HOUSTON — James Harden was pestered and harassed on defense by Patrick Beverley for most of Houston’s game against the Los Angeles Clippers on Wednesday night.
Despite all of Beverley’s antics Harden still scored 47 points and the Rockets outlasted the Clippers 102-93 in a wild game that saw Los Angeles coach Doc Rivers ejected in the fourth quarter.
Afterward, Russell Westbrook was asked about Beverley’s defensive effort against Harden.
“Pat Bev trick y’all like he play defense,” Westbrook said. “He don’t guard nobody, man. It’s just running around doing nothing. As you seen what happened — 47. All that commotion to get 47.”
Houston was up two with about two minutes left when Beverley, a former Rocket, fouled out. Harden made both free throws before grabbing a rebound on the other end and hitting a 3 to make it 95-88.
Beverley was given a technical foul during a timeout after the play and Harden hit the two free throws.
Rivers was then given two technical fouls and ejected to the delight of son Austin Rivers, the Houston guard who laughed and signaled for the officials to T-up his father. Doc Rivers spent several more seconds screaming at the referees before slowly walking across the court and to the locker room.
Doc Rivers said after the game that he was upset with the officials because of a mix up with the number of timeouts. He said that he tried to challenge a play but that it was past the 30 seconds allotted after a play in which to make a challenge. So they told him he didn’t burn a timeout on the challenge and he had two remaining. His ejection came after they said he was out of timeouts when he called the timeout where Beverley received his technical.
“We didn’t deserve to win with the way we were playing right now offensively or defensively but mistakes like that cannot happen on this level,” Doc Rivers said. “That was awful and the response was to throw me out? I didn’t swear. I just said: ‘This is nuts.’”
Crew chief Tony Brothers said the Clippers were incorrectly told that they would keep their timeout after it was determined they couldn’t challenge a play.
“He was given an opportunity to try to get his composure, but it didn’t happen,” Brothers said. “He came out onto the floor when we wanted to start resuming play. He was given a technical foul. The first one he says: ‘I don’t care,’ and he continued to stay on the floor so he was given a second technical and ejected.”
Austin Rivers will still laughing about the situation after the game and tweeted: “Welp…. thanksgiving is going to be weird,” before talking to reporters.
“He actually is sensitive with stuff like that so we’ll see what happens,” Austin Rivers said. “I love him, but it was a really good moment that I enjoyed a lot … I really enjoyed that. It was fun.”
Harden made both free throws before JaMychal Green made a 3 for Los Angeles. But Harden stole the ball from Kawhi Leonard, and Tyson Chandler made a reverse dunk with 37 seconds left to make it 100-91.
Leonard led the Clippers with 26 points, 12 rebounds and seven assists and Lou Williams added 20 points off the bench.
Westbrook added 17 points to help the Rockets win their fifth straight game
CELTICS 140, WIZARDS 133
BOSTON (AP) — Kemba Walker scored 25 points and Boston won its ninth straight, overcoming 44 points from Bradley Beal to beat Washington.
Jayson Tatum bounced back from a historically bad shooting night with 23 points, Jaylen Brown had 22 and Enes Kanter added 13 points and nine rebounds. Boston has not lost since the opener at Philadelphia.
Rui Hachimura scored 21 points Washington, and former Celtics guard Isaiah Thomas had 18 points and had seven assists. The Wizards have lost three straight and six of seven.
RAPTORS 114, TRAIL BLAZERS 106
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Pascal Siakam scored 36 points, Fred VanVleet had 30 and Toronto beat Portland.
Siakam scored 13 of his 36 points in the fourth quarter to help close out the Trail Blazers in a bounce back from Monday night’s loss to the Los Angeles Clippers.
Rodney Hood led the Blazers with 25 points.
Damian Lillard, who entered Wednesday trailing only James Harden in points per game, had nine points in his worst outing of the season. He was 2 for 12 from the field.
TIMBERWOLVES 129, SPURS 114
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Andrew Wiggins had 30 points on 12-for-23 shooting and Minnesota handed the San Antonio its third straight loss.
Karl-Anthony Towns scored 28 points and grabbed 11 rebounds, giving Minnesota’s maximum-contract duo a third consecutive game with 25-plus points apiece. Towns and Wiggins are the only teammates in the NBA averaging more than 25 points per game. Wiggins added eight rebounds and seven rebounds,.
DeMar DeRozan had 27 points and LaMarcus Aldridge added 23 points for San Antonio.
MAGIC 112, 76ERS 97
ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — Nikola Vucevic had 25 points and 12 rebounds and Orlando used a big fourth quarter to beat Philadelphia.
Aaron Gordon added 18 points and 13 rebounds, and D.J. Augustin had 12 points and eight assists.
Josh Richardson led the 76ers with 19 points, and Ben Simmons added 18 points, eight rebounds and five assists. 76ers center Joel Embiid sat out because of a sore left knee.
GRIZZLIES 119, HORNETS 117
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — Rookie Ja Morant scored on a driving left-handed layup with 0.7 seconds left to lift Memphis.
In his first NBA game in the Carolinas, Morant had his first double-double with 23 points and 11 assists to help the Grizzlies win consecutive games for the first time this season. The South Carolina native was 10 of 15 from the field.
Jonas Valanciunas added 18 points and 13 rebounds. Terry Rozier tied a career-high with 33 points on seven 3-points for Charlotte.