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Draymond Green Receives Flagrant-1 Foul For Game 3 Vs Rockets, But What About James Harden?

By Jonathan Franks
Published on: 03:43 PST, Apr 24, 2016

Draymond Green, a Golden State Warriors forward, reportedly received a Flagrant-1 foul Friday.

According to Bleacher Report, the NBA penalized Green with the flagrant foul retroactively for an intense move that he made in the final seconds of Thursday’s playoff game against the Houston Rockets.

With one second remaining in the fourth quarter, Draymond Green wrapped up Beasley and threw him down to the floor.

The report states that the foul occurred moments after Draymond fumbled the ball out of bounds, causing the Golden State Warriors to lose their final possession of the game — a possession that could have led to a victory for the Warriors. The NBA apparently dissected footage of the play within the NBA Officiating Last Two Minute Report before deciding to penalize Draymond Green with the Flagrant-1 foul call.

“Green (Golden State) wraps Beasley (Houston) and throws him to the ground on the inbounds play. Basketball Operations is reviewing the contact.”

Most people who saw the way that Draymond Green treated Michael Beasley during those final moments of Thursday’s game would likely agree with the Flagrant-1 foul decision.

However, the subject of what James Harden did during the last minute of the game is another story.

Rockets star James Harden made waves and headlines after Thursday’s game for delivering the game-winning shot at the perfect moment. However, a closer look at that particular play shows that it was not perfect at all. If it was called correctly by the officials, the game-winning shot would never have counted in the first place.

Based on the officiating report of the NBA, James Harden pushed Andre Iguodala in the back during that game-winning play. By doing so, he affected Andre’s “ability to retrieve the rebound,” which means that he should have received a loose-ball foul on that play instead of a headline-making shot.

“Harden (HOU) initiates the contact with Iguodala (GSW) to create space and dislodges him from his legal guarding position.”

According to Michael Lee with the Vertical, James Harden made it clear during a post-game interview that he did not think he pushed off at all. However, James started his statement with a solid point that cannot be denied — “the game is over.”

Chances are that the tension on the court Sunday for Game 4 is going to be very high between the Houston Rockets and the Golden State Warriors. Stephen Curry reportedly told the press on Friday that he would be surprised if he was not able to join his teammates on the court for Game 4 after suffering an ankle injury.

The Warriors still lead the series 2-1 against the Houston Rockets. Therefore, the primary focus of the Warriors (and Draymond Green) on Sunday should not be what happened on Friday. On the contrary, they should be focused on taking one step closer to winning the series by beating the Houston Rockets in Game 4.

[Image Credit: Ezra Shaw/Getty Images]

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