Tempers boiled over between Donovan Mitchell and Dillon Brooks Thursday night. Mitchell took the beef to his postgame presser, throwing more shade at Brooks.
Thursday night’s game between the Cavaliers and Grizzlies took a turn in the third quarter when Dillon Brooks drove to the basket, colliding with Donovan Mitchell. Both players got tangled up and fell to the floor, as Brooks was getting to his feet he threw his arm wildly, in what looked like a very intentional groin strike on Mitchell.
Mitchell responded by throwing the ball at Brooks, the two players went chest to chest, pushes were exchanged and we were off and running.
https://mobile.twitter.com/WorldWideWob/status/1621332634902351872
Brooks and Mitchell were both ejected and the Cavaliers went on to win, 128-113. After the game, Mitchell was no mood to mince words and made clear how he felt about Brooks and his actions.
That clip only captures part of Mitchell’s comments and you can see the rest here.
Has Donovan Mitchell really owned Dillon Brooks?
Mitchell might have been exaggerating slightly when he said, “Quite frankly, I’ve been busting his a** for years.”
Across their regular season careers, they’ve played each other 11 times with Brooks spending about 284 possessions as the primary defender on Mitchell. Across all those possessions, a considerable sample size, Mitchell is averaging 22.5 points and 6.0 assists per 100 possessions, shooting just 39.6 percent from the field. Those numbers seem reasonable but over his career, Mitchell has averaged 35.1 points and 6.5 assists per 100 possessions, shooting 44.5 percent from the field.
Mitchell might not want to admit and he can complain all he wants about physicality and dirty play, but Brooks does have a track record of slowing him down.
Check out The Step Back for more news, analysis, opinion and unique basketball coverage. Don’t forget to follow us on Twitter Twitter and Instagram and subscribe to our daily email newsletter, The Whiteboard.