Dillon Brooks Ejected For Hitting LeBron James

Dillon Brooks has been ejected from the Memphis Grizzlies Game 3 matchup with the Los Angeles Lakers for striking LeBron James below the belt. The refs handed him the flagrant 2 call at the start of the third quarter as the Lakers led 53-37.

Brooks finished the game with seven points on 3-of-13 shooting in 19 minutes. Going against him, James dropped 15 points on 7-of-12 shooting before Brooks' ejection. The incident comes after the two exchanged plenty of trash talk throughout the series. When asked about Brooks' behavior in the first two games on Friday, James told reporters "I'm not here for the bullshit. I'm ready to play and that's it."

Brooks admitted that he wanted to poke the bear during an interview after the Grizzlies' Game 2 win. "I don't care-- he's old. You know what I mean?" Brooks said. "I was waiting for that. I was expecting him to do that Game 4, Game 5. He wanted to say something when I got my fourth foul. He should have been saying that earlier on. But I poke bears. I don't respect no one until they come and give me 40."

Lakers forward Rui Hachimura, whose been had a key role for the Lakers thus far in the series, also responded to Brooks' behavior on Friday. "I heard about it," Hachimura said. "I'm not really into social media, but I heard about it. Honestly, that's all they can do. They're a young team. They just want to talk. We just don't really care. We're going to play our game and we're trying to win the games."

If the Lakers can pull out the win on Saturday night, they'll advance to 2-1 in the series with Game 4 scheduled for Sunday in Los Angeles. If successful then, their earliest chance to close out round one would be Game 5 on Wednesday in Memphis.

[Via]