According to Yahoo’s Adrian Wojnarowski, Pacers Lance Stephenson and Evan Turner were involved in an altercation right before the series against the Atlanta Hawks began.
On the eve of this Eastern Conference series, the wobbling No. 1 seed punctuated its final playoff preparations in a most self-destructive way: Two Indiana Pacers dragged a cursing, cut Evan Turner out of the Bankers Life Fieldhouse court, untangling him from a practice-floor fistfight with teammate Lance Stephenson.
Turner hadn’t been the first Pacer to lose his temper with Stephenson these tumultuous several weeks, and Stephenson’s relentlessly irritable nature suggests Turner won’t be the last. These scrapes aren’t uncommon in the NBA, but this confrontation had been weeks in the making and that reflected in the ferocity of the encounter, sources told Yahoo Sports.
“This stuff happens, but the timing wasn’t ideal,” one witness told Yahoo Sports.
The Pacers have had a wild couple of months. The team is not on the same page, and some want the coach to be fired. This altercation is only going to add fuel to the fire.
We’ll see what happens next.