LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers will face off against Dillon Brooks and the Memphis Grizzlies in the first round of the 2023 NBA Playoffs if they’re able to get past the Minnesota Timberwolves in the play-in tournament on Tuesday night.
Brooks recently explained why he “wouldn’t mind” playing James in a seven-game series.
Dillon Brooks: “I wouldn’t mind playing LeBron in a 7-game series.”
Why?
“The legacy is there. First time back in the playoffs, knock him out right away in the first round. It’ll test us good. They got good pieces, good players, and that’ll be a good 1st round matchup for us.”
— Mark Giannotto (@mgiannotto) April 11, 2023
It’s certainly a confident statement from Brooks, though it’s not all that surprising. Over the past couple of seasons, Brooks has been known to make fairly strong comments about himself and his team.
Los Angeles will likely feel good about its chances in the first round of the playoffs if it ends up beating the Timberwolves on Tuesday. That’s because the Lakers went 2-1 against the Grizzlies during the regular season. Their only loss came on the road in February during a game in which LeBron James and D’Angelo Russell didn’t play in.
While Brooks is confident that his team would beat the Lakers in a best-of-seven series, the University of Oregon product didn’t fare too well against them during the 2022-23 regular season. In those aforementioned three games, he averaged just 9.7 points, 3.3 rebounds and 1.7 assists per game while making just 24.4 percent of his shots from the field and 30.0 percent of his attempts from beyond the arc.
There are plenty of people that believe Memphis would have a great chance of knocking out Los Angeles if the two sides were to match up in the first round. Stephen A. Smith recently warned fans that the Grizzlies are “no joke.”
However, there are also a countless number of people that are firm believers in the Lakers. In fact, former Lakers champion Kyle Kuzma recently said that he thinks the Lakers can make it all the way to the NBA Finals this season.
My hot take.. (but not really) I think the lakeshow can get to the finals..
— kuz (@kylekuzma) April 11, 2023
After the All-Star break, the Lakers went 16-7 to finish the regular season, the best record in the Western Conference during that span. What makes that mark even more impressive is that James missed multiple contests with a foot injury.
The team seems to jelling at the right moment, but there’s still plenty of work left to do. Everything starts with Tuesday’s play-in game, which is set to get started at 7 p.m. PST.
