James Harden dropped a 50-point triple-double on the Los Angeles Lakers Thursday night en route to a 126-111 win for the Rockets, and the Lakers, one might say, were big mad.
Despite losing the free throw battle by just five (32-27), the Lakers players became agitated by the amount of times Harden went to the stripe, where he went 18-19. So agitated, in fact, that both LeBron James and Lonzo Ball decided to play multiple defensive possessions with their hands behind their backs as a passive-aggressive message to the refs.
Per ESPN:
“You can’t touch them,” Ball said, expressing extra indignation at the two times Josh Hart was called for a foul while Harden was attempting a 3-pointer.
“I was just trying not to foul today,” he continued. “They were calling it tight today, so I was just trying to get my hands out of there. … It’s very tough staying in front of [Harden] with your hands like that.”
Harden has long been a master in drawing fouls on his way to the cup. It’s a reason a large contingency of NBA fans loathe his game despite his incredible efficiency and jaw-dropping statistical outputs, and his penchant for finding contact and forcing refs to blow their whistle should come as no surprise to the Lakers. Head coach Luke Walton admitted that his team’s focus on being petty took away from their ability to, you know, actually win the game.
“How hard is it to play defense like that? It’s tough,” Walton said. “I think they were just trying to make a point: ‘We’re not using our arms here. Stop calling fouls.’ But we can’t, whether we get frustrated or not, we can’t let that affect us going under screens or us not communicating … which I thought we could’ve done a better job of tonight.”
On another note, the Lakers shot 15-27 from the free throw line. So perhaps their anger is a bit misplaced and they’d be better off putting that negative energy toward something constructive.
