During the dying minutes of the first half of Game 4 of the Golden State Warriors and Houston Rockets’ first-round matchup, Jimmy Butler had some spicy words for Dillon Brooks while Tari Eason was at the free-throw line. Butler called Brooks “a bum and a b***h” and called him “weak” as well, although the Rockets wing simply laughed at his face and made it seem as though both of them were just having a good time bantering with each other.

Butler, however, wanted to make it clear during his presser following the Warriors’ 109-106 win to extend their series lead to 3-1 that there is no love lost whatsoever between him and Brooks.

“Get me on record for this: I don’t like Dillon Brooks. We are never having fun. I’m a fierce competitor. He’s a fierce competitor. But it ain’t nothing fun about that,” Butler said, via 95.7 The Game on X (formerly Twitter). “I don’t think anybody is trying to be friends with anybody on either team. Fun is winning. Fun is competing. It’s gonna be fun when we get four [wins].”

Indeed, the best thing any Warriors player or member of the organization can say about Brooks right now is that he does whatever it takes for his team to win. Brooks has leaned into his villain persona, which includes him just being an all-out nuisance to the opponent however he can.

The Warriors, however, have seen this side of Brooks before and aren’t falling prey to the mind games he engages in. And it’s clear that Butler, whatever he said to Brooks during that free-throw line interaction, meant every single word.

Jimmy Butler, Warriors overcome Dillon Brooks, Rockets’ mind games

Dillon Brooks is one of the most tenacious defenders in the association, and he can randomly pop off for an incredible scoring night if he woke up well during that certain day. But most of his value comes from being able to get underneath the skin of his opponents, and the Warriors have done a good enough job at not giving Brooks the full-blown altercation some of his actions are begging for.

Brooks was seen roughing up Stephen Curry in Game 3, which made him fouling out during that contest that much sweeter. And then in Game 4, the Warriors had the last laugh, as they held on for a three-point win thanks to a major defensive stop from Brooks’ archnemesis Draymond Green and an epic defensive rebound from his burgeoning rival Jimmy Butler.