James Harden and the Rockets didn’t have their best in Game 2 against the Jazz as Houston shot a dreadful 40 percent from the field in a 116-108 loss as Utah tied the series at 1-1 to steal homecourt.
Harden had 32 points, but needed 22 shots to get there and went just 2-of-10 from three-point range. The rest of the Rockets didn’t fare much better from deep as the Jazz defense forced them into just enough uncomfortable shots to knock them off their rhythm (and, to be frank, they simply missed a lot of shots they normally hit). In any case, it was a frustrating night for the Rockets and that was exacerbated by some Jazz fans (or at least one very involved one) that wanted to heckle them coming in and out of the tunnel.
The game broadcast caught Nene giving a fan a gentle push as he was filming and heckling James Harden as they left the court at the half down nine, but that was apparently not an isolated incident. Harden was again approached by a fan (possibly the same guy) with his phone out, calling him the “worst flopper” in the NBA and Harden smacked his phone as he strode on by, and then the fan was asked to go back to his seat by the arena police.
[protected-iframe id=”4a8f36e62cbd5282b5e4f168dc0756ee-60970621-76566046″ info=”https://www.facebook.com/plugins/video.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Fjason.glad%2Fvideos%2F10214175561115831%2F&show_text=0&width=267″ width=”267″ height=”476″ frameborder=”0″ style=”border: none; overflow: hidden;” scrolling=”no”]
It’s not the first time this season a fan’s phone has caught some swift justice in the form of a slap from a player, as Rodney Hood smacked a phone out of a fan’s hand in Miami after being ejected, earning a $35,000 fine in the process. That would seemingly set the precedent for any punishment Harden could face, although his slap is less forceful than Hood’s and doesn’t send the phone to the floor, but for any Jazz fans hoping this might somehow lead to a suspension, that is almost assuredly not going to happen.
Heckling is a time honored tradition at sporting events, but if you’re going to do that you have to be ready for the consequences, whether that be getting kicked out or having your phone slapped if you’re going to try filming the whole thing.
