If the omnipresence of COVID obviously disrupts the proper functioning of the season, it allows some elders that we love to find the big stage. This is the case of legend Lance Stephenson, who moved from the G League to the Hawks and now back to the Pacers.
Lance Stephenson and the Pacers, it’s like this couple who never stop leaving and reuniting. “Indiana is kind of my home. Going back is always a great time ” Lance said in particular a month ago when he was still at the Gold of Grand Rapids and he was looking to find a small place in the NBA. Since then, two or three things have happened in the Big League. The COVID has come back in force to end the year and has thus messed up an impossible mess, between accumulation of players in the health protocol and postponed matches. Lance Stephenson is among those who somehow “took advantage” of the situation, he who signed a ten-day contract with the decimated Hawks on December 22. And now, while this first 10-day contract ends with stats of 1.8 points, 2.5 rebounds and 1.8 assists in almost 12 minutes of play and six games in total, Lance will sign a second with his former Pacers franchise, as Scott Agness announces FieldhouseFiles. An arrival that coincides with a large number of absentees in Indiana, for a change. Malcolm Brogdon, Jeremy Lamb, Isaiah Jackson, Chris Duarte and Kelan Martin are all in NBA COVID protocol, while TJ McConnell has gone to join TJ Warren in the infirmary. It’s a bit much anyway, especially on the backcourt, and Indy felt that the best solution to fill this big hole is called Lance Stephenson. Frankly, is this sentence not beautiful?
Stephenson and the Pacers meet for the third time since the start of Lance’s career in 2010. This passage may be much shorter than the first (four years in 2010-14) and even the second (15 months between March 30, 2017 and June 25, 2018), but it will suffice to bring back many memories of the man with Indy. Obviously, we immediately think of this WTF sequence during which he blew in LeBron James’ ear in the middle of the Playoffs game to try to destabilize the King, but it would be a mistake to stop there. Because beyond the great character that is Lance and that we all know very well now, he really had his best years with the Pacers. He began to reveal himself in the 2012-13 season, notably taking advantage of Danny Granger’s injury to become an essential part of the Frank Vogel collective. With his versatility, his tough side and sometimes his madness, Stephenson has helped Indiana become one of the main contenders for the three-headed monster Heat. In 2014, it was Lance who finished second in the MIP race and first in triple-doubles in the NBA (five in total that year), helping Indy play a second straight Eastern Conference Final.
Lance Stephenson comes back to Indiana, somewhere it feels like it was written, that the universe made it happen. It may only last ten days, but we are going to savor every minute that Lance spends under the colors of the Pacers at the start of 2022.
Source texte : @ScottAgness
Lance Stephenson is finishing up his 10-day contract with the Hawks tonight in Cleveland. He’ll stay overnight and the Pacers arrive tomorrow ahead of Sunday’s game.
With five players in the protocols and McConnell rehabbing, they lack backcourt depth.https://t.co/YQRDub30ns
— Scott Agness (@ScottAgness) January 1, 2022
