Luka Doncic and Slovenia are out of the 2023 FIBA World Cup, and Dillon Brooks is moving on with Canada. The two NBA players did battle all game and both earned ejections in the fourth quarter of Canada’s 100-89 victory. After the game, though, the Dallas Mavericks superstar had big praise for the new Houston Rockets wing.
“He's very physical, like he always does,” Doncic said of Brooks at his postgame press conference. “A lot of people don't like him, but I respect him for what he does. And he does that stuff really good.”
Luka Doncic's take on Dillon Brooks is a bit surprising because last we saw the former Memphis Grizzlies wing he was guarding, talking trash about, and getting torched by LeBron James in the NBA playoffs. In fact, the Grizzlies were so fed up with Brooks' antics, that they didn't offer him a new deal this offseason. That said, the Rockets — a team trying to change a losing culture — did see value in the polarizing player and gave him $20 million a year.
Brooks and the rest of the Canadian squad held Doncic to “just” 26 points, five assists, and four rebounds in the game. Those points brought his tournament-leading per-game average to 26.3 points per game.
More importantly, Brooks frustrated Doncic all game, which led to the Mavs guard chirping at the refs and ultimately getting ejected. Doncic got the hook a few minutes after Dillion, and Slovenia was already down to Canada 92-77 with just six and a half minutes to go.
With the Canadian victory, the final four of the FIBA World Cup is now set. Brooks and Canada will take on Serbia after the Eastern European squad’s 87-68 victory over Lithuania. The United States team beat Italy 100-63 and will now face a Germany squad that squeaked by Latvia 81-79.
These semifinal games will take place on Friday, September 8, with the final game scheduled for Sunday, September 10.
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