The Grizzlies are still three wins away from advancing past the Lakers in the NBA playoffs.
But that isn't stopping Dillon Brooks from providing one of the greatest players of all time with some bulletin board material.
After a Ja Morant-less Memphis squad defeated Los Angeles in Game 2 on Wednesday, the Grizzlies forward who's notorious for his trash talk fired some vicious shots at LeBron James.
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Brooks first told reporters he wishes he could've guarded James back when the NBA's all-time scoring leader was with the Cavaliers or Heat because "it would've been a harder task" than it is now.
Then, after being asked if he was worried about poking the proverbial bear, Brooks proceeded to poke the bear even harder.
"I don't care, he's old," Brooks said of James. "I poke bears. I don't respect no one until they come and give me 40. I pride myself on defense and taking on any challenge that's on the board."
The comments came after Brooks and James shared some spicy moments during Game 2. James sparked a back-and-forth with some words for Brooks after making a shot over him in the third quarter.
Brooks said James told him he was "dumb" for picking up his fourth foul earlier in the quarter.
"I said, 'Oh, finally you want to talk,'" Brooks said of his response to James, via ESPN. "Then we started to get into a conversation. I just let him know that, 'You can't take me one-on-one. You haven't.' You go look at the film; he doesn't really take me one-on-one until that moment."
Brooks later stared down James after hitting a 3-pointer in the fourth quarter.
James had success against Brooks in Game 1, tallying 15 of his 28 points on 6-for-10 shooting with him as the primary defender. The Lakers forward put up another 28 points in Game 2 while shooting 11 of 15 inside the arc, though he struggled from 3-point range (1-for-8).
As the 1-1 series shifts to Los Angeles, all eyes will be on the Brooks-James matchup at Crypto.com Arena.