Incident occurred in thrilling battle between Rockets and Cavs on Sunday…
Houston Rockets guard James Harden has been suspended for one game by the NBA after his kick to the groin on LeBron James during Sunday’s game with the Cleveland Cavaliers.
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Harden received the one game ban without pay after he was caught kicking out at LeBron and hitting him in the groin in the third quarter of their thrilling battle on Sunday. Harden had fallen to the floor on a double team from the Cavs star and teammate James Jones, and was unable to stop himself from reacting.
While the Rockets star said after the game that he didn’t believe that he would be disciplined by the league, it turns out that he was wrong.
The 25-year-old was given a flagrant foul 1 for kicking, and it isn’t the first time that the NBA have suspended a player for similar actions and so it comes as no surprise that they opted to take further action.
Harden’s actions were the tip of the iceberg in a feisty encounter which saw five technical fouls called with 16 fouls in total in the third quarter alone as both teams put on an entertaining game which almost had a playoff-type atmosphere.
Houston coach Kevin McHale described it as a “pretty intense game” but he would have been delighted with the way his team stuck with it and ground out the win as Harden and LeBron faced off in a battle of MVP contenders.
The Rockets have won five consecutive games and they will now switch their attention to the Atlanta Hawks who they face on Tuesday night, and they will need to come up with a plan to win without their leading scorer.
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