5 hours ago
3
All is fair in love and war — and apparently playoff basketball.
Enigmatic Rockets wing Dillon Brooks is never one to shy away from a fight and he all but confirmed he was targeting the thumb injury Steph Curry suffered during Wednesday’s Game 5 to help his team secure a 131-116 home win and stave off elimination.
“I’m playing the game,” Brooks said when asked if he was targeting Curry’s thumb when defending him. “Shoot, if you’re going to come play the game injured, whatever you’ve got, it’s all about the game.
“If I had an injured ankle, I would attack that ankle every single time. So whatever they’re saying on the broadcast, they can keep saying it.”
Curry apparently hurt his thumb in Game 5 when Brooks made contact with Curry’s right hand after he took a jumper, with the all-time great shooter furious that Brooks did not get called for a foul.
The Warriors star wore a wrap and had ice on his injured thumb postgame.
When asked whether the Rockets were deliberately hitting Curry’s hand to worsen the injury, Draymond Green said, “I think it’s pretty obvious.”
“You don’t think about it,” Curry added. “If it’s a foul, they should call it.”
The Warriors trailed by double-digits for most of the game Wednesday and relied on their reserves for much of the second half, which allowed Curry plenty of time to rest since he played only 23 minutes.
Things still got chippy, though, while the Rockets sliced their series deficit to 3-2.
Up by 13 points with four minutes remaining and the Warriors having unloaded their bench, Brooks and reserve Pat Spencer got into a tussle, with Spencer eventually ejected for head-butting Alpren Sengun.
Spencer, a former college lacrosse player, went forehead to forehead with Sengun before head-butting the Rockets’ stars. A scrum eventually separated the two teams.
Friday night’s Game 6 should have plenty of intrigue and physicality as the Warriors look to close out the Rockets at home.
English (US)