BROOKLYN, N.Y. — While Robin Lopez was busy trading punches with Serge Ibaka, Brook Lopez hit a one-footed, step-back game-winner to lift his Brooklyn Nets to a win over the Detroit Pistons on Tuesday. Those kinds of plays can lighten up a locker room, no matter whose family members nearly get knocked out.
Brook Lopez joked that his brother was ‘doing that dirty job’ in fighting Serge Ibaka
Both ends of the Lopez family spectrum were on full display Tuesday night.
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“The Lopez twins were doing what we do tonight,” Brook Lopez told reporters nearly a half hour after his buzzer-beater. “He’s doing that dirty job — that B.S. — and I’m playing real basketball.”
The more gifted scorer of the two, Brook Lopez is averaging a career-high 20.8 points per game. He’s adept on the low block and in his first year trying his hand at shooting threes, is shooting 35 percent from downtown.
Robin Lopez, on the other hand, is not as gifted of a scorer. He makes his living on the glass and on the hardwood, making hustle plays to help his team win. The Bulls center averages 10.3 points, 6.5 rebounds, and 1.5 blocks per game.
It’s that “dirty job” that got him ejected for fighting on Tuesday.
Ibaka and Robin Lopez were ejected during the third quarter of the Toronto Raptors’ 122-120 overtime win over the Chicago Bulls on Tuesday after the two had to be restrained while exchanging punches. The semi-pro boxing match was the culmination of shoving match that began with Ibaka elbowing Lopez in the back, and escalated with Lopez swiping at Ibaka’s hands during a dead ball.
The younger Lopez brother thought back to his days growing up with his moments-older twin and told reporters that had it been him out there fighting Robin, someone would have been on the ground.
“A little old school NBA,” Lopez joked. “Maybe we’ll get a grudge match, who knows? I’m pulling for Ibaka though. ... We absolutely [used to get into it] and I can tell you, if that were me out there, Robin would have been on the ground.”
When told his brother threw the first punch, Lopez said: “He always does, though. He’s messed up like that, man.”
Robin Lopez has a history of picking on opposing teams’ mascots before games. It was about time he picked on someone his own size.
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