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Hornets turnover bloodies phone-focused fan's nose

Eric Freeman

The live NBA experience differs from that of other prominent sports leagues in that there's near-constant action. For fans in the first few rows, that means it's usually beneficial to pay attention to what's happening on the court, because a player could go bounding or falling into someone's lap at any given moment. It's fun to be so close, but it's also a little dangerous.

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A fan in the second row of Time Warner Cable Arena for Wednesday night's game between the Charlotte Hornets and Sacramento Kings learned as much in extremely uncomfortable fashion. With a little more than 9:00 remaining in the first half, Hornets guard Lance Stephenson threw an errant pass that ended up slightly tipped by teammate Gerald Henderson. The woman in question, distracted by her companion showing her something on her phone, was hit square in the face:

 

The good news is that the woman was not forced to leave the game due to injury and stayed in her pretty fantastic seat, thereby taking this moment out of the realm of the scary stories and closer to "America's Funniest Home Videos" territory:

Here's hoping she remains in decent shape and does not see any aftereffects from her case of ball-in-the-face. We can only assume that her seatmates apologized profusely after her ill fortune — the woman for showing her the thing on her phone in the first place, and the man for a pretty awful attempt at stopping the ball.

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While Henderson may not have succeeded in corralling Stephenson's pass, he did have a fine early highlight in the first quarter. After a nice block from Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, Henderson finished with authority in transition:

We assume, though, that the injured fan would have preferred a win to a pre-collision dunk. Unfortunately, it was not to be — the Kings won 113-106 to end a four-game losing streak. The combination of the Hornets' loss and the Miami Heat's win over the Brooklyn Nets means that the teams have flip-flopped in the race for the East's final playoff spot. The Hornets are now a half-game back of the Heat for eighth.

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Eric Freeman is a writer for Ball Don't Lie on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at efreeman_ysports@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!