Lance Stephenson Made A Late Layup And Hurt The Raptors' Feelings

The Indiana Pacers were up by 15 with 10 seconds left in their game against the Toronto Raptors when the Pacers’ Joe Young grabbed a rebound and kicked it out to Lance Stephenson, who jogged down the court for an easy layup. Immediately, the announcers started finger-wagging and taking Stephenson to task for defying the unwritten rule of dribbling the ball around to run the clock out, and incensed Raptors players had to be restrained by coaches and staff as Stephenson walked off the court.

Stephenson apologized, saying he got caught up in the moment of the last play.

Raptors coach Dwane Casey was very mad and called Stephenson’s character into question.

This is all very silly. Stephenson is a recorded noodge, as evinced by that very weird time he blew in LeBron James’s ear during the Eastern Conference finals three years ago. Getting riled up over a meaningless two points at the end of the game is on par with a baseball team mustering righteous stupid anger over a batter taking too long to admire his home run before trotting the bases. Except, this isn’t even on that level; Stephenson didn’t throw down a windmill dunk or anything, he just laid the ball in—how disrespectful. Maybe Stephenson was clueless, but the Raptors should have taken after James and reacted like this.