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If the officials weren’t enough to make Heat fans want to throw a potted plant into their TV sets Wednesday night, Lance Stephenson put them over the edge. In game five’s 93-90 loss, Stephenson put on a display of some of the most obnoxious, childish, and overall disgusting behavior you will ever see on a basketball court. The worst part was it was rewarded, or plainly ignored, time and time again by the officials.
The story of the game was the incredibly blatant targeting of LeBron James by the officials. It was obvious from the get-go there was an ulterior motive on their part that James continued to get called for phantom fouls.
James picked up his fourth and fifth fouls in the third quarter and, as a result, ended up playing only 23 minutes. He finished with seven points on 2-10 shooting, a shocking output, and one that was very much influenced by the fact that the officials took away his ability to be aggressive basically from the game’s tip. It’s just tough to watch that video above and not believe something fishy was going on. That, or the officials last night just had one of the worst games you will ever see.
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Lance Stephenson has toed the line before, but Wednesday night he crossed over from annoying to downright bat-shit insane. It’s embarrassing, and thankfully the Miami Heat players are all class and refuse to stoop to Stephenson’s level. After the game, Dwyane Wade and LeBron were surprisingly upbeat.
First, he was blowing in LeBron’s ear, for the second time in his career. All LeBron could do was ask himself if this was really happening and then smile in complete disbelief that this dude was serious. It’s at that point when Dennis Rodman thought Lance Stephenson should be Baker Acted. Later, he pushed between Coach Spoelstra and Norris Cole and, like a child, had to be walked back to his bench by the officials.
If the stuff during timeouts wasn’t enough to piss you off, Stephenson was flailing and flopping all over the court, giving the officials many opportunities to finish off the rig job they started and sit LeBron on the bench for good. Stephenson will no doubt get a $10,000 fine to follow the $5,000 flopping fine he received earlier in the series. It continues to be hilarious that fans of his team chant “He’s a flopper” at LeBron.
Stephenson scored 12 points on 4-11 shooting, so it’s not like you can make the excuse that this stuff gets him going; he’s been an average player this entire series. Stephenson is the Justin Bieber of the NBA — he doesn’t give a shit, some love him, most hope a meteor falls from the sky onto his face.
So the Heat moves on as the series returns to Miami for a Friday-night throwdown at the AAA. Hell to pay. Hell to pay!
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