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Rockets drub Mavs in testy duel
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DALLAS Mavericks center Andrew Bogut didn’t see what the fuss was about, but his hard foul on Houston star James Harden helped send the Rockets into orbit on Tuesday.
The Australian was called for a Flagrant One foul in the second quarter when he set a jarring screen on Harden.
The Rockets were on an 11-0 scoring run at the time and Harden’s ensuing two free throws and a three-pointer stretched it to 16-0.
“I don’t know what they was on tonight,” Harden said after the Rockets triumphed 123-107 in an ill-tempered clash in Dallas that featured a total of eight technical fouls, two Flagrant One fouls and the ejection of the Rockets’ Trevor Ariza.
“That other team was trippin’ tonight, just disrespectful, unprofessional — players and coaches,” Harden said.
“I don’t know what was their problem, but I think that got us going.”
Bogut, back after missing 11 games with a bone bruise on his right knee, said he didn’t think he committed a flagrant foul. “If you watch the replay, yeah, (Harden) made no effort to run around my screen,” Bogut said.
“So obviously I turned to protect myself and hit him and he went face-first into my shoulder. Yeah, it was a hard screen and I set hard screens.
“But to get a flagrant for it is kind of head-scratching when I felt like (Mavs guard) Justin Anderson had his wrist in a ju-jitsu hold four plays later, and that was brushed off like a regular foul.”
Bogut said the fouls had nothing to do with the fact that the Mavericks “got absolutely killed” by the Rockets, who have won 13 of their last 15.
Harden scored 34 points with 11 assists for the Rockets, who also got 22 points from Ryan Anderson.
But the animosity didn’t end at the final buzzer.
Houston’s Ariza, ejected after receiving a second technical foul between the third and fourth quarters, was still angry with Mavericks center Salah Mejri after the game, although a hallway showdown between the two was averted.
“I don’t know what that was. It wasn’t even basketball,” Dallas guard Wesley Matthews said of explosive emotions on display. “Tempers — two in-state teams that play each other four times. We have to be better than that. There was opportunity for us to channel it into basketball, and we didn’t do that.”
Elsewhere, the seemingly unstoppable Russell Westbrook produced his 15th triple-double of the season to propel the Oklahoma City Thunder to a 106-94 victory over the Heat in Miami.
Westbrook’s 52nd career triple-double was his 30th of 2016 — a total spanning the latter part of last season.
He joined Oscar Robertson as the only players to notch 30 triple-doubles in a calendar year — furthering his chances of matching Robertson’s 1961-62 feat of averaging a triple-double over an entire season. Westbrook finished with 29 points, 17 rebounds and 11 assists.
In other games, it was: Celtics 113, Grizzlies 103; and Jazz 102, Lakers 100.
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