DeMar DeRozan Shades Dillon Brooks After Altercation, Ejection in Bulls vs. Rockets

Chicago Bulls star DeMar DeRozan took issue with the way Houston Rockets wing Dillon Brooks approached him ahead of both players getting ejected during the third quarter of Houston's 127-117 win on Thursday.

With Chicago trailing by nine in the third quarter, DeRozan aggressively rushed toward Rockets guard Jalen Green to defend him and ended up bumping into Green, sending him down to the floor.

As Green writhed in pain, Brooks confronted DeRozan, leading to a huge confrontation that required several players, coaches and officials to break it up:

DeRozan was assessed a flagrant-2 foul for his contact with Green and was ejected as a result, while Brooks was given a technical foul and also ejected for tussling with DeRozan.

According to Joe Cowley of the Chicago Sun-Times, DeRozan suggested that the manner in which Brooks approached him escalated the situation between them: "Just walking up on me in any type of way. I don't play the walking up on somebody when their back is turned. Nah, that's just not a thing we do. I walked away from the situation after the foul. I just felt like it's an issue walking up on any man from behind."

DeRozan also clarified what happened on the foul, claiming that he tripped and didn't mean to foul Green as hard as he did:

"I was surprised just from the simple fact that I was trying to hedge out and just be aggressive, obviously bumped him, but if you look at it, I kind of tripped into it. I'm not dumb. These days it's just so hard to tell when you go back and look at a review. It wasn't anything I was trying to do intentionally."

DeRozan went on to say that he "felt bad" about not being able to finish the game and be out there with his team.

At the time of his ejection, DeRozan had 16 points on 4-of-15 shooting to go along with two rebounds, two assists and two steals. Meanwhile, Brooks was lighting up the Bulls when he got tossed, going for 23 points on 10-of-13 shooting.

With DeRozan exiting the game, the Bulls lost arguably their best and most clutch player, which made a tough task even more difficult.

Guard Ayo Dosunmu had a huge offensive night for Chicago, leading all scorers with 35 points, but he didn't get enough help to mount a comeback.

Green was able to continue playing after DeRozan fouled him, and he went on to lead the Rockets with 26 points in 40 minutes of action.

With the loss, the Bulls squandered an opportunity to reach the .500 mark, instead falling to 34-36, which puts them ninth in the Eastern Conference.

By virtue of their win, the Rockets are now 34-35, and they are 2.5 games behind the Golden State Warriors for the No. 10 seed in the Western Conference, which is the final postseason play-in spot.