Since even before the Los Angeles Lakers won their Play-In Game to lock in a matchup with the Memphis Grizzlies, Dillon Brooks has been doing everything he can to try and get under the skin of LeBron James. But at every step, the Lakers superstar has brushed it off.
Brooks said he wanted to play LeBron and the Lakers in the playoffs and following the Grizzlies’ win in Game 2, he called James ‘old’ and basically challenged him to score 40 points. Brooks was then ejected in Game 3 after hitting LeBron in the groin.
But LeBron has continually ignored Brooks and not gotten into any back-and-forth, which is exactly what the latter is looking for. And that mindset has trickled down to the rest of the Lakers as well. After the Lakers’ dominant Game 3 performance, Austin Reaves laughed off Brooks antics.
“Bron would rather win. He’s not worried about getting 40,” Reaves said. “He wants to win and that shows in the way he plays. It’s nonsense honestly. Like I said yesterday I thought it was funny. It’s laughable stuff.”
Brooks’ job is to be an agitator and instigator, but James has refused to engage in anything, instead focusing solely on the Lakers getting the job done on the court. As LeBron said prior to Game 3, all that matters is what happens in between those four lines on the court and he backed that up.
LeBron could have taken Brooks’ comments personally and looked to attack him relentlessly, but that could have gotten the rest of the Lakers out of rhythm and hurt them in the long run. Instead, James played the game like he always does and the Lakers have taken on that same attitude.
Reaves can laugh off Brooks’ words because LeBron did. And considering Brooks has yet to back up his talk with great play on the court, the Lakers will continue to keep the same energy moving forward as they go for a 3-1 series lead on Monday night.
Austin Reaves says Lakers were locked in from morning walkthrough
If there were ever a performance that sent a message to the opposition it was the Lakers’ dominant 35-9 first quarter in Game 3 against the Grizzlies. It was a perfect start to the game and while no one could foresee a quarter like that, Reaves knew the Lakers were locked in well before the game began.
“A great start. Exactly the start that we wanted,” Reaves said after the Game 3 win. “Holding any NBA team to nine points in the first quarter is really impressive. Is that a record? It’s gotta be I would think so. But we were locked in from this morning at walkthrough and you could just tell the intensity. And we got to maintain that for the rest of however many games we got.”
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