Dillon Brooks and LeBron James had a pretty interesting one-on-one battle tonight, with Brooks being assigned to be the primary defender on LBJ for this series.
After making a comment about Lakers LeBron not being the same as Miami or Cleveland LeBron, Brooks had a lot more mockery to dish LeBron’s way, flat-out calling him old and saying he doesn’t respect someone until they score 40 on him.
“I don’t care, he’s old. I was waiting for that, I was expecting him to do that Game 4 or Game 5. He wanted to say something when I got my 4th foul, he didn’t say nothing early on. But you know, I poke bears. I don’t respect no one until they come in and give me 40. So, I pride myself on defense and taking on any challenge.”
Classic Dillon Brooks on his confrontation with LeBron James: “I don’t care. He’s old. … I poke bears. I don’t respect someone until he gives me 40.”
And Brooks had plenty more to say. pic.twitter.com/uWLONrubPZ
— Tim MacMahon (@BannedMacMahon) April 20, 2023
James only played the Grizzlies in one regular-season matchup this season, where he scored 21 points on under 40% efficiency. The highest he’s scored on the Grizzlies with Dillon Brooks was 37 points in a 2021 loss. James dropped 28 on Brooks tonight with over 50% efficiency from the field but going 1/8 on 3-pointers. This could be motivated by LeBron mocking Brooks after scoring on him during the game.
How Will LeBron James Respond?
This is the second of two pretty aggressive quotes from Brooks toward James. In an age where players are very friendly with each other, especially the veterans they grew up watching, this is a pretty refreshing change of pace.
James is a monster on the court still, even if he isn’t as spry and athletic as he was even 5 years ago. We have seen 50-point games at this age from LBJ before, we shouldn’t be surprised if he has an incredible performance in Game 3 just to prove a point to Brooks. With the game in front of the Laker faithful, James will have a lot of juice to motivate himself.
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