Lance Stephenson essentially disappeared off the face of the Earth when the last great Indiana Pacers team broke up. Like a fanatic in exile, Stephenson slyly came wriggling back into our lives as the Pacers got decent again. And with a series against a team starring LeBron James, the canvas on which Lance paints his most notable, bizarre work, Lance really took center stage on Sunday.
There was no ear blowing weirdness or jack-in-the-box summoning, but Lance -- for maybe the first time ever -- elicited a response from LeBron, who picked up a tech for pushing Lance off of him during a dead ball. (LeBron’s post-game analogy on the incident was funny.) Mission accomplished!
Lance’s real coup de grace was the surreal finish with the Pacers down three and the Cavaliers inbounding. Stephenson tried to rip the ball from Jeff Green but ended up getting Green in a headlock and tackling him. Somehow, things got even weirder from there. We’ll let Whitney Medworth explain it.
Suffice it to say that the Cavaliers won, evening the series at 2-2 as we return to Cleveland.
Sunday’s Scores
Bucks 104, Celtics 102
Series tied 2-2
Recaps: Brew Hoop | CelticsBlog
Spurs 103, Warriors 90
Golden State leads 3-1
Recaps: Pounding The Rock | Golden State of Mind
Wizards 106, Raptors 98
Series tied 2-2
Recaps: Bullets Forever | Raptors HQ
Cavaliers 104, Pacers 100
Series tied 2-2
Recaps: Fear The Sword | Indy Cornrows
Monday’s Schedule
Rockets at Timberwolves, 8 p.m. ET, TNT
Houston leads 2-1
Thunder at Jazz, 10:30 p.m. ET, TNT
Utah leads 2-1
Links on Links on Links
Word to Manu Ginobili, who had a fantastic performance in what could have been the final home game of his career, should he retire this summer. The Spurs found their stroke and the Warriors have now lost as many games in the 2018 playoffs (one) as they did in the 2017 postseason.
The end of Bucks-Celtics was special. It’s weird for a No. 2 seed to feel good about a loss that evens a series, but the way Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum played down the stretch really will pay dividends in the future when Kyrie Irving never passes to them in crunch time just kidding love you Kyrie.
The Raptors lost to the Wizards despite Bradley Beal fouling out with a few minutes left on a totally bogus call. Ball don’t lie.
The Cavaliers did matching suits again. It worked this time. The broadcast crew revealed that this was an idea LeBron and Dwyane Wade came up with in the brief moment in time in which Wade was a Cleveland Cavalier. So Wade did contribute something to Cleveland! LeBron bought these dudes two beautiful suits, but uh ... can’t Tyronn Lue get one too so he doesn’t have to have fashion debates with Pacers fans?
I wrote about whether the Blazers can really find implicit joy in their journey if it ends in embarassing defeat. Portland has seemingly been trying to push the narrative that losing to a lower seed isn’t a big deal because everyone in the West from No. 3 to No. 10 was bunched up. Two things: a) the Blazers didn’t just lose -- they got run out of the building, and b) it’s not actually beneficial to remind everyone that Portland was a couple games from being out of the playoffs entirely!
Tyler Tynes with another rational, completely anti-reactionary take on the Sixers’ Game 4 win. Tim Cato writes that Philadelphia magically has both the stars and the well of veterans a good team needs.
A very smart deconstruction of how big data in basketball misleads by Yago Colas. My problem is the certitude with which such statistics are presented.
In related news, Basketball Twitter is getting less fun every day. I don’t tweet any more in part because everything is so toxic and everyone has so much conviction in their opinions that everything is a fight. Why? What’s the point? There isn’t enough to argue about in this world that we need to go to the trenches over Al Horford like every second day? Relax, people. Stop fighting all the time. Be nice. Spread joy!
Beautiful Marc Stein meditation on Jimmy Butler helping return playoff joy to Minnesota.
Enjoy the games. Be excellent to each other.
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