The Indiana Pacers are in the process of one of the biggest self-immolations in NBA history. A popular trope has to been to blame their slide on the trading of Danny Granger and the arrival of Evan Turner, but the Pacers were 7-6 in the 13 games preceding Turner's arrival.
NBA sage Adrian Wojnarowski provided the inside scoop:
INDIANAPOLIS – 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.
Turner and Stephenson have each been moody enigmas in their time. Lance Stephenson would probably be the second-to-last person on the Pacers with which I'd pick a fight, though. (As BuckeyeVsTheWorld noted, David West is the baddest dude on the Pacers.)
Game 3 of the Pacers-Hawks series is tomorrow night. The series is tied at 1-1.
