Suns forward Dillon Brooks relished beating the Lakers in Los Angeles on Monday as well as the opportunity to trash talk LeBron James, Tim MacMahon writes for ESPN.com.
As MacMahon notes, Brooks infamously got under James’ skin during the first round of the 2023 playoffs with Memphis, only to see the strategy backfire — he struggled for the rest of the series while James dominated, and the Grizzlies were eliminated in six games. Ever the antagonist, Brooks poured in 33 points on Monday — one off his season-high — and “relentlessly” mocked James and the crowd.
“I love playing in this arena,” Brooks said. “They show me a lot of love in here, and I reciprocate it back. I’m a competitor, man. I don’t really like the smiling and the giggling and all that, so just letting them know that I’m here. And I’m still rising.”
Phoenix cruised to an easy victory on Monday despite missing Devin Booker (right groin injury) for the majority of the contest. Brooks was the driving force behind the result.
“Sometimes, I’m trying to tell him to chill out, but I think he just blacks out,” said point guard Collin Gillespie, who scored a career-high 28 points on Monday and whom Brooks has nicknamed “Villain Jr.” due to his tenacity. “That’s Dillon Brooks. It fuels us. Obviously, we love when he gets going. He’s the tone-setter for us. Consistent energy, brings it every night. He’s fearless. Doesn’t back down from anybody, and he will go toe-to-toe with anybody.”
We have more from the Pacific:
- Now a member of the Suns, center Mark Williams admitted he’d have a “little extra” motivation facing the Lakers on Monday after L.A. traded for him in February — only to rescind the deal over to what the team said was a failed physical (story via Duane Rankin of The Arizona Republic). Williams said he was never told exactly why the Lakers nixed the trade with Charlotte. “Not in real detail,” said Williams, who is averaging 12.9 points, 9.0 rebounds and 1.3 steals through 18 games (25.4 minutes per contest). “I’m kind of past it now. Just moved on from it.” The ex-Duke center will be a restricted free agent in 2026.
- Entering Monday, Lakers forward Rui Hachimura had scored in double figures in 14 of his 18 appearances. The 27-year-old had his worst outing of the season in Monday’s loss, going scoreless — he missed his lone shot attempt — and pulling down one rebound in 23 minutes. “I don’t remember when I had the ball this whole game,” Hachimura said, per Daniel Starkand of Lakers Nation (Twitter link). “I mean, that’s happened. Playing with these guys, I signed up for that. I understand it… But with this, I think the whole team, everyone knows and understands, that’s not how we’re gonna win. Those games that we’ve been winning, we’ve been passing to each other, we’ve been trusting each other and playing for each other to win those games. So it’s a tough one for me, but it is what it is. It’s one of those games where I gotta just [forget it] and move on to the next game.”
- Kings center Domantas Sabonis is likely at least a couple weeks away — if not more — from returning from a partially torn meniscus, but his injured left knee is progressing well and he’s traveling with the team on its three-game road trip, which will conclude next Tuesday at Indiana, as Sean Cunningham of NBC Sacramento relays (via Twitter). The Kings clarified that Sabonis is not yet practicing, which was expected given his initial return timeline. The Lithuanian big man has popped up in trade rumors this fall amid Sacramento’s poor start to the season.
So…Giannis just scrubbed everything Bucks-related on his Instagram page…
No he did not. Hope this helps.
^ this comment aged like a fine wine. Ignore the posts below lol
Literally has posts from the chip and the NBA Cup title… that is not EVERYTHING BUCKS RELATED
Earlier a commenter claimed that Giannis deleted everything bucks related from his social media.
The post was blatantly false.
In reality, Giannis deleted dozens of posts, many of which have nothing to do with the bucks, and still has some posts up with them.
He cleaned up his profile so that there are only 13 posts left, which are:
3 ads from the past year which he is likely contractually obligated to keep up
His post celebrating winning the bronze medal at eurobasket this year
2 posts of trips he took with his brothers, one if which includes a picture of him holding his bucks jersey
His post about winning the NBA cup (captioned “Milwaukee another one”
His engagement announcement
Another photo with his brothers
Him with the trophies after winning the championship
His photos at the awards show where he won MVP for the first time
A photo of him and his brothers as kids with his late father
A photo of him looking over the city which became a large meme.
Fake news then instead of a rumor? Commenter deserves stepping on a lego and more.
It’s not fake news, all of Gary’s “points” he made were not even his own, it was Ai, which is always bad and wrong. Gary deserves worse for using Ai to speak for him, when Ai is idiotic and wrong.
I was correct, not one of those points makes the original statement incorrect. “The post was blatantly false.” No, it was not. Show me where.
Giannis’s latest post is a video from the ad campaign he did for Kohls. Kohls is based in Milwaukee. Sounds like he is still tied to the community.
Gary, please do not use Ai, it is worthless. How was what I said false?
Tell me in your own words, please.
Ai is a plague upon mankind. If you use it, you are doing misinfo.
It’s all good. I’m just letting you know what I found.
Only thing that’s troublesome is that you’re someone who never says they’re wrong. You never admit it. Why is that?
I’m wrong all the time. I can be wrong here if it makes you happy.
Sorry bro I misspoke. You’re correct.
I am wrong all the time and admit it all the time on here. Even when sometimes I am later proven correct (being right too early brings a lot of online hate).
I’m more mad Ai said something was “blatantly” false, when none of the points even prove that to be so. I would have at least said “arguably” or “appears to maybe be”. Because then it leaves enough room open for either way to be correct.
If I was wrong and Giannis left a bunch of Bucks-related posts up, then I would cop to that. That’s not what happened.
Yes, I’m wrong here. Not you. You are correct.
Giannis and Steph…a match made in hoops heaven.
Dubs prolly don’t have enough for that deal. Bucks will find more assets elsewhere. But I do appreciate your tenacious fantasizing.