The Brooklyn Nets got a momentary boost in their Game 3 loss to the Philadelphia 76ers when James Harden got ejected for a low blow on Royce O’Neal.
“Unacceptable,” Harden said postgame in a video shared to Twitter by New York Post Sports on April 21. “And unacceptable Flagrant 2 [foul]. The first time I’ve been ejected. I’m not labeled as a dirty player. I didn’t hit him in a private area. When somebody is draped on you like that defensively, it’s just a natural basketball reaction. I didn’t hit him hard enough for him to fall down like that. But for a Flagrant 2 is unacceptable. This is a playoff game. We’ve seen around the league things that are much worse than what that play was. Honestly, I don’t even think it was a foul on me. But, yeah, that’s unacceptable. That can’t happen.”
“I don’t need an explanation,” Harden said. “That’s unacceptable. … I didn’t even think it was a foul on me. Somebody draped on me, natural reaction is just use your off-arm to get him off [of me] a little bit, and that was it.”
Harden finished his night with 21 points, five rebounds, and four assists.
James Harden on how he felt watching from the locker room after being ejected in the postseason for the first time
“The James thing was a joke,” Sixers head coach Doc Rivers said on April 21, per ESPN’s Tim Bontemps.
Nets Surprised With Officiating
Despite that ejection, the Sixers outlasted the Nets who could not corral Tyrese Maxey who scored 10 of his 25 points in the fourth quarter. And the Nets arguably got the short end of the stick on the other interaction that led to Nic Claxton’s ejection some three-plus minutes into the final frame.
Claxton was tossed for staring down Embiid after a dunk on the Sixers’ big man. But Embiid seemingly narrowly avoided getting rung up in the first quarter when he flailed his leg toward Claxton’s nether region.
Embiid KICKS Nic Claxton after stepping over him 😳
“I mean, it’s the MVP,” Claxton said via the YES Network on YouTube. “I thought he should have been kicked out. But…it’s not my job to referee. Maybe I should have sold it more instead of just clapping on the ground like I was really hurt. Just gotta move on.”
Nets head coach Jacque Vaughn has been critical of the officiating in this series from go and continued to lobby against it in the aftermath of Game 3.
“I don’t think I’ve ever seen that in my career before,” Vaughn said via the YES Network’s YouTube channel on April 20. “For a guy to intentionally kick someone in an area that none of us want to be kicked at or towards, and for him to continue to play. I’ve never seen that before. In a game and a guy continues to play – intentional.”
NBA Makes Final Ruling on Joel Embiid-Nic Claxton Play
The initial explanation for how the game was officiated left much to be desired in terms of clarity.
The NBA’s Pool Report about why James Harden was ejected and Joel Embiid was not last night…
Perhaps Vaughn’s words had some sway as the NBA announced that they would be looking into the altercation, per Brian Lewis of the New York Post.
It could have resulted in further discipline from the NBA’s likely MVP, though Lewis also points out that every flagrant foul is reviewed which means both Claxton and Hardne will have their infractions inspected as well. And ESPN NBA insider Adrian Wojnarowski reported that the league would be taking no further action.
This is just setting up even more intrigue around a potential win-or-go-home game for Brooklyn.
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Sixers’ James Harden Rips Officials, Questions Nets’ Royce O’Neale