Thursday featured a mixture of hoop and intense shoving matches as the Indiana Pacers beat the Brooklyn Nets 105-99 in an intense overtime victory. The Gainbdrige Fieldhouse crowd witnessed quite the spectacle as a random game in March morphed into a contentious Pacers victory, but such a win didn't come without a price.
Bennedict Mathurin scored a game-high 28 points on an efficient 10 for 17 mark from the field and a 2 for 4 clip from 3. In addition to outstanding shooting splits, the Pacers wing dominated on the boards with 16 rebounds.
However, for as much as Mathurin led the team in scoring and rebounds, their starting center, Myles Turner, physically won the fight over the nothing-to-lose Nets.
In the final four minutes of the fourth quarter, the Pacer and Nets' competitive juices boiled over to a costly level. Nets role player Trendon Watford barreled into Andrew Nembhard after Mathurin scored a basket. Turner saw his young teammate receive such a treatment and responded with brute force.
Turner shoved Watford, which ignited an intensive shoving match with multiple players swarming them.
Ultimately, Watford earned an ejection for his behavior, and all involved in the scuffle were assessed four technical fouls.
Nembhard later was ejected for arguing about a call during the fourth quarter.
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Turner, not to be forgotten for protecting his teammate, also contributed from a basketball standpoint. The Pacers starting center finished with 23 points, 10 rebounds, and a monstrous five blocks.
Nets D'Angelo Russell and Ziare Williams notched 22 points each. However, such a tandem didn't affect the bottom line of the fiery Pacers.
The Pacers and Nets will have a chance to pound their figurative boxing gloves on Saturday, as they face off in a 5 PM Eastern Time tip-off.
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This story was originally published March 21, 2025 at 7:05 AM.