{"id":113356,"date":"2025-06-21T01:11:16","date_gmt":"2025-06-21T01:11:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/113356\/"},"modified":"2025-06-21T01:11:16","modified_gmt":"2025-06-21T01:11:16","slug":"brooks-to-critics-calling-thompson-dirty-for-foul-on-butler-the-dirty-player-is-draymond","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/113356\/","title":{"rendered":"Brooks to critics calling Thompson dirty for foul on Butler: ‘The dirty player is Draymond’"},"content":{"rendered":"

HOUSTON (AP) \u2014 Some have questioned whether Houston\u2019s Amen Thompson is a dirty player after Warriors star Jimmy Butler was injured in a scary fall during Game 2 when the Rockets guard took out the legs of the Golden State forward on a hard foul.<\/p>\n

Thompson\u2019s teammate, Dillon Brooks, had other thoughts on the subject when asked about it Friday ahead of Saturday\u2019s Game 3.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo, I think the dirty player is Draymond (Green), giving him a little push as regular basketball players do,\u201d Brooks said. \u201cAnd Jimmy\u2019s fighting in the air for a rebound and stuff happens. Amen\u2019s not a dirty player. He has (nothing) to do with being a dirty player.\u201d<\/p>\n

Butler was listed as questionable Friday, a day ahead of the game at Chase Center. An MRI exam revealed he injured his pelvis and has a deep gluteal muscle contusion, the team said. Butler sustained a pelvic contusion in the 109-94 loss<\/a> that tied the first round series at 1-1.<\/p>\n

Green was named the winner of the 2024-25 NBA Hustle Award on Friday.<\/p>\n

Brooks said the Rockets must keep their focus on Game 3 and not be concerned about what people are saying about them.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re not worried about that,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019re on to the next game and we hope Jimmy can get better.\u201d<\/p>\n

Golden State coach Steve Kerr said after the game that he doesn\u2019t believe Thompson intended to hurt Butler.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe didn\u2019t think there was anything wrong with the play,\u201d Kerr said. \u201cIt was just one of those plays.\u201d<\/p>\n

When told Friday that Brooks called Green dirty, Kerr said: \u201cDillon said that? Interesting.\u201d<\/p>\n

Then with Memphis three years ago, Brooks\u2019 Flagrant 2 foul on Gary Payton II<\/a> during Game 2 of the Western Conference semifinals of the Warriors\u2019 championship run in 2022 fractured Payton\u2019s elbow. He returned for Game 2 of Golden State\u2019s six-game NBA Finals victory over Boston.<\/p>\n

Houston coach Ime Udoka weighed in on the play Friday.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s obvious it wasn\u2019t intentional,\u201d he said. \u201cYou look at all the bodies in between and him getting bumped and tripped and the way he fell. You don\u2019t fall into somebody face first on purpose.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wednesday\u2019s game became a bit chippy with players from both teams getting technical fouls in the second half and Houston\u2019s Jalen Green receiving a flagrant foul when he flailed an arm into Draymond Green\u2019s face.<\/p>\n

\u201cAmen\u2019s obviously not a dirty player,\u201d Udoka said. \u201cThere\u2019s a difference between aggressive, physical play and being dirty and you could question some of their things as well on their on their end.\u201d<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

AP Sports Writer Janie McCauley in San Francisco contributed to this story.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

AP NBA: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/nba<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"HOUSTON (AP) \u2014 Some have questioned whether Houston\u2019s Amen Thompson is a dirty player after Warriors star Jimmy…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1710,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3794],"tags":[883,7,579,1195,200,1347,292,194,4066,1272,861,313,6,446,211,66,863,582],"class_list":{"0":"post-113356","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-houston-rockets","8":"tag-amen-thompson","9":"tag-basketball","10":"tag-ca-state-wire","11":"tag-dillon-brooks","12":"tag-draymond-green","13":"tag-gary-payton-ii","14":"tag-houston","15":"tag-houston-rockets","16":"tag-houstonrockets","17":"tag-ime-udoka","18":"tag-jalen-green","19":"tag-jimmy-butler","20":"tag-nba","21":"tag-nba-basketball","22":"tag-rockets","23":"tag-sports","24":"tag-steve-kerr","25":"tag-tx-state-wire"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/114718696243894355","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113356","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=113356"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113356\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1710"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=113356"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=113356"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=113356"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}