Dillon Brooks said he likes to poke bears. He might have taken that a little too literally on Saturday.
Three days after the Memphis Grizzlies guard went after LeBron James with some very loud Game 2 trash talk, the Los Angeles Lakers turned the first quarter of Game 3 into a historic bloodbath. After 12 minutes of play, the score stood at 35-9.
That was bad, but then Brooks got himself ejected with a flagrant 2 foul after hitting James with a clear low blow. He finished the game with seven points on 3-of-13 shooting in 19 minutes.
Per the ESPN broadcast, the Lakers were tied for the largest lead at the end of the first quarter in NBA playoffs history. It was also the lowest-scoring quarter for any team this season.
For any team, it would have been one of the most humiliating quarters in franchise history. For the Grizzlies, however, it was a performance that could haunt them for years unless they pull out a comeback in the series.
The stat sheet was bad all over for the Grizzlies in the quarter. As a team, they shot 3-of-25. Only one starter, the returning Ja Morant, made a field goal. There was one assist to six turnovers. Brooks had zero points on 0-for-4 shooting with one turnover.
Dillons Brooks was the butt of the joke vs. Lakers
You know things aren’t going well when the SportsCenter Twitter account is posting a single picture of you.
That was only the tip of the iceberg of schadenfreude that unfolded as viewers at home watched the Grizzlies languish.
Things didn’t improve after the ejection.
Dillon Brooks and LeBron James’ 1-sided beef
Brooks was already known for being one of the NBA’s most eager trash-talkers before this series, but he dialed it up on Wednesday after the Grizzlies pulled out a key win.
The words, which probably now go down in infamy: “”I don’t care. He’s old. … I poke bears. I don’t respect anyone ’til they come and give me 40.”
James wasn’t very interested in a back-and-forth with a player whose resume obviously pales in comparison to his, even if that player has been a solid rotation piece with the Grizzlies for years.
Asked multiple times about Brooks on Friday, James mostly responded with one-word answers before ending his availability, though he did say the following:
“The game is won in between the four lines. Always has, always will be,”
The two players had an exchange shortly before the game that somehow felt simultaneously friendly and tense, with James smiling and shaking his head before walking away.
Fast forward one quarter, and James was tied for the Lakers team lead with eight points on 4-of-6 shooting, plus five rebounds.