NBA Rumors: Pacers’ Evan Turner pulled from practice for fight with Lance Stephenson
By Jack Crosby
The last month of the NBA season has been a less-than-memorable one for the Indiana Pacers, despite barely being able to cling to the number one seed in the Eastern Conference Playoffs. Things with this young group just aren’t clicking like everyone had thought they would, especially for Even Turner.
According to a Yahoo Sports report from Adrian Wojnarowski, that came to a head the final practice before the NBA Playoffs began as Turner was dragged out of the gym following a physical altercation with teammate Lance Stephenson.
"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 Turnerout of the Bankers Life Fieldhouse court, untangling him from a practice-floor fistfight with teammate Lance Stephenson."
As one witness told Yahoo in the report, while something like this isn’t unusual by any means for a sports team, really, the timing was just terrible. This team is trying to put everything together at the right time after hopes were so high throughout the year, that fighting within the group is the last thing they need right now as they battle the Atlanta Hawks.
Ironically enough, the Pacers were blasted by the Hawks in Game 1.