LeBron James knows Dillon Brooks best. Or, perhaps a better way of putting it, James wishes he didn't have to know Brooks at all. The matchups between the Los Angeles Lakers and Phoenix Suns (or the Houston Rockets over the past few seasons) have always generated extra anticipation solely because of the Brooks factor.
But the Suns' agitator doesn't just play that way against James; in fact, he does it almost every night against whomever he's facing. On Tuesday night this week, Brooks and theSuns went up against the Miami Heat and...Norman Powell?
Yes, that's right, Powell was Brooks' latest target.
Powell isn’t one for on-court confrontations, and there’s no real history of him engaging in that behaviour. That said, there’s always a first, and Tuesday night saw the two players clash, or crash, into each other in what could have been a very dangerous play. Powell did put up 27 points in the contest, but it did not come without avoiding the snare of Brooks, who initiated a short scuffle during the game.
Norman Powell isn't phased by Dillon Brooks, but admits the Suns guard did cross a 'line in the sand'
That's where Brooks plays, though, isn't it? On the line, right up to the line, over the line — whichever way you want to put it, the "line" is where Brooks spends most of his time, and you have to give credit where credit is due: he is great at it. That's why Brooks is a player you want on your team, but despise the thought of playing against him.
Powell got a first-hand example of this in Miami's 127-121 win over Phoenix earlier this week. Theincident occurred late in the third quarter, when Brooks appeared to have given Powell a shove. Brooks had driven hard to the basket, and Powell moved in to impede his progress. After Powell had successfully broken the play up, he went crashing into the basketball stanchion and fell to the floor.
Brooks immediately called innocent by throwing his arms in the air, claiming his not-guilty status, while behind him, Powell had quickly risen to confront him, not before Bam Adebayo stopped anything from escalating. You could tell Powell wasn't there for it and wanted a piece at Brooks. Following the game, Powell commented on the incident, chalking Brooks' dangerous play up to him just being who he is.
“We know what Dillon Brooks does, we know his antics,”Powell said.“We know what he tries to do. I’ve played against him since college; I know how he is. I didn’t feed into it for the majority of the game, him trying to bump, hold, foul, and talk."
“When he pushed me, that was my line in the sand,” Powell said. “Bam held me back, we got the technical free throw and we keep going. He (Brooks) is going to be him, and it doesn’t bother me too much.”
This play was another “line” moment for Brooks, awarding him a technical foul. Furthermore, Brooks received a flagrant foul for grabbing Andrew Wiggins' arm and pulling him down as Brooks came down from a three-pointer. What's funny about this entire thing, though, is that Brooks finished the game with 25 points, leading the Suns in scoring.
As for Powell, well, you could say not only did he get the better of Brooks, because the Heat won the game, but he also scored two more points than Brooks did. So, Powell won on two fronts in the end. If anything had happened on that play, however, and Powell had been seriously injured, that would have been a heartbreaking reality givenPowell's impact this season.
For the sake of hope and their season, Brooks better not mess with Powell's line again when the Suns host the Heat in Phoenix for a rematch on January 25th, not long from today.