James Harden on Matt Barnes’ Flagrant Foul: ‘Things Like That are Fun’

In the second quarter of Sunday’s testy Rockets-Clippers game, Matt Barnes threw James Harden to the ground and was whistled for a flagrant foul.

Harden and his team weren’t fazed, as they hung on for a tough 100-98 road win.

Harden, who finished with a game-high 34 points along with 7 rebounds and seven assists, enjoyed the dust-up with Barnes.

Per the Houston Chronicle and LA Times:

“Things like that are fun,” Harden said. “We got boosted off that. We just turned it up.”

 

In the second half, Corey Brewer dunked on Blake Griffin on a break. Brewer bumped Griffin after he landed. Griffin shoved Brewer into the stanchion and shouted to the officials, “He hit me. He hit me.” Both received technical fouls. […] “It felt good,” Brewer said. “It always feels good when you dunk on somebody and try to get the team going.”

 

“It was very chippy,” Clippers Coach Doc Rivers said. “Silly chippy.” […] Is that something that could carry over to a possible playoff series? “Sure, why not? I don’t mind that,” Rivers said. “I just want to be able to be chippy and play. I didn’t think we handled that very well tonight. I thought they had the upper hand in the trash talk or whatever it was today.”