Dillon Brooks and LeBron James had their fair share of moments in the 2023 Playoffs, with Brooks instigating James through on-court antics and media comments to get an edge in the series. Ahead of their first matchup of the 2023-24 season, Brooks has declared his intention of making it a hard night for LeBron.
“I’m ready to lock him up. He’s shooting the ball well and playing well. I’m just there to make him tired, make him get into that fourth quarter early.”
Dillon Brooks on his matchup with LeBron
“Ready to lock him up” pic.twitter.com/YnNNUMZWk5
— Lachard Binkley (@BinkleyHoops) November 7, 2023
After starting the season 0-3, the Rockets have gone on a run of three straight wins. Beating the Hornets isn’t the highest bar, but beating the Kings in consecutive games and holding their electric offense to under 100 points in both games shows they can be a problem in the West.
Brooks has been integral to this run. He’s currently averaging 16.3 points, 4.7 rebounds, 2.2 assists, and 1.2 steals per game on 59.3% shooting from the field and 56.5% from three.
The Canadian swingman looks at home with the role of being the primary wing stopper. He’ll have a long evening ahead of him with the James matchup, especially given how his failure to stop LeBron in the playoffs led to the Grizzlies not re-signing him this summer.
Dillon Brooks Failed Rivalry With LeBron Ended His Time In Memphis
Over the last few seasons, Brooks has built a reputation as a generally unlikable character in the NBA. Every era of basketball has characters like this, but Brooks has had some major feuds with Draymond Green and Donovan Mitchell, with the LeBron feud ultimately making him Public Enemy No. 1.
It started when Brooks said he doesn’t respect LeBron and won’t do so until James scored 40 points on him. James has had successful nights in the regular season against Brooks and it was put to test in the playoffs when the Lakers beat the No. 2 seed Grizzlies in six games. James had 20 points and 20 rebounds in one game and hit crucial buckets on Brooks to close out the series. James did not give any insight into how he felt about Brooks during the series, shutting media questions down but was allegedly criticizing Brooks directly on the court.
The Grizzlies were quick to cut ties with Brooks as the season ended, issuing a press statement declaring their intention to not re-sign Brooks ‘under any circumstances’, a wildly aggressive message for a player that did what players like Joakim Noah, De’Shawn Stevenson, and Lance Stephenson have done before him. A role-player always targets LeBron to try and throw him off his game, but Brooks took it far enough to have people like Stephen A. Smith, and even Skip Bayless admonish his actions.
His own teammate, Jaren Jackson Jr., came out and shared his disagreement with Brooks’ actions, claiming it put a target on the team’s back. Brooks maintains he doesn’t regret what he did. From his comments right now, it seems like he will do it all over again if he needs to.
The Grizzlies and the media may have not liked what Brooks did against LeBron, but the Rockets saw value in that to give him $80 million over four seasons after one of his worst production seasons in a few years. But his red-hot shooting start to the season along with solid defense is making it look like an inspired signing.
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