Ja Morant isn't the only Memphis Grizzlies player seeking a form of redemption | Giannotto

The question was directed at Ja Morant inside the Memphis Grizzlies locker room, immediately after their 141-132 loss to the Los Angeles Clippers on Wednesday at FedExForum. But Dillon Brooks couldn’t let it pass without injecting his opinion.

“They ain’t going to shoot like that again,” Brooks shouted toward the scrum of microphones on his way to the shower. Soon, the Grizzlies’ increasingly notorious antagonist unloaded some more unfriendly fire during his own session with reporters.

Brooks said he hoped Kawhi Leonard would play in Friday’s rematch in Memphis. He called Russell Westbrook’s trash talk “wack” because “he’s trying to watch me down at the end of the game like some punk.” It was, at this point, on brand when it comes to Brooks.

Until he got asked about the playoffs, and about what this year’s postseason signifies for him.

“I got no pressure,” Brooks said instinctively, and then offered a more vulnerable (and revealing) corollary suggesting the opposite.

“Last playoffs I was injured. I was playing with a torn hamstring,” he added, including a detail that had not been previously disclosed since, during last year’s playoffs, Memphis listed him as playing through a foot injury. “I gave it all my heart out there and I got penalized for it.”

What does that mean?

“I’m going to leave that in the rear view. I’m not going to explain myself on that,” Brooks continued. “But that’s how I felt during that backlash from the media and I had a lot of backlash from people, and I had to deal with it throughout this whole season.”

And at that moment, with the start of the postseason less than three weeks away, it became apparent once more Morant isn’t the only member of the Grizzlies out for redemption right now.

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With the playoffs around the corner, it’s finally appropriate again to consider how last season ended. To remember that, as topsy-turvy as this campaign has felt at times, it will still be defined by how far Memphis goes in the postseason.

Last year, it was about how close this group felt it was to knocking off the eventual NBA champion Golden State Warriors. How bitter the end felt, especially as Morant got injured, and Desmond Bane played injured, and Jaren Jackson Jr. battled chronic foul trouble and Steven Adams battled an ill-timed detour into the NBA’s health and safety protocols.

Now, for perhaps the first time, Brooks had pulled back the curtain on how devastating that experience was for him. How much of a toll it took on him when he got ejected and eventually suspended for the flagrant foul that left Gary Payton II with a fractured elbow in Game 2 against Golden State. How the boos and the vitriol that sparked still linger today, even as he often invites more of it upon himself with the villain status he seems so willing to embrace during and after every game.

“I play defense at a different rate than most people. It’s hard to ref me. It’s hard to coach me sometimes because I get so into the personal battle,” Brooks said. “You’d rather have a guy that leaves it all out there than guys that are buddy-buddy out there, letting them shoot the ball.”

He has become, unintentionally maybe, a microcosm of what the Grizzlies have gone through. They found themselves while so many declared them lost. So many, in fact, that there are still plenty left to convince.

But Memphis has done a remarkable job removing itself from the maelstrom that enveloped the entire franchise in the immediate aftermath of Morant’s Instagram Live fiasco earlier this month. Wednesday’s loss ended a stretch of 10 wins in 11 games, which culminated with a new franchise record for home wins (33). The Grizzlies now have a two-game lead over Sacramento for the No. 2 seed in the West with six games to go.

Brooks helped spur this on with his temerity and tenacious defense. He also emerged from perhaps the worst shooting slump of his career in January and February, right as Morant temporarily left the team, and right after a trade deadline in which his name got bandied about in rumors.

He’s shooting 36.7 percent from 3-point range in March after hitting only 25 percent of his shots from beyond the arc the previous two months. He just scored more points Wednesday (30) than he had in any game since December. There’s a sense of satisfaction now that it feels as if the worst has passed in time for a postseason push.

"I’m not going in there with no pressure," Brooks reiterated. "I’m a three-and-D guy. If they need me to do more, I will be ready. But I’m going to knock down my shots and play my heart out.”

Within that answer lies the complexity of what Brooks seeks these playoffs. He acknowledged in the most explicit way yet how his role changed this season. He’s nonetheless a player in a contract year and ultimately yearns to do more.

Reconciling who he was with who he is and who he wants to become, well that sounds like a dilemma his entire team is about to confront.

You can reach Commercial Appeal columnist Mark Giannotto via email at mgiannotto@gannett.com and follow him on Twitter: @mgiannotto

This article originally appeared on Memphis Commercial Appeal: Memphis Grizzlies: Dillon Brooks, like Ja Morant, seeks redemption