Lakers: Dillon Brooks Thinks He's Cracked the Code on Guarding LeBron James

He thinks it's simpler than you'd expect.

Memphis Grizzlies swingman Dillon Brooks spent the bulk of his minutes defending Los Angeles Lakers All-Star power forward LeBron James last night. Although the Lakers eventually beat the Grizzlies (just barely), 122-121, and Brooks was even noticeably berated by a certain courtside media personality, the Memphis wing more than held his own against The King.

Brooks pestered James into a pretty inefficient scoring night. In 36:32, James scored "just" 23 points on 8-of-21 shooting from the floor (1-of-5 from three) and 6-of-7 shooting from the free throw line. Thanks in part to Brooks, James finished well below his standard shooting efficiency (he's knocking down 50.6% from the floor this year) and points per game (29.6). LBJ did grab nine rebounds, pass for nine dimes, snag two steals and reject two shots. 

After the game, Brooks spoke with reporters about the Shannon Sharpe fracas -- oh, and about how he managed to hold James so far below his scoring and shooting averages.

Dillon Brooks had some spicy postgame comments: pic.twitter.com/nR8GwNaVDe

— Dave McMenamin (@mcten) January 21, 2023

"He doesn't want to go left," Brooks revealed. "I was just making him go left all game. Then he would settle or he would pass the ball. That's my method, that's what I [do] ... I need to play physical with him and continuously bump him all the time and don't let him take easy shots."

It was certainly an effective approach for the game, as other Lakers (in this case, Russell Westbrook and Dennis Schröder) ultimately had to beat Memphis down the stretch with James semi-compromised.