Jimmy Butler and Dillon Brooks had an impromptu acting competition during Sunday’s game.
In Game 1 on Sunday between the Golden State Warriors and the Houston Rockets, Butler and Brooks teamed up for an absurd double flop. During the third quarter, Butler was trying to get open with Brooks attached to his hip and used a screen by his teammate Gui Santos to spring free. Brooks ran into the Santos screen and proceeded to crash to the ground dramatically.
Then less than a second later, Butler took some light contact from Houston’s Jabari Smith Jr. while receiving the pass and toppled over himself, leaving both players on the deck at the same time. Take a look at the clip.
In the end, it was Butler (rather than Brooks) who successfully drew the whistle, resulting in two free throws for Butler because the Rockets were already in the penalty at the time. But truth be told, neither contact there seemed to be enough to truly justify a foul call.
Still, that farcical sequence was fairly on-brand for both players. Butler, who has averaged over eight free throws per game in the last six seasons combined, is known as one of the NBA’s top “foul merchants,” and Brooks is an absolutely notorious flopper who has even been ejected from games in the past for his shameless sell jobs.
Butler’s Warriors ended up defeating Brooks’ Rockets in Game 1 by a 95-85 final score. As for the double flop, that was remniscent of the egregious one that LeBron James and David West shared back in the 2013 playoffs.
