: that a pair of fire Air Jordan 1s aren’t just a shoe, they’re a modern-day canvas, a piece of wearable contemporary art to be collected, coveted, cared for, and loved.

To celebrate Abloh’s vision and philosophy, we’ve curated the 20 best Nike Off-White sneakers in the three-year history of the two brands acting in accord. For the sake of continuity, we’ve listed them in chronological order, from the very best of ‘The Ten’ to last month’s Off-White Jordan IVs.

Off-White Nike Air Max 90 ‘The Ten,’ 2017

Remember when I said The Ten could’ve used some editing? I didn’t mean by a heavy hand. You’ll find eight of the original ten shoes that Abloh redesigned on this list. (I said this was the greatest sneaker collaboration of all time, and I meant it.)

We’re kicking it off with Abloh’s take on the Air Max 90. The Ten dropped in two sets of five, dubbed “Revealing” and “Ghosting” with the Air Max 90 leading the pack and exceeding expectations. With this design, Abloh deemphasized Tinker Hatfield’s original look, breaking the sneaker down to its silhouette and paneling with a few minimalist accents that help the design feel fresh.

With a pristine white leather upper, an oversized white Swoosh, and grey suede overlays atop an icy blue midsole, and yes, zip ties, The Ten’s Air Max 90 almost looks like it should be in a museum.

Off-White Nike Air Presto ‘The Ten,’ 2017

You’ll find The Ten’s Air Presto topping a lot of lists chronicling Abloh’s greatest designs and for good reason. While by 2020’s standards a lot of the gimmicks from ’The Ten’ don’t seem all that revolutionary, the prevailing trend of deconstructed sneaker designs started with Abloh, and it hasn’t really be equaled or surpassed since. For the Air Presto, Abloh once again broke down the sneaker to its skeleton, stripping away the sleek layers of the Air Presto for a lightweight mesh upper with a bone-like lace cage. Even three years later, they just look so damn cool.

Off-White Nike Air VaporMax ‘The Ten,’ 2017

Off-White has dropped two other Nike Air VaporMax sneakers since the original black pair from The Ten, but nothing matches these. This is simply one of the best VaporMax colorways and designs of all time.

Abloh’s VaporMax features a Flyknit upper with a bright white over-sized swoosh stitched on, atop a blacked-out VaporMax sole that gives off heavy Darth Vader vibes. Abloh is a Star Wars head, so we’re almost certain that’s what this big nerd was going for.

Off-White Nike Air Jordan 1 ‘The Ten’ 2017

C’mon, you knew you were going to come across this pair. It’s easily the most recognizable sneaker Virgil Abloh has ever designed. This is the shoe that Abloh-haters use to discredit his craft and that’s probably because it includes every cringey Abloh trademark, from the “Air” quotation marks, the visible stitching on the swoosh, the Beaverton, Oregon production stamp. Ugh, right?

It isn’t even an original colorway, borrowing the original “Chicago” makeup, which is legendary unto itself. Does this dude even actually design anything? But look closer and you’ll see that this is how Abloh infuses the spirit of hip-hop into his design work, and why it catches hold with heads worldwide. Abloh is sampling a piece of sneaker history and recontextualizing it for a modern sensibility. Is Drake’s “Nice for What” any less of a great song because it owes a debt to Lauryn Hill’s “Ex-Factor” which itself sampled “Can It Be All So Simple” by the Wu-Tang Clan, which draws from “The Way We Were/Try To Remember” by Gladys Knight & The Pips?

Nope — that’s what art does. Borrows, remixes, and makes the old new again. That’s where Abloh excels.

Off-White Nike Blazer ‘The Ten,’ 2017

We have Virgil Abloh to thank for breathing new life into Nike’s Blazer sneaker, which prior to 2017 was a seriously overlooked shoe. Nowadays, even Nike is showing the Blazer constant love, releasing vintage colorways on a yearly basis. For The Ten’s Blazer, the upper is dressed in white leather with a descending swoosh that dives into an off-white midsole. The inner side of the sneaker features the Beaverton, Oregon production stamp, which is a call back to where the original design was crafted.

Off-White Nike Air Force 1 ‘The Ten,’ 2017

While Abloh’s “Revealing” set from The Ten shed away layers to reveal the inner workings of these iconic silhouettes, for his “Ghosting” set, Abloh opened a window, dressing each sneaker in a translucent upper, another trend that has become pervasive since the designer popularized it.

Abloh’s Air Force 1 is probably the most extreme design out of the “Ghosting” collection, it’s so broken down that it almost looks like it’s still midway through production. If you don’t like deconstructed sneakers, you probably won’t like these, though it’s pretty hard to mess up the Air Force 1.

Off-White Nike Hyperdunk ‘The Ten,’ 2017

The Ten’s Hyperdunk was a way for Abloh to prove that he wasn’t just about style over substance. Through and through, this Hyperdunk is a court-performance sneaker, despite its high-fashion appearance. A breathable FlyKnit upper keeps players light on their feet, with an added midfoot strap for extra support atop a bouncy React midsole. The hype for The Ten was so great that you’d have to be insane to actually wear these on the court, but we like to spend some time imagining what that might look like every time we see them.

Off-White Nike Zoom Fly ‘The Ten,’ 2018

All right, so of The Ten, we’ve included nine Abloh designs on this list — and we were truly torn about including this one. It was a toss-up between this debut colorway or Abloh’s Tulip Pink iteration from 2018, but at the end of the day, there is a reason this pair still fetches a $1000 on the aftermarket while the Tulip Pinks are much more affordable.

This pair truly comes alive with your sock game, making the Zoom Fly one of the most visually varied sneakers Off-White and Nike have ever made, and giving it a slight edge over the Tulip Pink — which are a little harder to rock.

Off-White Nike Air Max 97 ‘The Ten,’ 2017

Virgil Abloh’s Air Max 97 is pretty interesting in that its design changes the way you normally see the Air Max 97. Usually known for its aerodynamic waves, Abloh instead obscures those eye-leading lines beneath a translucent upper, with a large, long swoosh in place of the sneaker’s usual tiny swoosh — which works to highlight the sneaker’s aerodynamic shape.

This very minor change really manages to give the Air Max 97 a totally unique look within its own history. It’s proof that small changes can equal out to really radical results.

Off-White Nike Air Force 1 ComplexCon, 2017

We’re finally out of The Ten territory with this ComplexCon exclusive. If The Ten’s AF-1 was a little too stripped back for your liking, Abloh released a design that played things pretty close to the original with his second Air Force 1. Featuring a clean all-white leather upper, the ComplexCon sneaker sports a metallic swoosh with exposed stitching, and orange branding tags on the exposed foam tongue and Nike check.

In terms of moving the AF-1 forward, this sneaker doesn’t do too much to change the game — but it’s quite the sight regardless. Unfortunately, giving this sneaker’s exclusive status, there aren’t many pairs out there floating around.

Off-White Air Jordan 1 White, 2018

It won’t come as a surprise to find out that the second Off-White Jordan 1 was actually Abloh’s original idea for the sneaker’s entry in The Ten, as its all-white upper with off-white overlays looks a lot more visually consistent with the rest of the collection. But then, it’s hard to blame Abloh for taking a crack at the OG Chicago colorway.

It might be a controversial opinion, but we dig these over the original pair from The Ten. Easily.

Off White Nike Air Jordan 1 UNC, 2018

Naturally, you’re going to find a lot of Air Jordan 1s on this list and while we tried to avoid too many doubles, Abloh has a particular talent for understanding what makes the Air Jordan 1 so great. Featuring a powder blue paneled upper with white accents and contrasting orange stitching, the UNC continues Abloh’s practice of taking the absolute best
Air Jordan 1 colorways — in this case, the Michael Jordan University of North Carolina Blue — and giving them a modern revamp.

Off-White x MoMa x Nike Air Force 1, 2018

We don’t know why Virgil Abloh insists on making his Air Force 1s — probably one of Nike’s most popular silhouettes — the most exclusive Off-White and Nike link up, but with the instant sell-out of the AF-1 from The Ten, the hard to find ComplexCon exclusive, and this three-way collaboration between Nike, Off-White, and the Museum of Modern Art, AF-1s designed by Abloh is a rare find.

This 2018 release is essentially identical to the ComplexCon exclusive, only this time its dressed in black.

Off-White Nike Blazer Hallow’s Eve, 2018

Released for the Halloween season, Abloh’s All Hallow’s Eve colorway feels more targeted toward Thanksgiving than All Hallows Eve itself, but we’ll try not to get too hung up on that fact. Featuring an orange toned tan upper with a deep-diving wrap-around pumpkin swoosh, the Blazer All Hallow’s Eve is the best Nike Blazer Off-White has ever put out.

If this didn’t have the teal swoosh tag and the “Shoelaces” text, you might even be able to fool a staunch Abloh hater into admitting that these are pretty dope.

Off-White Nike Blazer Grim Reaper, 2018

See, now this sneaker should’ve been given the “All Hallow’s Eve” name! Oh well, the Grim Reaper differs from the other Nike Blazer Off-White silhouettes in its use of a translucent black panel along the upper coupled with a bright white wrap around swoosh.

It’s hard to not love this sleek pair, though it does feel like a step down in general creativity from the All Hallow’s Eve.

Off-White Nike Air Max 97 Serena. 2018

Ahead of Serena Williams’s opening match at the 2018 US open, Abloh dropped a few silhouettes that bare the tennis legend’s name — the best of which was the Air Max 97 Serena. Ditching the translucent sheath obscuring the 97’s wavy lines, the Serena features a soft pink-toned upper with a pink, purple, and gold gradient midsole, a yellow tab, and an oversized swoosh.

Off-White Nike Air Force 1 MCA, 2019

It’s pretty clear that while Abloh might have a knack for producing fire colorways of the Air Jordan 1, it’s the AF-1 that he considers a true masterpiece. Why else would he drop another exclusive fine art Air Force 1 with the Chicago Museum of Contemporary Art? This pair is dressed in a beautiful University Blue all leather upper with a metallic silver swoosh.

These are so beautiful that a part of us absolutely hates the idea of someone wearing them.

Off-White Nike Air Max 90 Desert Ore, 2019

The Off-White Air Max 90 Desert Ores represent a transition in design styles for Abloh, featuring touchstones from his work immediately proceeding The Ten to the more modern Off-White Nikes we see today.

Featuring a dark beige upper with a bright mango swoosh, the Desert Ores look a bit like what we imagine a Yeezy and Off-White link up might look like — thanks to its dusty earthy appearance.

Off-White Nike Air Jordan V Muslin, 2020

It’s a little hard to believe there aren’t more Air Jordan Vs by Abloh. An often overlooked sneaker in the Jordan brand line, the V Muslins represent a newer aesthetic era for the designer. Sure, he’s still using translucent textiles and breaking the sneakers down to their rough interiors, but now he’s doing it in a much more refined way. While it doesn’t feel as groundbreaking as anything from The Ten, we appreciate Abloh’s commitment to pushing his designs forward and not just cashing in on the trends he made popular.

Off-White Nike Air Jordan IV Sail, 2020

The Air Jordan IV Sail brings us to current day offerings from Off-White and they’re proof that even with the haters and the missteps, Off-White is still pretty f*cking dope. Released as a women’s size exclusive — much to the dismay of big-footed sneakerheads — this Air Jordan 4 features a full-grain leather and grid mesh upper, with clear textiles, air cushioning, exposed foam, and a totally monochromatic makeup.

These sneakers were an instant sell-out and are currently fetching prices well above $1000 on the aftermarket, making them the most beloved Off-White Nike’s since The Ten era. In a dark year, it’s a bright reminder that even three years into their extended collaboration, Off-White and Nike are a natural matchup.

HBO’s Lovecraft Country has a lot in common with HBO’s Watchmen. That’s not terribly surprising, considering that both dabble heavily in genre material while tackling said material an an atypical, unexpected manner. Both deal with otherworldly themes as well as the unavoidably reality-based theme of race in America, and both do some rewriting of history, although Lovecraft Country‘s full effect on that last note has a lot left to reveal. Also similar? The ratings of both shows’ debut episodes.

Hollywood Reporter is reporting the first premiere numbers from the Misha Green-created and Jordan Peele/J.J. Abrams-produced prestige series, and yep, it sure looks like (as expected) the series is reaching a similar audience, at least as far as quantity is concerned. I also suspect that the demographics are largely the same as well, given that Lovecraft Country is probably the closest thing to a Watchmen Season 2 that we’ll ever see. Here are those numbers:

Lovecraft Country drew 760,000 viewers for its on-air premiere, which grew to 1.4 million with replays and streaming. The additional plays and streaming made up about 46 percent of the total first-night audience … [Watchmen had] 799,000 on-air viewers for its debut, which rose to 1.5 million across platforms on night one — with replays and digital making up 47 percent of the total.

That’s pretty remarkable for a horror-drama series, and even more encouraging? Lovecraft Country beat out the debut of The Outsider (724,000), which landed with high expectations from Stephen King fans (and it did not disppoint), although it fell behind Perry Mason (884,000), which arrived with a lot of nostalgia-based appeal this summer.

Where the final premiere numbers shake out over the course of Lovecraft Country‘s run remain to be seen, but if those numbers remain consistent with Watchmen, HBO can look forward to around 7 million total views per episode. Thanks to already strong word of mouth, the successor show shouldn’t have too much difficulty meeting those expectations.

(Via Hollywood Reporter)

The first day of the 2020 NBA Playoffs included real drama, from Donovan Mitchell’s majestic 57-point performance to a hotly contested game between the Boston Celtics and the Philadelphia 76ers. In the nightcap, there were plenty of fireworks but, by the final buzzer, the L.A. Clippers nabbed a 1-0 lead over the Dallas Mavericks with a 118-110 victory.

Though the phrase is wildly overused, the first quarter on Monday evening truly embodied the notion that the NBA is a “game of runs.” The Clippers scored the first ten points of the night, taking advantage of four turnovers in the first six possessions from the Mavericks.

From there, the Clippers didn’t slow down, stretching their edge to 18-2. L.A. converted seven of their first nine shots, including four straight three-pointers, and the Clippers looked utterly spectacular on both ends.

Though Dallas clearly wavered a bit in the early going, the Mavericks responded in kind, using a 20-4 run to tie the game at 22-22.

A large portion of that damage came with Luka Doncic on the sideline, as the second-year star had his ankle re-taped in the locker room, and he played markedly better upon his return after a trio of early giveaways. In addition, Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, not known for his long-range marksmanship, knocked down a pair of three-pointers and, against all odds, Dallas took a four-point lead after 12 minutes.

In addition to the surprise of the way the game flipped, the Mavericks also made a bit of history with the way they erased a 15-point deficit in the blink of an eye.

The Mavericks kept rolling as the second quarter started, extending their unexpected lead to 50-36 after a 12-2 spurt.

When Dallas (finally) slowed, the Clippers threw a counterpunch, scoring nine straight points and, eventually, coming back to tie the game. At the half, the Mavericks led by three points, thanks in part to 12-of-21 from three-point range. The 12 three-pointers set a new franchise record for most threes in one half of a playoff game, and Dallas also benefited from a 19-point, six-assist, five-rebound half from Doncic.

On the Clippers side, it was Kawhi Leonard and Paul George doing the damage, combining for 30 points on 11-of-21 shooting, and they were flanked by strong play from Marcus Morris. Overall, it was an offensively charged half, with both teams scoring more than 1.2 points per possession, and that provided high-end entertainment throughout the first 24 minutes.

The early portion of the third quarter was marked by the controversial ejection of Kristaps Porzingis, when the Mavericks big man picked up a second technical foul at the 9:10 mark. Without him available, Dallas saw their lead evaporate in short order, with the Clippers reclaiming control after a 16-7 start in the second half.

After the high-powered first half, the third quarter essentially came to a screeching halt, with the two teams combining to shoot 13-of-43 from the floor. Dallas struggled more, however, in scoring just 13 points, and the Clippers took a five-point lead to the closing period.

With Porzingis out of action and Doncic on the bench, the Mavericks closed the gap to open the fourth quarter, tying the game at 89-89 with more than nine minutes remaining. The margin would be narrow for several minutes as the two teams traded blows and, while the shotmaking never returned to the levels of the first half, the competitiveness remained on both sides.

Patrick Beverley, who struggled at times in his first game action in two weeks, buried a corner three-pointer to give the Clippers a six-point edge with fewer than three minutes remaining. While the Mavericks did answer with a quick bucket, L.A. weathered a pair of missed layups and, moments later, Morris converted another three-pointer that proved to be something of a dagger. That pushed the Clippers ahead by seven and, with a dagger from George a few seconds later, L.A. put the game away in style.

For the Mavericks, Doncic was outstanding, finishing with 42 points, nine assists and seven rebounds. He did battle turnover issues, committing 11 giveaways on the night, but the 20-year-old certainly stepped up after a shaky start to the evening, and he set a new record for the most points in a playoff debut in NBA history.

The Clippers were also led by familiar faces, with Leonard (29 points, 12 rebounds, six assists) and George (27 points) playing at a high level. Morris (19 points, six rebounds, four steals) was also crucial and, while L.A. didn’t perform at optimal capacity after the opening minutes, it was enough to secure a win and a significant advantage in the series.

The two teams will face off again on Wednesday in prime time, with the Mavericks aiming to even the series at 9:00 pm ET.