Dillon Brooks has responded to claims that he's trying to take advantage of Steph Curry's thumb injury following the Houston Rockets' victory over the Golden State Warriors.
During Game 4, it appeared as though Brooks was targeting Curry's injury, and in Game 5 he was accused of doing the same thing again. Even the Warriors' broadcast accused him of such. When asked about it during a recent interview, Brooks dismissed the criticism but did not deny that he was after Curry's injury.
"I've been playing the game," he said. "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."
As ESPN reported, the Warriors expressed frustration at Brooks' actions following Game 5. When Brooks made contact with Curry's injured thumb in the first quarter, he gestured toward the officials, and coach Steve Kerr also spoke with them. A foul wasn't called, and when Curry was asked about it, he avoided accusing Brooks of playing dirty.
"You don't think about it," he said. "And if it's a foul, they should call it. ... It is something I am dealing with." Curry sustained the injury in January, but injured it again more recently and has been playing with a wrap ever since. Draymond Green, however, was much more direct about the situation. "I think it's pretty obvious, but it is what it is," he said. "I'm not one to come to cry to you about what the league should do."
Kerr said that the moment in Game 5 was within the NBA's rules, and he suggested that Brooks and the Rockets are trying to skirt around cleverly. "They know what they're doing," he said. "So players all over the league are just taking shots at guys' shooting hands after the release because they know it's not going to be a foul. ... It's been happening across the league all year long."
