Grizzlies swingman Dillon Brooks has been suspended for Game 3 of the team’s second-round series against the Warriors, the NBA announced (via Twitter).
Brooks was ejected less than three minutes into Game 2 after committing a Flagrant 2 foul on Gary Payton II, which resulted in Payton sustaining a fractured elbow. The league said Brooks’ “unnecessary and excessive contact” and Payton’s injury factored into its decision.
As Anthony Slater of The Athletic observes (Twitter link), Brooks’ one-game suspension mirrors a similar incident during the regular season, when Grayson Allen‘s hard foul resulted in Alex Caruso suffering a fractured wrist.
Brooks will lose $84,138 for the suspension, tweets ESPN’s Bobby Marks.
Brooks was limited to 32 games (27.7 MPG) during the regular season, with averages of 18.4 PPG, 3.2 RPG, 2.8 APG and 1.1 SPG on .432/.309/.849 shooting. He had an outstanding showing in the playoffs last season, averaging 25.8 PPG and 4.2 RPG on .515/.400/.808 shooting, but he’s struggled with his shot through eight games this season, averaging 13.3 PPG and 2.1 RPG on a .348/.341/.667 slash line.
The 26-year-old is a hard-nosed defender who did a solid job tracking Stephen Curry in Game 1’s one-point loss, but he shot just 3-of-13 from the floor and picked up five fouls in 30 minutes. Memphis will miss his leadership and versatility.
The Grizzlies/Warriors matchup is currently tied at one game apiece, with Game 3 set for Saturday night in San Francisco. With Brooks out, Memphis will rely on its depth to fill his minutes. Similar to Game 2, Ziaire Williams, De’Anthony Melton and Tyus Jones are likely to receive additional playing time.
NBA made the right call on this one
Should be the rest of the series not 1 game. 1 game for that when Payton misses 3-5 weeks. F*** that NBA needs to start punishing players for hurting other players along some semblance of the injury timeline!
LeBron would be suspended the majority of the time, the NBA would never go for it
There’s little correlation between the foul and the fact that Payton got injured. Sure Brooks committed the foul and it may have even to send a message in retaliation of Green’s foul on Clarke but I doubt he had any intention of injuring him.
@taco we all know you hate GSW even said they would not make the playoffs at the start of the years so why are you here? Just to bash them i guess.
No ARC I did not. In fact I said something similar to “You can never count out any team that has Steph Curry”, in addition I said when they were slumping during Green’s and Curry’s injuries I said they’ll be fine when everyone’s healthy
I’ve always said Curry and Thompson are 2 of my favorite players to watch and I have Curry in my top 10 all time players ranked as the 2nd best PG behind Magic.
Just calling it like I see it.
When you intentionally swing and hit someone in the head like that – especially while they’re in the air – you’ve already made the decision that you don’t care if they get injured or not
Suspending players using an injured player’s timeline as a guide is going into a murky area. Fouls are a part of the game. Judging intent, and specifically intent to injure, is hard if not impossible. I mean say Brandon Clarke got a concussion or eye injury from Draymond’s flagrant foul, should Draymond’s punishment match up with the hypothetical injury in this case? To be clear, I don’t think there was any intent on Draymond’s end, he was anticipating going for a block and just had poor timing.
If Payton does not get hurt is there still a suspension? I have no skin in this game so I’m just curious
Apparently not, Green didn’t get suspended for his foul on Clarke.
@ Tacocat1331 Draymond made a play on the ball and came across Clarke’s face. If you watch the Warriors Draymond get’s his hand on the ball a lot during the game. Brooks clearly made no play on the ball, didn’t even jump on the attempt and headhunted. Very different scenarios.. clearly you don’t play or watch basketball often
I watched the game in fact I’ve watched a lot of basketball games over the years. In lots of those games I’ve watched Green with his reckless playstyle.
Brooks was a lot closer to the ball than Green was on their respective plays. Only difference is Draymond was being reckless and had no intent but he still could have easily injured Clarke. I believe Brooks had intent to send a message in retaliation to Green’s recklessness however I don’t know the man and he’s not going to tell us if he did but I don’t think Brooks intended to injure Payton.
My playing basketball has no bearing in this scenario but I have played both organized and pickup basketball for close to 35 years.
Taco has always hated the Warriors and will any excuse to bash him. Must be a sad life if your only thrill is to bash the warriors. Reminding you how you claimed that the Warriors were done and not make the playoffs this year.
I’ve never “hated” the Warriors. They’re not “my team” per say but I have fond memories of watching Run TMC from younger day.
@ARC 2
It must be a sad life when you’re such a homer that you can’t take it when someone disagrees with you
taco talks a lot of rash about the warriors for years. Wagner never seen you name here before.
I have been reading this site for years and can attest that he doesn’t. Just because I’m not the most frequent commenter doesn’t make my opinion any less worthwhile
@Arc I’m not sure why I’m still responding to this B.S. and I’m not sure if you’re just making stuff up or confusing me for someone else.
I’ve never talked trash on the Warriors. I’m a fan of the way they play. I love the motion offense and the impact Curry has had on the modern game. I love to watch Curry when he’s cooking with the mouthpiece out and the shoulder shimmies. He and Klay look like they truly enjoy their lot in life. Heck I even enjoy watching the heady defensive play and passing of Green. Although he’s frustrating at times when he seems to forget he’s in the NBA and not UFC.
There certainly been a few players that have since retired that I didn’t like that have been on the Warriors roster. Zaza and Bogut were both dirty players and Barnes was just an ass. That’s it though. Like I said in another post some of my fondest memories of basketball growing up were watching RUN TMC. And later I enjoyed Baron Davis, Magette. David West and David Lee. The Warriors have never been my favorite team but they’ve usually been one of my favorites to watch.
I don’t have a favorite here either, but it certainly seems like Draymond’s foul was similar in nature, with a less disastrous result. But when the result is that horrible, it probably does warrant a more harsh punishment.
I would say this is fair and here’s why. The hit to the Head I believe caused the flagrant and ejection. It was a pretty good wallop.
I think the suspension is because Payton was in the air and got hit by a charging Defender who caught up to the driving offensive player. I mention “caught up to” because his speed was a factor in Payton hitting the ground both awkwardly and hard. Just my take.
I’m sure the hindsight of a fractured elbow came into play as well. But a 1 game suspension seems fair.
Totally agree, now everybody can focus on playing basketball. Feel terrible for GP2 but injuries are part of the game. Warrior fans forget about Zaza injuring Kawhi in 2017 when Spurs had 2nd best record.
@Michol No one forgets about that. Even if anyone did scores of “whataboutism” reminders come up with every instance of discussion about foul officiating and the Warriors. I personally have seen more pictures of Zaza in the last few days than I did when he was playing for the Warriors.
Also, Brooks got thrown out 3 minutes into the game. There’s a small possibility they might have viewed his ejection so early into the game as basically a 1 game suspension. Kind of like how college football punishes for targetting…if the player gets hit with a targetting flag in the second half, he misses the rest of the game plus the first half of the next game.
League as always pushing GSW to victory… Dray didn’t get suspended for his flagrant 2, but Brooks does, so the league hopes GSW keep on winning, real sad for Mr Brooks, clearly he never intended to hurt anyone, he was just doing a normal play for the ball, nothing wrong with that, right?
He got a Flagrant 3
El Don……you’re qualified to judge intent? What play on the ball exactly? We must not be watching the same game
El Don is just a GSW troll. Notice how he will not allow people to respond to his post. Of course he claims the league pushes GSW but he has 0 evidence. I wonder what he said about the miss call last game that could have changed the game in the last 2 minute report?
Thanx for clarifying! Sounds like a coward tho!
Another clown decision by the NBA’s clown Commissioner. This was the simplest of calls. It was a Flagrant 2, garden variety, nothing more, nothing less. Yeah, they’re dangerous plays, and that’s why the onus is put on the defensive player to not make them, and the penalty is automatic if they do (regardless of the circumstances or intent). If penalties need to be made tougher, then do so, but by rule (for next season) and across the board.
The rules on Flagrant 1’s and 2’s, and the penalties therefor, took years (decades really) to work out. A major accomplishment was getting the (inherently subjective) concept of “intent” out of these calls. Silver, in one ruling, put it back in.
First time in five years I disagree with you DXC. Bound to happen eventually LOL, but here’s my case.
If they do not suspend Dillon Brooks one game I can see the possibility of a retaliation in game 3 by a Warrior player. This would definitely not be something Golden State would talk about behind closed doors beforehand, but with the heightened emotional state of things and heat of the Moment I could imagine the league being fearful of something happening.
So with that thought in mind I think the suspension for one game is in order. Kind of pre-emptive move to keep things somewhat civil. Thoughts?
Five years. Wow. Appreciate it, my friend. FWIW, I can’t go a few months without strongly disagreeing with something I previously said, nicely though.
I think Silver’s best case for the suspension is the one you make, though he’d never say it. Trained in law, he knows that systems of justice based on the notion that victims should determine punishment (based on simple fairness or fears of their retaliation or otherwise) are generally unworkable. Doesn’t mean he may not have (selectively) applied it here. However, if he did so believing it gets all parties to “finality” (this ends it), he may be surprised.
We’ll see what happens going forward. Are other teams victimized by Flagrant 2 fouls going to accept anything less than a suspension of the opponent? Silver will certainly have to weigh in on each (where he doesn’t weigh in, he is weighing in). Will he come off to all sides as a fair and honest broker? What happens if the GSW retaliate anyway? They wouldn’t be the first victim to be emboldened by the actions of a justice system in their favor.
Oh yeah brother you almost always have a great take on things, with well-thought-out and well written posts. I often give you a thumb up.
You make another great Point here with the idea that this one-game suspension after the F2 possibly sets a precedent. I wouldn’t want to be in Silver’s shoes going forward.
The NBA is soft. This was maybe T back in the 80/90s. I can maybe buy the double T but not the added 1 game suspension. Don’t think there was ill intent, just a hard foul. It’s a shame GP got hurt but it’s playoff basketball. No easy baskets.
The NBA dropped the ball on this one. Brooks straight up assaulted GP. No play for the ball. Windmill windup. GP was laying it up on the left side and Brooks was coming across the right side so there was no way to get a clean block through the rim. 2 minutes into the game seems like precalculated aggression.
It is a good thing GP is tough. The injury could have been more serious given the striking point and his compromised position of being airborne.
I’m disappointed in Brooks, and I’m even more disappointed in the NBA for not sending a message that players can’t attack players in the air. If Brooks has beef, let him express it on the ground. I don’t understand how they looked at that play and figured it is a one game suspension.
I can tell by the comments on this site that most on here don’t or never have played competitive basketball. That could have been very serious. What if it was Klay or Steph? With the added wear and tear, they may not get up from that. You don’t attack people in the air, unless of course you’re trying to hurt them.
Game 3: Malice at the Palace 2 ;D