The Rockets Are Furious Over Chris Paul’s Unreviewed Blow To Ben McLemore Below The Belt

The Oklahoma City Thunder cut their deficit against the Houston Rockets in half on Saturday night, picking up a 119-107 win that put their opening round series at 2-1 in Houston’s favor. Chris Paul had an excellent game, but one moment that occurred in overtime has drawn the ire of a number of individuals from his former team.

Paul was being checked by Ben McLemore. In an attempt to get past the Houston guard, he shot his right arm out and, well, this happened.

The Rockets were visibly displeased with the officials’ decision to not review what appeared to be Paul hitting McLemore below the belt. As a college student at Wake Forest, Paul once infamously hit an opposing player below the belt, and as he claimed after the game, he did not do this to McLemore on purpose.

Paul was correct: Rockets head coach Mike D’Antoni was not happy about the referee’s lack of a look into all of this. D’Antoni spoke to the media after the game and was confused as to the lack of a review on this one.

The sentiment was shared by James Harden, who was careful to say that while he did not know if this was malicious, he really wanted to know why the referees did not look into what happened.

The Rockets and Thunder will square off against one another in Game 4 on Monday afternoon. The game tips off at 4 p.m. EST on TNT.

×