PHOENIX — The ultimate achievement of Sunday’s 116-114 theatrical Phoenix Suns loss to the Los Angeles Lakers wasn’t how they lost or even how they roared back inside the game’s chaos. It was how a rivalry going back decades has now been reignited to a peak temperature we haven’t seen in many years.
And all from just one regular season game in mid-December.
The latest chapter of the Dillon Brooks and LeBron James saga, incredibly sloppy play through all sorts of chippiness and maddening officiating decisions set a previously unlit cauldron ablaze.
All of it tied together during the night’s incredibly dramatic climax.
The Suns, down by 20 with 8:40 to go after a nearly eight-minute scoreless streak, went from a stumbling and bumbling mess to hitting a go-ahead shot with 12 seconds to go.
As they continued to get run off their own floor with a loud opposing fanbase presence started taking over things off the floor, Los Angeles’ Marcus Smart reached a once-in-a-decade level of stupidity with a transition turnover you have to see to believe.
That was the initial spark to keep the door ajar for the Suns, but a 14-3 surge to get within nine was doused out by a brief Lakers stabilization to go back up 14 with 3:54 left.
Los Angeles’ ensuing possessions were turnover, missed 3, missed 3, turnover and missed 3. The Suns scored off all those for a 12-0 run in 2:01 to shockingly be down just two. The Lakers then had some beautiful ball movement get a James layup to go, and then would have the ball up two with 28 seconds left.
That’s when Smart got a pass from James in the backcourt as James was pressured, and with the seas parting all the way to the basket, Smart one-upped himself with an even bigger boneheaded decision to try to go score at the rim. Ryan Dunn was there in waiting, emphatically blocked Smart’s shot eight seconds later and then Devin Booker missed a pull-up 3 for the lead before grabbing his own miss and finding Brooks for that aforementioned go-ahead 3.
Brooks, who had James impede his landing space and should have gotten a chance at a four-point play, responded to that fall by darting over to James and giving him a chest bump. At that point, the Lakers had called a timeout already, so the officials would conduct yet another replay review to see if Brooks had committed a hostile act.
It was ruled he did, a foolish choice by Brooks after he did nothing but practically ignore James outside of live play prior to that moment. Brooks picked up his second technical foul and was ejected, giving James the chance to get the last laugh.
At first, he did not. James missed that free throw to tie the game at 12 seconds on the clock, only for him to get a chance at redemption when the Lakers’ ensuing possession down one saw James fouled on a 3-point attempt by Booker on a broken play.
Luka Doncic got to his step-back going to his left, but in mid-air passed it to James at the logo, who received a just-about perfect closeout from Booker as he got the shot up. The problem is, Booker ever so briefly put his hands in the cookie jar to swipe at the ball.
On replay, it looked like he got them out in time, so Suns head coach Jordan Ott used his last challenge with only one timeout left. But the review center and referees saw contact from Booker on James’ wrist, giving him three free throws and also taking away Phoenix’s last timeout.
“I’ve always been told hand is a part of the ball. … It’s over with now,” Booker said. “I shouldn’t have even been in the area to commit that foul.”
James made two of three at the line to put the Lakers up two and the inbounds pass at 3.9 ticks remaining was a dart by Royce O’Neale to Grayson Allen a few feet out from the right wing’s 3-point line. Allen attempted a step-through jumper that James got a hand on cleanly (that he also said he had scouted from Allen in the past) and that was that.
Brooks is the NBA’s perennial pot-stirrer, an all-timer with the antics. This has won the Suns a handful of basketball games already on nights when you can see how much he is in the head of the opposition, who sometimes just want to get through a regular season game without having to put up with his nonsense.
But this was the biggest game thus far where it was a negative and played a part in Phoenix losing.
“There’s history there. I love to see it,” Booker said of it. “People always say everything’s too friendly in the NBA. And then Dillon comes around and now it’s too much. (But) I’d rather (have) it the other way, him be too much.”
Brooks was indeed too much, and the mind games with James were simmering from the jump to eventually boil over a few times before the conclusion.
With a few minutes left in the second quarter when it became clear it was more worthwhile watching those two off the ball instead of whoever had the actual ball, Brooks stayed attached to James through a screen after initially wearing one strong brush of impact from James and embellished the second hit he knew was coming to get an offensive foul called.
It was reviewed and ruled a common foul, which is a bit perplexing considering some similarities it shares to Grayson Allen’s Flagrant 2 from Oklahoma City.
Regardless, the theater continued, and James started getting the better of him in the only ways he honestly could through a real off-night.
With 14 seconds left in the first half on a Lakers free throw, James beat out Brooks for an offensive rebound and then was fouled by Brooks for Brooks’ fourth personal to get more free throws. James 13 seconds later made the first, clanked the second and grabbed his own miss, adding up to three extra points just before halftime.
It was a mini-swing that serves as an exact example of what the repercussions can be of Brooks’ shenanigans. I’d imagine James’ count on offensive rebounds off free throws in the last five years equals maybe two, and he matched it in the span of 13 seconds.
The twist in the night came right after halftime, when James turned into the one getting out of control.
Just over a minute into the third quarter, Brooks drew a shooting foul while getting stripped of the ball. It went in the air as it was in the direction of the basket and James swatted it away (as it customary these days), but Brooks gave it a light swat back and it went off James. This, for whatever reason, made James absolutely lose his marbles. James bumped Brooks and Brooks just calmly walked away, not even turning around to see James forcing himself to be held back by an official and a teammate.
James made contact with an official at the time, an instance many Suns fans wanted to see him ejected for, but that was part of what was reviewed and the referees said afterward in the pool report that “there was no unsportsmanlike act observed for making contact with a referee.”
James did get a technical foul, though, and Brooks did not. That was the successful ragebait to earn the Suns a point in the ways we’ve seen all year.
But two possessions later, Brooks isolated on James, and James baited Brooks into using a shoulder bump to create separation on his signature fallaway jumper. James sold the bump for good measure to give Brooks his fifth foul with only two minutes off the clock in the second half.
“He’s going to compete, I’m going to compete, 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,” James said. “We just compete. Did that almost all the way until the end of the game.”
Brooks was not made available to speak postgame. He was 6-for-9 for 18 points in 25 minutes. James was 8-for-17 for 26 points with four assists and eight turnovers. His five giveaways in the first quarter were the first time he had done that in 15 years, according to Stathead.
There are a handful of team statistics that jump out postgame, none bigger than the Lakers’ 43-25 finish in free-throw attempts. The first foul Doncic drew just a few possessions into the game established the type of night it was going to be, a light whistle, which plays right into the Lakers’ strengths.
The calls, however, are what they are with this matchup as always. The numbers don’t lie when it comes to the Lakers’ success in getting to the foul line more than anyone else in recent years. Every team around the league knows what to expect.
So, if that controllable turns into an uncontrollable of sorts, you better be damned sure the other controllabes are in line. And they weren’t even close to that.
After the Lakers clearly checked out rather early into a blowout loss in L.A. to the Suns at the start of the month, they were extremely engaged from the start of this game on Sunday.
The mess of this Suns performance included getting worked 24-10 on the offensive glass and points off turnovers ending at 36-31 Suns. Turnovers were 22-20 Lakers, and they at one point missed 22 of their first 25 attempts from 3, a shooting funk they were able to overcome thanks to all their hard work elsewhere.
Booker did not lean into talk about the free throws and instead directed the attention to those areas.
“We just got outworked from beginning until the fourth quarter,” he said. “It can’t be an on and off switch with us.”
Those are some of the margins that have made the Suns the biggest surprise in the league. So in turn it was surprising to see them play that uncharacteristically, even within this hectic environment.
A lot of that can get tied to an outstanding Deandre Ayotn outing. He vastly outplayed Phoenix’s Mark Williams, amounting to 20 points (10-for-11) and 13 rebounds. Williams was getting a bit reliant on his exceptional size, agility and length, and Ayton has all of that too. His nose for the ball was much better on Sunday. Williams only grabbed six rebounds and ended up with 20 points (9-for-10).
Los Angeles turned to Jarred Vanderbilt to locate even more energy and he grabbed six offensive rebounds in 15 minutes, while backup big Jaxson Hayes also definitively got the better of his matchup with 12 points and nine rebounds.
Booker was back from a three-game absence and didn’t quite look like himself still until the rallies started late. He contributed 27 points (7-for-17), seven assists and one turnover in 31 minutes. Collin Gillespie remained in the starting lineup and O’Neale went to the bench.
Doncic could not hit a shot to save his life, going 7-for-25 (including 2-for-14 from 3) but affected the game enough from the foul line, where he went 14-for-16.