By hook or by crook, Dillon Brooks was going to make LeBron James acknowledge him in Sunday’s game between the Lakers and Suns.
Consider it mission accomplished unsuccessfully.
In the most Dillon Brooks sequence imaginable, a game-winner turned into an ejection that eventually led to a Lakers win. It also included multiple altercations between the two.
To recap it all, let’s start at the very beginning of the game when an appropriate tone was set barely a minute into the game when Brooks got a technical
for an early brouhaha with LeBron.
You had to expect something was going to happen pretty early, especially after Brooks’ comments on LeBron and the Lakers following their last meeting. Normally, LeBron is able to tune out Brooks but Sunday was not normal times, so things escalated in the first half to LeBron committing an offensive foul on Brooks.
Brooks wasn’t done in the first half as he picked up his fourth foul in typically silly Brooks fashion, fouling LeBron on a layup in the closing seconds of the quarter. Things quickly boiled over in the third quarter, though.
After a foul on Brooks by Luka negated a LeBron block, Brooks swatted the ball out of the air and into LeBron. This was clearly the straw that broke the camel’s back and LeBron had had enough.
Unfortunately, the Suns’ announcers weren’t the only ones to have an insane take on this. Taking zero other context from the game or Brooks’ career into account, the refs deemed that Brooks did not make intentional contact with the ball.
Instead, the only punishment handed out was a technical on LeBron for going chest to chest with Brooks. At that time, it was a very frustrating play, but put a pin in that one.
After the sequence, LeBron took a page out of Brooks’ book with some great acting, leading to an offensive foul on Brooks, his fifth.
Brooks then had to sit on the bench and watch the Lakers pull ahead and away from the Suns, building up a 20-point lead. After a 3-pointer by LeBron early in the fourth put visitors up 18, LeBron let Brooks have it.
Just as it looked like the Lakers were going to cruise to a win, Phoenix came storming back down the stretch.
A spirited run culminated in an incredibly predictable moment as Brooks hit a go-ahead 3-pointer with 12 seconds left. But he just couldn’t help himself as he got up from the shot and ran to LeBron, going chest-to-chest with him.
Having already established in a previous Brooks-LeBron altercation that going chest-to-chest was worthy of a technical, the officials reviewed the play and awarded one to Brooks. For those keeping track at home, that would be his second technical, meaning it also led to his ejection.
“It didn’t matter if he had [a technical] already or not,” LeBron said of the play. “That’s definitely a tech. If it was a tech on me in the first half, it was a tech there.”
And yet, LeBron still almost messed it all up. Inexplicably, he took the ensuing technical free throw with the Lakers down one and missed. But because the game was completely dumb and absurd, Devin Booker would foul him on a 3-pointer.
LeBron gave Lakers fans a scare by missing the first free throw, but hit the next two, putting LA up one. Phoenix did not have a timeout, leading to a full-court pass and shot attempt from Grayson Allen that was blocked by LeBron, effectively sealing the win.
After the game, despite everything that transpired, LeBron side-stepped a question about him and Brooks.
“I just like to compete,” LeBron said. “He’s going to compete. I’m going to compete. We’re going to get up in each other’s face. I try not to go borderline with it. I don’t really take it there. But we’re just competing and did that almost all the way to the end of the game.”
What a hilarious little line at the end there, adding the “almost all the way to the end of the game.” Great troll, LeBron.
Now, you’ll be absolutely shocked at the next bit of information, but Dillon Brooks was not in the locker room during media availability for the Suns.
It’s par for the course with Brooks, who had lots and lots to say when the Suns beat the Lakers in LA. But as was the case in the playoff series between the Grizzlies and Lakers, when things go wrong for him, he ducks from the cameras and microphones.
Lots of things went wrong for him in Phoenix on Sunday and it helped the Lakers come away victorious.
You can follow Jacob on Twitter at @JacobRude or on Bluesky at @jacobrude.bsky.social.
