LeBron James has shown frustration all day about a lack of fouls called in his favor (hilariously), so he probably had that on his mind when he drove to the rim and Patrick Beverley tried to draw a charge. Beverley slid into the lane and drew contact, and they both went to the ground, with LeBron falling on Beverley. As LeBron was trying to get up, he pushed down on Beverley's chest and things naturally got dicey.
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Both guys started shoving each other and the players on the court all rushed to the scrum, too. J.R. Smith was battling with a referee just to get close to the action. They were separated without incident, but did exchange a super alpha moment when LeBron bumped into Beverley on his way to the bench and both guys pretended not to see each other.In the end, offsetting technicals were called, as was a common foul on Beverley. It's still a little tense in Houston because three minutes later, James Harden took a hard foul from Timofey Mozgov and both Harden and Trevor Ariza got in Mozgov's face. Ariza earned a technical foul as well. And then James Harden kicked LeBron in the nuts.
It happened after Harden was getting tied up with the ball and went to the ground kicking. He connected with LeBron's nuts and was called for a flagrant.[ABC]