Los Angeles Lakers forward Jarred Vanderbilt was ejected against the Houston Rockets last night after getting into it with Dillon Brooks.
According to Dave McMenamin of ESPN, Brooks called Vanderbilt a “p***y.” The Rockets defeated the Lakers by a final score of 135-119.
Vanderbilt is the Lakers’ best perimeter defender, so once he got ejected, the Rockets started scoring with ease. Anthony Davis, who re-aggravated his groin injury, called out Brooks for his actions.
“He’s going for a wide-open dunk and [Brooks] just pushed him in the back,” Davis said. “It’s not a safe play. Guys get hurt like that. And you got to know what type of player [Brooks] is. [The referees] kind of let that just keep going on and [Brooks] kind of provoked it. He talks and says whatever he wants to the refs, to players and at the end of the day, we’re men. No man is going to talk towards another man the way he was talking to Vando. So, Vando did what he had to do.”
NBA NEWS & RUMORS: Dillon Brooks, Houston Rockets, Jarred Vanderbilt, Los Angeles Lakers Updates
Brooks was called for a flagrant foul 1 after hitting LeBron James in the face in the fourth quarter. The Rockets forward has a history with the Lakers superstar.
“I mean, you take a hard foul,” Davis said. “That’s part of basketball, but you are just not going to blatantly push someone in their back when they have no control of their body and they are in the air. And he should have gotten ejected for that. And then you know him and Bron have their [collision] and from what I saw, it was just a blatant hit to LeBron to his face.”
NBA NEWS & RUMORS: Dillon Brooks, Houston Rockets, Jarred Vanderbilt, Los Angeles Lakers Updates
The Lakers dropped to 24-24, while the Rockets improved to 22-24. Brooks finished with 17 points and five fouls against LAL while shooting 7-of-12 from the field, 2-of-4 from beyond the arc and 1-of-2 from the free-throw line.
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