During the Heats/Pacers playoff game last night, Lance Stephenson was all over the court. And when we say "all over," we mean all over. He scored a game-high 25 points on 10-of-17 shooting, he dished out seven assists, he grabbed six rebounds, and, maybe most importantly, he kept the energy level high for Indiana. In the end, it wasn't enough to help the Pacers knock off LeBron James & Co. but Stephenson more than did his part to keep the game close.
Despite all of that, though, there's a good chance that Born Ready is going to receive a fine from the NBA sometime in the very near future. Because late in the third quarter of the game, Stephenson was running back on defense when he accidentally ran right into James, who was driving down the court on offense. And Stephenson immediately ricocheted off James and fell backwards as if James had turned around and pushed him. On first look, it looked like Stephenson had legitimately been fouled. But after checking out the instant replay, it's clear that Stephenson flopped on the play. And to make matters even worse, a lot of people on Twitter were saying that Stephenson was the first NBA player to ever die as a result of flopping after he laid on the floor like this for a minute following the flop:
It was a great effort. But we bet that Stephenson will be hearing from the league about the flop sooner than later, just like he did last year during the Heat/Pacers series.
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[via Sports Illustrated]
