For a while, tempers have suddenly flared between two of the Western Conference’s top two teams on Sunday night.
With the most important possession of the game on the line, Dillon Brooks and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander wrestled hard for the ball. With less than one minute left and both teams knotted at 113 apiece, Gilgeous-Alexander rebounded a Fred VanVleet missed trey until Brooks held the ball with his hands as well.
Brooks and Gilgeous-Alexander’s intense sequence led their respective teammates to immediately rush over. In their fight for the ball, both players ignited a mixture of blue and red jerseys on the Houston Rockets’ sidelines within the Toyota Center.
Interestingly, amid how things have gone messy for them, Brooks and Gilgeous-Alexander just shared a laugh on opposite ends.
From a frenzied vibe, things suddenly turned completely opposite as both teams ultimately deflected the wild play and continued the ball game. Brooks won the jump ball and eventually hit a critical two-point jumper with 33 seconds left that helped the Rockets’ 119-116 nail-biting dub over the Oklahoma City Thunder.
Right at his postgame availability, Brooks himself brushed off any issue that could’ve been formed after his rough event with Gilgeous-Alexander.
“That’s just a friendly battle,” Brooks said, who finished with 16 points and 7 boards. “That just goes back to training camp – in Team Canada – for sure.”
Despite that crazy part of their endgame this weekend, Brooks will always consider Gilgeous-Alexander as one of his basketball brothers. The two share an unbreakable bond as two of Canada’s finest, leading their country back to the map of international basketball.
Brooks and Gilgeous-Alexander bannered the Canadians’ past Summer Olympics run in Paris and guided the team in last year’s bronze medal finish at the FIBA Basketball World Cup.
As members of the two of the present bests in the West, Gilgeous-Alexander and Brooks will still meet for two regular season matchups next year. Regardless if they’ll end up repeating the same fiery moment for themselves, their brotherhood still won’t ever fade.
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