Lance Stephenson is officially back in Indiana as a member of the Pacers and it took him just one game to be as Lance Stephenson-y as ever. Born Ready tossed a lay up in with seconds to go in the Pacers 108-90 win over the Raptors on Tuesday night, and all hell broke loose. DeMar Derozan called the move “disrespectful to the game,” while P.J. Tucker called the late shot “classless” and “tasteless.”
There was a confrontation on the floor and Lance eventually told reporters “I didn’t mean no harm.”
It probably all could have ended there, but Lance took to Instagram today to point out a little bit of hypocrisy in the Raptors stance on the matter. Lance posted the above video of Norman Powell throwing down a windmill dunk with just seconds to go in a Raptors win over the Sixers late last season.
https://twitter.com/CyborgSandwich/status/849659968911417344
“They got mad at me for what I did but look at this,” Lance said on Instagram. “All I did was jelly. When Lance Stephenson do it’s a big deal.”
https://www.instagram.com/p/BShGQxflX06/
Oddly enough, that Raptors win secured playoff seedings and set up a showdown between the Raptors and Pacers last year, a series that went seven games with Pacers nearly squeaking out the upset. While unlikely, with a small surge from the Pacers in the last week of the season the two teams could face each other in the first round of the playoffs, giving Lance, DeMar and everybody else two weeks to sort this out.
