Things did not go well for the Houston Rockets in Game 1 of their second-round series against the Golden State Warriors. Houston was upset about purported missed calls all game, and they dropped the series opener to the Warriors, 104-100.
Perhaps nobody on the Rockets roster matter than Chris Paul, who got ejected in the closing seconds after he felt he was fouled trying to pass the ball to a teammate.
Houston was also noticeably upset because they thought James Harden was fouled on his initial attempt at the beginning of the play.
Of course, there can be no game with Chris Paul, the Warriors, and James Harden without some kind of controversy surrounding the referees. For their part, it seemed as though people felt Houston was sliding under Klay Thompson — recovering from a ankle injury, by the way — on his 3-point attempts.
Joe Borgia, NBA Senior Vice President of Replay & Referee Operations, joined @NBATV to discuss two plays from #HOUatGSW and what constitutes a foul in cases of defenders closing out on shooters: pic.twitter.com/wxgVEg6tWB
— NBA Official (@NBAOfficial) April 29, 2019
Paul was given his second technical for yelling at the referee, and was promptly ejected from the game with just 4.4 seconds left.
Game 2 is on Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. again in Oakland.