PHOENIX — A rejuvenated Lakers defense. A veteran role player reinserted into the rotation. A 20-point lead. Unfathomably bad decisions. A 20-point comeback. Go-ahead free throws and a game-winning block by LeBron James.
None of them were the defining moment of the Lakers’ 116-114 win Sunday night in Phoenix, a real testament to just how wild was what Dillon Brooks did with 12.2 seconds to go.
Brooks capped a wild fourth-quarter comeback from the Suns by hitting a three-point shot, only to run down the court, intentionally bump into James and earn his second technical foul of the game, causing his ejection.
“He’s going to compete. I’m going to compete,” James said. “We’re going to get up in each other’s face. Try not to go borderline with it. I don’t really take it there. But we’re just competing and did that almost all the way to the end of the game.”
Even though James missed the technical free throw, Brooks wasn’t on the floor for the subsequent possession when Devin Booker reached in and caught James’ hand just as he was shooting a 3. James made two of the free throws and sealed the game by blocking Grayson Allen as he attempted to step through the Lakers’ defense.
Booker disputed the called foul postgame.
“I got to check the rulebook,” he said. “I’ve always been told the hand is part of the ball. It’s over with now. I shouldn’t have even been in the area to commit that foul.”
Still, even the consequential plays were overshadowed because James and Brooks were the stars of the show.
“He brought his antics,” the Lakers’ Jared Vanderbilt said of Brooks. “Tonight it cost him.”
Brooks and James had each been called for technical fouls earlier in the game for interactions with one another. It took Brooks a little more than 90 seconds to earn his first technical foul, called after he rammed into James repeatedly trying to get to the offensive glass.
In the third quarter, James and Brooks needed to be separated after Brooks swatted a dead ball off of James’ back. James was called for the lone technical in the interaction, which required him to be held back by teammates and coaches.
The third technical — the one that led to Brooks’ ejection — came after he made his third 3 of the fourth quarter to bring Phoenix all the way back from 20 down, a run kickstarted by Marcus Smart throwing a no-look pass directly to Phoenix guard Allen. Brooks made a 3 on the following possession that started the 30-12 run that got them all the way back into the game.
In the final minute, Smart again made a bad decision, driving for a layup early in the shot clock only to be blocked at the rim by Suns center Mark Williams, leading to Brooks’ go-ahead 3 — and the ensuing technical.
“it didn’t matter if he had one already or not, that’s definitely a tech,” James said. “If it was a tech on me in the (third quarter), then it was a tech on him right here, too.” Brooks didn’t speak to the media following the game.
“There’s history there,” Booker said. “I love to see it. People always say everything’s too friendly in the NBA, and then Dillon comes around and now it’s too much. I’d rather it be too much.”
Brooks and James battled against one another in the 2023 NBA playoffs when the seventh-seeded Lakers upset Brooks’ second-seeded Memphis Grizzlies. Following Game 2 of that series, Brooks called James “old” and said “I poke bears” in reference to an on-court altercation with James.
Later in the series, Brooks got ejected for hitting James in the groin.
Earlier this month, Brooks scored 33 points as the Suns snapped the Lakers’ seven-game winning streak.
“(James) likes people that bow down,” Brooks told reporters after that win. “I don’t bow down. So, that either entices him or it aggravates him, either-or.”
The latest chapter in their ongoing beef overshadowed a basketball game wild enough without their antics.
The Lakers managed to win for the first time in nearly six years when committing more than 20 turnovers and shooting less than 20 percent from 3. They did it thanks, in part, to the energy Vanderbilt gave them after he re-entered the rotation for the first time in a month.
In 15 minutes, Vanderbilt grabbed six offensive rebounds to go with two steals and a block.
“It’s a long season. It’s still early, so I know whether guys getting injured or something like that, the opportunity (was) gonna come back around,” Vanderbilt said. “And the biggest thing is being ready for it mentally. And obviously doing your part on the court and, showing up to practice and being a good teammate and stuff like that, but yeah, my main thing was just staying ready. ‘Cause I knew eventually, at some point, opportunity was gonna come and I wanted to be ready for it.”
After a pointed film session Thursday aimed at correcting a miserable stretch of defensive basketball, the Lakers were much better, holding Phoenix to just 26 points in the second quarter before smothering them during a 15-point third.
The Suns went nearly the final six minutes of the third and the first four-plus minutes of the fourth without a field goal, a stretch that ended when Brooks capitalized on Smart’s bad pass, which was intended for Vanderbilt.
“It was craziness,” Smart said. “I think, one play didn’t define that game in our 20-point let up. But it started with me, I did some dumb stuff and I’m just glad we came out with the win and it didn’t cost us.”
As the Suns carved all the way into the Lakers’ lead, all of the positives that led to that point — Vanderbilt’s energy, a combined 32 points on 14-of-15 shooting from Deandre Ayton and Jaxson Hayes, and a flurry of energy plays by Jake LaRavia — were at risk of being squandered.
The Lakers didn’t even make the most of Brooks’ ejection, James — and not Luka Dončić — taking, and missing, the technical free throw that could’ve tied the game.
James, though, redeemed himself by making two of the three after Booker fouled him, and getting the key stop on Allen’s attempted go-ahead shot.
“The last three shots at the free-throw line, that’s another movie I seen today,” Ayton said. “Just him just taking his time, hearing the environment, hearing how the boos and the ahhs, people knowing the outcome if you make these shots. Yeah. It was a movie again, and he did it again.”
The game ended with 54 combined missed 3s, 42 turnovers and 51 fouls.
James finished with 26 points, two steals, two blocks and eight turnovers. Dončić had 29 points but missed 12 of 14 from 3-point range. Booker led the Suns with 27.
“It’s gonna sound sick: I love winning games like this,” Lakers coach JJ Redick said. “Wish it had not been a one-possession game, not been down with 12 seconds, like all that stuff. But winning ugly is actually really fun because it means you got in the trenches and you fought, and we did that tonight.”
Doug Haller contributed to this story.