LeBron James seals Lakers win after Brooks’ second technical foul

Dillon Brooks astir stole the nighttime successful Los Angeles connected Sunday. He helped substance a furious 20-point Phoenix Suns comeback successful the 4th quarter, past drilled a go-ahead 3-pointer with 12.2 seconds left.

However, the plaything didn’t last. Right aft the shot, Brooks went chest-to-chest with LeBron James, picked up a method foul—his 2nd of the game—and got ejected. The Lakers took the opening. James went 2-for-4 astatine the enactment connected the adjacent sequence, archetypal missing the method escaped throw, past drafting a foul from Devin Booker connected a 3-pointer and making 2 with 3.0 seconds left. He capped it by blocking Grayson Allen’s past effort to unafraid a 116-114 win.

A rivalry that keeps uncovering caller chapters

The matchup carried other edge, stretching backmost to the 2023 playoffs erstwhile Brooks called LeBron “old” and boasted, “I poke bears.” James, who turns 41 aboriginal this month, answered with different large all-around line: 26 points, 4 assists, 2 steals and 2 blocks, adjacent with 8 turnovers and missed escaped throws.

“I conscionable similar to compete,” LeBron said. “He’s going to compete. I’m going to compete. We’re going to get up successful each other’s face. Try not to spell borderline with it. I don’t truly instrumentality it there. But we’re conscionable competing and did that astir each the mode to the extremity of the game.”

Asked astir the precocious contact, LeBron said, “That’s decidedly a tech.” He added, “If it was a tech connected maine successful the [third quarter], past it was a tech connected him close here, too.”

Crew main Tyler Ford said Brooks’ 2nd method was “for making unsportsmanlike interaction during the dormant ball.”

Lakers guardant Jarred Vanderbilt enactment it plainly: “S---, I don’t know, helium brought his antics. Tonight, it outgo him.”

Booker backed Brooks’ edge, saying, “Yeah, I mean there’s past there,” and later: “I got to cheque the regularisation book. I’ve ever been told the hand’s portion of the ball.”