Golden State Warriors\’ Stephen Curry is fouled by Houston Rockets\’ Dillon Brooks during the second half of Game 7 on Sunday, May 4, 2025, in Houston.
It’s pretty clear that Rockets forward Dillon Brooks got under the Warriors’ skin in their first-round series. Just look at how much the Dubs delighted in rubbing Brooks’ nose in their win after Game 7.
The Dubs let the Rockets villain have it during and after their 103-89 win on Sunday night, in ways both direct and subtle. According to the Athletic’s Marcus Thompson, one of the loudest Warriors chirping at Brooks was Sunday’s star, Buddy Hield.
Back in their college days, Hield was a star at Oklahoma while Brooks was a key cog for Oregon. When their teams met in the Elite Eight in 2016, Hield dropped 37 points to lead the Sooners to the Final Four over the Ducks.
So when Sunday came around and Hield set a new playoff career-high with 33 points, as well as tied an NBA record with nine 3-pointers in a Game 7, Hield was all too happy to make sure Brooks was feeling deja vu.
“I told him, ‘I sent you home. I’ma send you home again,’” Hield told Thompson.
Meanwhile, Steph Curry also seemed to send a message to Brooks. The self-proclaimed “Petty King” wore sunglasses to the press conference after the Game 7 win — an unusual choice for Curry in his attire but seemingly a callback to how Brooks and Rockets teammate Alperen Sengun wore sunglasses when speaking to the media after Game 5. That was the postgame press conference where Brooks tacitly admitted he was trying to hit Curry’s injured thumb on jump shots.
On Sunday, after Curry dropped 22 points, 10 rebounds and seven assists in 46 minutes to lead Golden State, the wardrobe choice had fans on the Warriors subreddit laughing at Brooks’ misery. As the top reply pointed out, “Thats the first time I\’ve ever seen Steph wear shades at a press conference and I was wondering why.”
Brooks was a pest throughout the series. He discussed dirty plays with the media multiple times in the series, got into several scuffles with Warriors players — with one of them earning Curry a rare technical foul for his involvement in the skirmish — and even got Jimmy Butler to outright declare, “I don’t like Dillon Brooks.”
In almost every way, he accomplished his mission to get under the Warriors’ skin and help the Rockets force Game 7, but he had just eight points on 3-of-9 shooting and two rebounds on Sunday night. Now, he’ll be starting his summer vacation early. At least that’s a good reason to put on some sunglasses.