Lance Stephenson showboated in front of Frank Ntilikina

Lance Stephenson is a basketball auteur. He isn’t confined by the natural conventions of basketball efficiency. Playing basketball “the right way” is not his priority. He’s here to put on a show. Stephenson hits more than he misses, but sometimes the journey is more important than the destination and Lance’s product is always riveting.

Against his hometown New York Knicks, Indiana’s air guitarist and performance artist was feeling funky in the second quarter.

Stephenson started off the possession by putting a little spice on a behind-back-back he whipped back to Myles Turner at the top of the key. Turner immediately swung it back to Stephenson. Rather than enter a typical 3-point stance and methodically sizing up his defender, Stephenson began clowning Frank Ntilikina by crouching, wrapping the ball between his legs from hand to hand, before bursting into the paint, spinning past the stunned Knicks point guard and laying in a gorgeous finger roll.

Stephenson loves basketball, but he has a special affinity for facing the Knicks and this was merely an expression of his joy.