Much harder blows have been delivered on a basketball court than the one Paul Pierce gave LeBron James on Thursday. Usually not in a preseason game, though.
Pierce and James do not see eye to eye on lots of things. Mostly recently, James called out Pierce and Kevin Garnett for holding a grudge against Ray Allen for leaving the Celtics in 2012, equating Allen’s departure via free agency with Pierce and Garnett’s trade to Brooklyn. Garnett responded by telling James to “worry about Miami.”
Early in Thursday’s game at the Barclays Center, Pierce stopped a Heat fast break in progress by delivering a slightly harder than necessary shoulder bump to James.
Nothing became of Pierce’s bump other than a foul, but the Heat will surely remember this if these teams meet up when the games really count in May and June.
