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Monday was full of chippy NBA games. Russell Westbrook got ejected, Ben Simmons and Kyle Lowry were ready to take it outside, and the Houston Rockets … tried to sneak into the Los Angeles Clippers locker room?
Yesterday, the Clippers hosted the Rockets at the Staples Center and it was Chris Paul’s first time back in the building since getting dealt to Houston in the off-season, so of course, things were heated. It started when the referees supposedly missed a goaltending call on the Clippers’ Wesley Johnson. The Rockets argued with the referees, and coach D’Antoni even ran to midcourt to argue alongside his team. The coach then started going back and forth with Blake Griffin before trading words with Trevor Ariza. Austin Rivers was said to be mouthing off from the sideline all night after being sidelined with an injury.
Griffin and Ariza were eventually ejected and the rest of the game went smoothly. But the bickering wasn’t over. After the game ended, rumors of an off-the-court incident began to swirl, and it had something to do with the Rockets trying to enter the home team’s locker room.
Early this morning, ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski revealed how the teams tried to handle the dispute behind closed doors, and James Harden, joined by Trevor Ariza and Gerald Green, tried to get into the Clippers locker room to confront Austin Rivers.
Woj added that Houston was prepared to go after Griffin, and they were able to get into the locker room. NBA Twitter found it hilarious that Paul, a former Clipper, came through a back door to confront an opposing team.
But the best response came from Shaq and Charles Barkley when they found out that police had to be called to defuse the situation. The NBA legends couldn’t stop laughing long enough to offer a hot take on the fight that never was.
