Rockets center Jock Landale was not happy about Dillon Brooks’ ejection on Thursday night.
Brooks got the boot in the third quarter of Houston’s 127-117 win over the Bulls after getting into a scuffle with DeMar DeRozan after the Chicago star earned himself a flagrant foul for his hard foul on Jalen Green.
“Dillon Brooks, if you’re listening. This ain’t Memphis, man,” Landale said in a postgame interview on the court. “Stop getting yourself ejected. We need you out here. We need that physicality.”
Landale and the Rockets have a reason to be annoyed at Brooks’ ejection.
Houston is on a seven-game winning streak, and while they’re under .500 at 34-35, they sit just 2.5 games behind the Warriors for the ten-seed in the West and a play-in tournament berth.
Last season, Brooks led the league in techs with 18, but his Memphis Grizzlies made the playoffs comfortably.
Now, his team needs him on the court as they make a playoff push.
For his troubles on Thursday, he took an elbow to the jaw from DeRozan — something the Rockets were keenly aware of.
“I didn’t love it being that he got elbowed,” Rockets coach Ime Udoka said. “He walked over and didn’t say anything crazy. But they say the rules are the guy that kind of instigates it to get it to that step after DeRozan did what he did, he got suspended because of that.”
Even with the ejection, Brooks finished with 23 points on 10-for-13 shooting, the second-most behind Green’s 26 in just 25 minutes of playing time.
