Larry Brown Sports

Lance Stephenson was off to another hot start for the Indiana Pacers in Game 4 of the Eastern Conference finals on Tuesday, but he did get into it with Ray Allen for a blatant flop.

Stephenson hit a runner just before the first quarter of the game ended. After he made the shot, he appeared to get hit with an elbow from Allen. Stephenson reacted as if he had been hit by the elbow, which he wasn’t.

The flop by Stephenson comes at a notable time in the series; LeBron James was criticized for supposedly flopping against the Chicago Bulls, and he was quoted before the game saying that it can give a team a competitive advantage. If James endorses the art of embellishing contact, then he can’t be mad at Stephenson, can he?

Here’s a look at the flop in GIF form:

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Lance Stephenson just keeps making friends in the Miami Heat locker room.

According to Yahoo! Sports, Stephenson and Heat veteran Juwan Howard were seen in each other’s faces having a verbal clash while members of both teams were warming up on the court roughly 90 minutes before Game 4 on Sunday. Pacers assistant Brian Shaw broke up the incident before it escalated further. Howard retreated to the locker room while Stephenson continued with his warm up.

It’s still not clear what led to the dust-up or who started it, but this obviously isn’t the first time Stephenson has gotten under the skin of a member of the Heat this series. As the entire world knows by now, Stephenson displayed the choke sign in LeBron James’ direction during the Pacers’ Game 3 win. LeBron responded to Stephenson on Saturday by hilariously refusing to respond.

That Stephenson, 21, was able to create such a reaction out of a seasoned, 39-year-old 18-year vet shows just how irritating the second-year Pacers bench warmer has become for the Heat.

The Heat went on to win the game, tying the series at two games apiece. Stephenson and Howard saw a combined zero minutes of action.

LeBron James had no response for Lance Stephenson when the media asked him about the choking gesture given by the Pacers guard during Game 3 of the Miami-Indiana playoff series. James said he didn’t know he was mocked by Stephenson after he missed a technical foul free throw in the third quarter on Thursday.

Asked for a response, LeBron was dismissive of Stephenson.

“Lance Stephenson? You want a quote about Lance Stephenson?” James said after practice on Saturday. “I’m not even going to give him the time. Knock it off.”

Stephenson apologized for his actions.

“I was wrong and disrespectful to my teammates, the Miami Heat and their organization,” he said. “I’m sorry that I did that. It was very disrespectful. I’ll never do it again.”

First off, Stephenson probably only apologized for public relations purposes. What he did in the heat of competition wasn’t exactly the worst thing. Players respond in one of two ways when that happens: They either go Reggie Miller, or they continue to choke. So it’s not like that was a bad move.

Secondly, there’s no chance I believe LeBron when he says he didn’t know it happened. I understand he says he stops reading commentary or watching things on TV, but I don’t buy that at all. We know he was watching Game 2 of the Thunder-Lakers series. He knew Stephenson did it, but he didn’t want to get involved. He’ll gave to make his real statement in Game 4.

The Miami Heat began falling apart in the third quarter of Game 3 against the Pacers in the Eastern Conference Semifinals on Thursday, and Lance Stephenson was sure to let them know. The Pacers benchwarmer gave a choking gesture after LeBron James missed a technical foul free throw late in the third quarter.

James missed nearly every field goal he attempted in the second half after starting off the first half well. Dwyane Wade went 2-for-13, and Shane Battier missed all seven of his field goal attempts.

I’m not sure if you call this a choke, but it was another poor effort from the Heat.

Chest bump to Eye on Basketball

There’s an escort (prostitute?) out there who advertises her services through Twitter. She seems to have become pretty popular among the NBA community. 

In the last month or so, the lovely Candy DeepThroat has exposed both Matt Barnes and Ronny Turiaf via her website and Twitter account.  Her latest victim (or client, depending on your viewpoint) is Pacers rookie guard Lance Stephenson, who Candy says enjoyed a threesome with her and a friend but shorted them by $1000.

When will these players learn?  Candy claimed Stephenson agreed to pay her and her friend $2000 dollars for her “services” and only paid half.  According to her, he said he spent the rest at the club and would pay her the next day. That allegedly never happened.

Around Christmas time, Candy had a Twitter war with Barnes in what turned into a “he said, she said” ordeal.  A couple weeks later, she posted a picture of herself and Turiaf on her website, so there really wasn’t much sense in Ronny trying to wiggle out of that one.

For those who are interested, Black Sports Online has a video that Candy posted on her website in an attempt to expose Stephenson.  There’s some NSFW language and noises in it, so I’ll let you take a trip over there if you want to check it out.  You can’t tell if the voice in the video is Lance or not, but I don’t know why this Twitter prostitute would have a personal vendetta against him.  The real question for me is why isn’t the prostitute being exposed for um, you know, prostitution?