The Memphis Grizzlies' season flamed out the earliest of anyone in the playoffs after being swept by the Oklahoma City Thunder Saturday night. Meanwhile, a couple of their former players on their divisional rivals remain in a dogfight with their other rivals on the West Coast as the Houston Rockets and Golden State Warriors duel it out in their first-round series.
Former starters Dillon Brooks and Steven Adams are making impacts as the veteran leaders for the second-seeded Houston Rockets, but now their season is on the brink of elimination after falling behind 3-1 in their series against the seventh-seeded Warriors.
While the Grizzlies missed the tenacity of Dillon Brooks at their wing position this season, he displayed why the team ultimately decided to move on from him two offseasons ago in their Game 4 matchup against the Warriors.
Brooks hasn't learned his lesson of waking up the beast
In the 2023 first round of the playoffs, the second-seeded Grizzlies lost to the seventh-seeded Los Angeles Lakers 4-2. It was highlighted by Dillon Brooks' comments after a Game 2 victory to even the series at 1-1.
Lakers forward LeBron James shot 1-8 from three and was a -17 on the court against the shorthanded Grizzlies without Ja Morant, Steven Adams, and Brandon Clarke in Game 2, which prompted Brooks to call him "old" and say "I poke bears" in his postgame interview.
LeBron averaged 21 points and 11 rebounds the rest of the series as the Lakers won three of the last four to end the Grizzlies' season. Meanwhile, Dillon Brooks averaged 10.5 points on 31.2% shooting, including 23.8% from three, which led to his time with the team coming to an end as the Grizzlies moved on from the pending free agent.
After missing the playoffs in his first season with the Rockets, Brooks finds himself in a similar position as the number two seed. With the Rockets trailing the Warriors 2-1, Brooks trash-talked Jimmy Butler during the second quarter of their Game 4 loss, and the rest was history.
Jimmy Butler finished the game with 27 points and made nearly all of the key plays in the fourth quarter, including a foul by Dillon Brooks on Butler while attempting the go-ahead three-pointer with 58 seconds remaining. Butler scored 11 of the Warriors' last 14 points to send the Rockets into a 1-3 series deficit.
The Dillon Brooks experience has transferred to the Houston Rockets, and they get a chance to have a full taste of it at the wrong time, just like the Grizzlies in the past. He is performing better on the offensive end, averaging 12.8 points on shooting 50% from three in the series, but his approach to waking up superstar players to take over has backfired once again.