In a night where everyone seemed to have beef with everyone else in the NBA, Pacers-Bucks started it all — and it continued into the press conferences afterward. After Leandro Barbosa incited an undercard scuffle between Mike Dunleavy Jr. and Tyler Hansbrough on a break, Larry Sanders took center stage. The Bucks’ forward from VCU ran over Danny Granger with a blow to the shoulders on the block, then took umbrage when the Pacers’ stood up for Granger.
But it wasn’t Granger who becomes his target, it’s David West. Sanders got tossed not for the initial hit (one technical), but for busting out of his teammates’ hold and chasing after West twice (a second technical).
Ex-Pacer Dunleavy Jr. and Hansbrough have a backstory after the former broke Psycho T’s nose in March. But after the game Dunleavy Jr. had this to say, via the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel:
“That’s between me and him,” Dunleavy said of a dispute with Hansbrough. “Without getting too much into it, he pulled something that wasn’t right. It’s too bad other guys had to come into the fray on it.
“At least it’s guys who I didn’t play with seem to be the guys taking the fouls. At least from that regard it’s honorable. Barbosa and West, those guys didn’t play with me. At least they sent them to do the dirty work.
“It’s too bad because it’s between me and Tyler, and he knows what he did.”
Brandon Jennings, too:
“All of a sudden now they’re a team that’s tough and likes to talk a lot of stuff. I guess when you’re winning you become tough.”
What do you think?
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