The Indiana Pacers and the Brooklyn Nets are trading hostilities again like it is the early 2000s.
A big skirmish broke out during the fourth quarter of Thursday’s game between the Pacers and the Nets in Indiana. As the Nets were leading 84-79 with just under five minutes left, Nets head coach Jordi Fernandez called a timeout following a made basket by Pacers forward Bennedict Mathurin. As the two teams were headed to the timeout, Nets forward Trendon Watford walked up the floor and made contact with Pacers guard Andrew Nembhard. In response, Pacers big man Myles Turner then shoved Watford, triggering a melee.
Watford shoved Turner right back, and representatives from both teams quickly rushed in, leading to quite the scuffle by the fans sitting courtside. At one point, Fernandez came running in from the bench to try to break up the fight and ended up getting inadvertently shoved into the first row.
Here is the wild video.
In the end, only Watford ended up getting ejected for the altercation. Turner and Nembhard were both assessed technical fouls though, so no free throws were shot by either team (with Watford essentially getting two Ts that offset the Pacers’ own Ts).
This is far from the first time that Indiana has been involved in a fight this season as something about them just seems to rub their opponents the wrong way. A couple of months ago, a player on the Detroit Pistons was ejected for shoulder-charging a Pacers counterpart in the middle of a game.
