James Harden was no fan of the officiating in Thursday night’s game against the Boston Celtics.
The Houston Rockets blew a 26-point lead and lost 99-98 to Boston. Harden was called for fouls on consecutive plays in the final 10 seconds, which really robbed Houston of a chance to win.
Marcus Smart draws two offensive fouls on James Harden at end of Rockets-Celtics game pic.twitter.com/YKrVgzbixi
— gifdsports (@gifdsports) December 29, 2017
After the game, Harden expressed his displeasure with the officiating. He noted that there were only two referees because the third hurt his back in pregame.
Harden: “First of all, I wonder how you only have two officials on a national TV game. That’s the first question. But, a lot of grabbing, a lot of holding. How else am I supposed to get open? The guy has two arms wrapped around my whole body."
— Jonathan Feigen (@Jonathan_Feigen) December 29, 2017
Harden: "You can’t have two officials in a professional game. There were a lot of no-calls that needed to be called because that changes the dynamic of the game. It’s a professional game, national TV. It can’t happen.”
— Jonathan Feigen (@Jonathan_Feigen) December 29, 2017
There’s a lot of frustration coming out of Harden from that game. He was frustrated because his team blew a huge lead in a big game. He was also frustrated because Marcus Smart did a good job of shutting him down and drawing foul calls. It’s understandable that Harden would be upset afterwards. We’ll see if he ends up being fined as well.
