The Washington PostDemocracy Dies in Darkness

Dillon Brooks’s trash talk to LeBron James turns flagrant in ugly loss

LeBron James was on the receiving end of a low blow from Dillon Brooks during the Los Angeles Lakers' Game 3 win over the Memphis Grizzlies on Saturday. (Harry How/Getty Images)
Listen
7 min

LOS ANGELES — The Memphis Grizzlies, built on precocious talent and slightly irrational confidence, have strayed from the ranks of the NBA’s top title contenders because of a regrettable knack for self-sabotage.

This past week, Grizzlies forward Dillon Brooks, a proud trash talker and instigator, went out of his way to call Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James “old” and boasted, “I poke bears.” That misguided mind game backfired Saturday, when the Lakers swallowed the Grizzlies whole during a 111-101 Game 3 victory at Crypto.com Arena and Brooks was ejected for a below-the-belt shot to James.

As James changed directions while dribbling up the court early in the third quarter, Brooks leaned forward from his defensive stance, reached out with his left hand and made direct contact with James’s groin. James fell down and clutched his groin in pain, and an official review concluded Brooks was guilty of “unnecessary and excessive contact” — the standard for a flagrant-two, which requires an automatic ejection.

After his verbal jabs at James raised the temperature in a series the Lakers now lead 2-1, Brooks scored just seven points on 3-for-13 shooting in 19 minutes and flirted with a possible suspension because of his second low blow of the season. The NBA ruled Sunday that Brooks, who declined to speak with reporters and made a hasty postgame exit, would not be suspended and will be available for Game 4 on Monday night in Los Angeles, according to a person with knowledge of the situation.

For his part, the 38-year-old James briefly confronted Brooks before the game, then finished with 25 points, nine rebounds and five assists.

“I don’t need to make statements,” James said. “I think my résumé and what I’ve done for this league speaks for itself. I don’t really get caught up in any comments like that. … This is not my first rodeo. I’ve had this throughout my career with certain individuals.”

James’s ability to brush off what he called “the bulls---” stood in stark contrast to the frazzled Grizzlies, who again made life more difficult for themselves through their words and actions.

Brewer: The NBA finally made Draymond Green feel the pain of overreaction

Returning to the site of their memorable courtside confrontation with television commentator Shannon Sharpe, the Grizzlies fell into an 18-2 hole, made just one shot in the first six minutes and trailed 35-9 at the end of the first quarter. James wasted no time getting to work against Brooks and Co., scoring on the game’s opening possession and nearly matching Memphis’s total by finishing with eight points in the first quarter.

“[James] has just been focused throughout,” Lakers Coach Darvin Ham said. “He just speaks with his actions. That’s the way we need him to be. It’s not about the mano-a-mano matchup. Anyone trying to express any doubt toward him or the level which he’s playing at, the way we turned things around this season, that just puts fire under all of us — especially him.”

Memphis’s atrocious start, the lowest-scoring quarter by any team this season, came even though Ja Morant returned to the lineup after missing Game 2 with a hand injury.

While Morant posted a game-high 45 points to go with nine rebounds and 13 assists, little else went right for the Grizzlies, who shot 37.6 percent and were overwhelmed by Anthony Davis. The Lakers star finished with 31 points and 17 rebounds, easily winning his frontcourt matchup with Jaren Jackson Jr., who was named the NBA’s defensive player of the year.

“We’ve got to learn from this. There’s no excuses,” Memphis Coach Taylor Jenkins said. “I hope the moment wasn’t too big for us. Hopefully our guys respond in Game 4.”

Saturday’s dud fit a perturbing pattern for the Grizzlies: Talk big, then play small. Shortly after Morant declared in an ESPN interview that he didn’t fear anyone in the Western Conference, the Grizzlies were blown out by the Golden State Warriors on Christmas. Then Morant, Brooks and several other Grizzlies got into a heated exchange with Sharpe during a game in January, only for Memphis to collapse down the stretch in an embarrassing loss to the Lakers.

Of course, the Grizzlies’ biggest self-inflicted wound came in March, when Morant recorded himself holding a handgun on an Instagram Live video stream. That incident, which followed other allegations of off-court violence and threats by Morant, led the NBA to suspend the two-time all-star guard for eight games. Instead of pulling together for their push into the playoffs as the West’s No. 2 seed, the Grizzlies were left waiting for their franchise player to return from a brief stint in a Florida counseling program. Morant apologized upon his return, admitting his “stress level had been becoming a problem” this season.

With their depth already stretched by injuries to center Steven Adams and Brandon Clarke, the Grizzlies caught a break when the NBA league office’s review determined Sunday that Brooks’s careless action would stand as called with no additional fine or suspension.

“I was just trying to get up, protect my crown jewels and move on to the next play,” James quipped during a postgame interview with Spectrum SportsNet.

Brooks’s flagrant foul was the latest incident in the NBA playoffs’ messy opening week. Warriors forward Draymond Green was suspended one game for stomping on the chest of Sacramento Kings center Domantas Sabonis, while Philadelphia 76ers stars Joel Embiid and James Harden avoided suspensions after committing flagrant fouls in a Game 3 win over the Brooklyn Nets.

Like Brooks, Harden made contact with an opponent’s groin and was ejected with a flagrant-two. Grizzlies guard Desmond Bane used that precedent to defend Brooks, noting his teammate was “remorseful” for the low blow.

“It looked like it was incidental contact,” Bane said. “It looked like, from live action, that LeBron made a crossover move and Dillon took a stab at the ball and accidentally caught him in the wrong position. … I didn’t think it was anything malicious. James Harden did something similar and didn’t get any type of suspension.”

However, the NBA announced Tuesday that Green’s “history of unsportsmanlike acts” was a contributing factor to his suspension. Despite avoiding a suspension in this case, Brooks does have his own history: He was suspended during the 2022 playoffs for a flagrant foul that injured Warriors guard Gary Payton II, he was suspended one game in February for a below-the-belt shot to Cleveland Cavaliers guard Donovan Mitchell, and he served multiple one-game suspensions this season for exceeding the league’s limit on technical fouls.

“With how they treat Dillon, I wouldn’t be surprised [if he’s suspended],” Morant said Saturday night.

Jenkins wanted no part of the discussion, saying only that “the officials made a call.” Nevertheless, Memphis went to bed Saturday awaiting the league’s verdict on Brooks, one more needless complication in a season full of them.

Now that Brooks has been cleared, the Grizzlies are left to cope with a troubling question as they approach their uphill battle with the Lakers: Can they really trust him to let his play do the talking?

Sign up for our weekly NBA newsletter to get the best basketball coverage in your inbox

Loading...