Thursday’s matchup between the Nets and Indiana Pacers at Gainbridge Fieldhouse was as physical as it gets.
With 4:48 left in regulation, just seconds after a made Bennedict Mathurin layup — a bucket Indiana needed to stay within striking distance — Trendon Watford, Andrew Nembhard and Myles Turner got into a scuffle on the far baseline.
Both benches cleared. Madness ensued. Nets head coach Jordi Fernandez, attempting to play peacemaker, wound up getting shoved into the stands. Nembhard and Turner got slapped with technical fouls for their roles in the altercation. Watford received two technical fouls and was ejected for the first time in his NBA career.
“I mean, you don’t want to get to that point, but at the end of the day nothing happened,” Fernandez said. “It was just two teams playing hard. They were competing. We were competing.”
After the game, Dustin Dopirak of the Indianapolis Star conducted a Pool Report interview with Crew Chief Tony Brothers. When asked about the scuffle, Brothers said Watford pushed both Turner and Nembhard, and each of them pushed Watford, so that’s why Turner and Nembhard were assessed one technical and [Watford] was assessed two.
Nembhard was ejected later in overtime for using vulgar language towards an official twice.
“I think the guys did a good job; they fought for each other. You don’t want to see any of your teammates get ejected, but [Trendon] was out there fighting, fighting for all of us.”
Of course, momentum swung in Indiana’s favor from there. Brooklyn led by as many as seven points in the fourth quarter and was up five at the time of the altercation. The Pacers outscored it 26-15 over the final 4:48 of regulation and overtime.
Keon Johnson fouled Mathurin on a game-tying 3 at the end of regulation. Mathurin knocked down all three free throws and sent the game to overtime. Then with under 24 seconds left in the extra session, Nets down a bucket, Turner blocked Johnson’s dunk attempt at the rim — and that was all she wrote.
In the end, the Nets somehow found a way to blow another late-game lead. And this latest lapse spoiled a career night for Ziaire Williams, who finished with 22 points and a career-high six made 3s.
“He was committed to shooting the ball,” Fernandez said of Williams. “He shot 12 3s, made six, and that’s what we want to see. And we shot enough as a group. Unfortunately, they didn’t go in… We have to shoot way better.”
Brooklyn, which forced an impressive 25 turnovers in the loss, fell to 0-4 in overtimes this season. It will run it back against the Pacers on Saturday.