Lance Stephenson may be the only person on the planet, other than the referee, who thinks that Austin Rivers deserved to be ejected Wednesday.
The Indiana Pacers swingman Stephenson called out the Denver Nuggets guard Rivers on social media over their incident on Wednesday that led to Rivers’ ejection. Rivers complained in an Instagram comment that “I have never been thrown out for something so ridiculous.” Stephenson fired back by saying, “You know what you did to try to hit me. Both going hard trying to win the game. Nothing personal.”
Stephenson also said that “Rivers lost control with that one” and that “that’s how they going to guard him in the playoffs.”
Rivers got tossed late in the game for throwing a fake elbow at Stephenson that did not even land (video here). While the two players had an incident a few moments prior to that where they exchanged words and were assessed double technicals, Rivers’ ejection was still extremely weak, especially since he did not throw the fake elbow with much force at all.
Stephenson is a known pest who has made a living over the past decade of irritating opposing players, including some much bigger stars than Rivers. Though he successfully baited Rivers into an ejection, Stephenson is not very convincing here in his claim that Rivers somehow “lost control” by gently throwing and missing with a fake elbow.
