Getty James Harden #13 of the Houston Rockets drives on Draymond Green #23 of the Golden State Warriors during Game Five of the Western Conference Semifinals of the 2019 NBA Playoffs.
Wednesday night’s Game 5 between the Rockets and Warriors had just about everything. Big lead for Golden State, a late comeback, Kevin Durant exiting with a calf strain and Steph Curry lifting the team to a 3-2 series lead.
The cornucopia of notable events overshadowed how testy and physical the matchup was. There were 39 fouls between the two teams, as well as several attempts at flops to squeeze out as many free throws as possible. In addition, James Harden even tried to catch Draymond Green with a trip during the fourth quarter.
Here’s the video with a closeup:
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Harden and Green have already gotten into it during these Western Conference semifinals. As Nick Schwartz of For The Win writes, Green damaged Harden’s left cornea with a swipe to the face in Game 2.
In the first quarter of Game 3, Green appeared to catch Harden with an errant finger to the eye area. Green was nowhere close to making a play on the ball as Harden drove past him. Harden might want to consider wearing goggles at this point.
In addition, Green has an extensive history of kicking, tripping and generally making non-basketball plays towards opposing players.
Harden seemed to just want to dish it right back to Green. There’s a precedent for him to get fined, as Rajon Rondo was assessed a $25,000 penalty for tripping then Celtics guard Jae Crowder in April 2017.
Green has been docked similar amounts in the past for his extra curricular activities.
The two will get another chance to mess with each other on Friday for Game 6 in Houston (9 p.m. EST, ESPN).