Getty Memphis Grizzlies forward Dillon Brooks has been thriving since the Andre Iguodala trade last year.
Andre Iguodala helped the Miami Heat advance to the NBA Finals last year in the bubble. Dillon Brooks scored 23 points on Tuesday night in the third quarter of a rather meaningless regular-season game.
Potato, potahto. Tomato, tomahto.
Brooks scored 28 points in 31 minutes and went a sizzling 5-of-9 from deep. It was almost as decadent as the steak dinner the 25-year-old enjoyed at Nusr-Et Steakhouse in Miami. Brooks shelled out $1,000 for a bone-in wagyu ribeye encrusted in 24-karat gold leaf, per Commercial Appeal. Then he put the hometown team, specifically Iguodala, on notice during a 124-112 win.
Did Dillon Brooks finally show Andre Iguodala what Memphis is about?
Dillon: “You could say that. He knows we have talented guys.”
After the game, Brooks was sheepishly tight-lipped about Iguodala. Remember, the three-time NBA champion refused to report to the Grizzlies last year and eventually forced a trade out of Memphis to Miami. The animosity was at an all-time high last February when the trade first happened. Here is what Brooks said at that time:
First time I seen him was on TV talking about us. It doesn’t even matter. Andre Iguodala is a great player. I feel like he’s doing the right thing for his career, but we don’t really care.
It’s not a distraction at all. I laugh at that type of stuff. A guy that’s on our team that doesn’t want to be on our team, I can’t wait till we find a way to trade him so we can play him and show him really what Memphis is about.
Dillon Brooks heats up for the @memgrizz, pouring in 23 3rd quarter PTS on NBA League Pass!
Meanwhile, Iguodala finished with no points in 19 minutes on Tuesday night for a minus-19 rating. It’s unlikely that Memphis and Miami would meet in the championship, but anything can happen. Wouldn’t that be interesting?
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Bam Adebayo: ‘I Don’t Give a Damn’
Heat center Bam Adebayo earned his second triple-double of the season in the loss. It would have been icing on the cake if Miami had won the game. Since they didn’t, those 18 points and 10 rebounds and 10 assists didn’t mean a “damn” thing.
“We lost so I don’t give a damn about that triple-double. We lost,” Adebayo told reporters after the game. “There’s been days where I scored eight points and we won. It was a happier mood in the locker room. Stats don’t matter to me unless we get W’s.”
“I don’t give a damn about that triple-double…we lost”
Bam Adebayo discusses the Heat’s defensive struggles tonight as they snap their 4-game win streak
Memphis shot 41.5% from three-point land (17-of-41), with a ton of wide-open looks. So what wrong with the Heat on defense?
“Bad rotations, lack of communication, that’s about it,” Adebayo said. “We were a step behind and defensive lapses.”
Next Up, Los Angeles Lakers
Miami had been riding high on a four-game winning streak. Not anymore. The team has one day off to think about it and move on to the Los Angeles Lakers. The defending champions are playing short-handed — no LeBron James, no Anthony Davis — but somehow cruised past the Toronto Raptors 110-101 on Tuesday night.
While this isn’t close to a Finals rematch, it is still a must-win for the Heat as the Eastern Conference playoff picture comes into focus. The Heat is planning to get back to basics.
“We’re not going to totally panic and reinvent the wheel,” Heat head coach Erik Spoelstra said. “We’ve been obviously trending in a very good way defensively before tonight. We’re much better than what we showed tonight.”
that didn’t go as planned
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