With 45 seconds to play and his team up two points, Dillon Brooks caught the ball along the sideline, gave old teammate Desmond Bane a shoulder fake and drilled a 28-footer to essentially seal a win for his Houston Rockets.

Then Brooks turned to the fans sitting courtside and roared, barking in triumph at some of the same fans he stopped to pose for pictures with two hours earlier. 

In between those moments, the Grizzlies ran a “Welcome Back” reel for Brooks on FedExForum’s video board.

There was a young Brooks being introduced to Memphis. There were highlight plays (yes, going nose to nose with Golden State’s Draymond Green) and appearances ’round town. 

Memphis fans roared this time, appreciatively. The Grizzlies were up 14-5, on their way to a 17-point first half lead, and it was easy to be gracious to an old friend. 

“It meant a lot to me,” Brooks said later. “Just seeing all the evolutions of myself, being a rookie, doing different things in the community, growing as a basketball player, turning into ‘the Villain’. The warm welcome from the fans was great. It felt right.”

This time, as authentic as the sentiments were, it was easy for Brooks to be gracious. 

His two points on 1-7 shooting in the first half turned to 24 points on 9-13 in the second half as he led a comeback.

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He face-guarded Bane. He hounded Jaren Jackson Jr. into a miss and then sank a 3-pointer over Ziaire Williams. He drove and finished over center Bismack Biyombo. He scored on baseline cuts and pull-up jumpers. 

And he went face to face with Bane, provoking a technical foul for his former teammate. 

Apparently Bane questioned Brooks’ ball-handling acumen, perhaps colorfully.

“I was complicating it and I should have just blown right by him,” Brooks said. “But that’s friendly competition.”

Brooks was holding court in a FedExForum locker room when he said this, a familiar experience but in a slightly unfamiliar place: the smaller visiting locker room this time.

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And he came dressed for the occasion, in funereal black from head to toe: shoes, jeans, jacket, balaclava and sunglasses (of course).

There was one thing missing, or I guess not. 

“Put a T-shirt under that,” implored Jeff Green, a former Grizzly and Brooks’ new Houston teammate.

“Nah man,” said Brooks. “I came home. I can’t do that s—.”

The ensemble?

“I put it together just for this game,” Brooks said. 

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Only eight players have ever scored 5,000 points in a Memphis Grizzlies uniform, and two of them spoke in FedExForum press rooms earlier in the day. Only one was on the floor when tipoff came.

The Grizzlies have one more game to go before welcoming back Ja Morant, who had fielded questions from the media earlier in the day, for the first time since May.

With the team’s record now 6-18, Morant’s post-suspension arrival increasingly feels too late to make a playoff run.

This was a bad loss for the Grizzlies, blowing a big lead at home, to a division rival ahead of them in the standings, one which had already beaten them twice this season. 

“I don’t want to lose to Memphis ever in my career, regardless of how we get it,” said Brooks, who’s currently 3-0 against the Grizzlies. 

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Of those other 5,000-point scorers, Brooks’ return didn’t quite have the pageantry of Zach Randolph’s return in 2018, when a mob of admirers greeted him at every step, as if he were Muhammad Ali at the Rumble in the Jungle. And it didn’t have the novelty of Pau Gasol’s in 2008, when he battled his rookie brother Marc. 

But it was probably the best return game ever for a former Grizzly. Rudy Gay scored 23 in a win in his 2013 return. Brooks got 26, and did so with much more drama and style. 

And yet none of those were the former Grizzlies return that came most to mind as Brooks was having his big night. 

I thought of Tony Allen.

The Grindfather’s Memphis return came on Opening Night in 2018, which was also Brooks’ debut. 

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As it happened, Brooks’ return did not mark the debut of second-year defensive ace Vince Williams Jr., but it did mark Williams’ debut in the starting lineup. Technically, as Brooks knew enough to note after the game, it was Williams’ second career start. But I’m going to consider it his first real one, since the other was Game 82 last season, when the Grizzlies sat every player they could.

Williams outplayed Brooks in the first half.

He got a steal on the first defensive possession. He knocked down a catch-and-shoot 3, on the way to 3-6 long-range shooting in the game. He set up Biyombo for a layup with a baseline dish. He blocked athletic Rockets power forward Jabari Smith Jr. at the rim. Most memorably, Williams drove at Brooks and rose up to bury a buzzer-beating pullup.

The second half? That belonged to Brooks. 

But Williams still had 11 points, eight rebounds, three assists and two blocks. 

Frustrated Grizzlies fans are grasping for answers as much as head coach Taylor Jenkins seems to be. If this season has established anything, it’s that the Grizzlies have no answers at the end of the roster. 

They had one, and they found him: Williams, like Brooks, a second-round pick from down in the late 40s. Another defensive scrapper fighting for a chance. 

Brooks, who obviously values his time in Memphis even as he wants to beat the Grizzlies in every game, would appreciate the potential continuity. 

Like Morant, Brooks had a press session earlier in the day. 

He was asked what he remembers of his time in Memphis.

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“Getting out of a rut, making the playoffs, building a franchise back to where it was with Marc (Gasol) and Mike (Conley) and creating a new culture and new dynamic,” he said. “Those are memories I will cherish for my whole life.”

Brooks has added a new bit to his colorful repertoire: He stands on the sideline before games and stares blankly ahead, less a villain than a horror-movie force of nature. 

Before this game, Williams, who was one of Brooks’ rookies last season, tried to engage him, but Brooks didn’t break his spell.

That cold shoulder turned to warmth later. 

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Has Brooks noticed Williams' recent emergence?

Yes. 

“He’s playing so well, playing within his role,” Brooks said. “He’s playing hard as hell, so hard, which I love to see, because you can’t teach that. … I’ve been telling him for a long time, always be ready, always be locked in, and he’s been doing that a lot. So I hope they give him a chance to be on the (main roster) and keep showcasing his skills.”

This has been a rough season for the Grizzlies, and Brooks, in villain form, had no leniency Friday. 

Maybe Morant’s now-impending return will come too late for present postseason hopes. Only time will tell. 

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But the Grizzlies need to rebuild their roster around Morant, Bane and Jackson, and maybe they’ve found a real piece in Williams.

Brooks did his best to extinguish these competitive hopes of his old team. But just maybe he was also passing the torch.