Report: James Harden, Chris Paul confront Clippers in lockerroom through secret door

What's the story?

Houston Rockets' James Harden, Chris Paul, Trevor Ariza and Gerald Green entered the Clippers' locker room to confront Austin Rivers after their 113-102 loss.

In case you didn't know...

Austin Rivers, who is suffering from an ankle injury, was seen exchanging words with Rockets forward Trevor Ariza late into the fourth quarter before Griffin got in between the two to add few words of his own.

The heart of the matter...

As Per ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski, the Rockets players entered through the back hallway that connects team dressing rooms into the Clippers' locker room. The tumult created by the Rockets players was for Blake Griffin too. The security had to escort the players out before it turned ugly.

Sources: As the four Rockets marched through the back hallway into the Clippers locker room, center Clint Capela knocked on the front door of Clippers entrance. Someone opened door, saw him standing there -- and shut it on him.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) January 16, 2018

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"Um, I don't know," Chris Paul said. "We took our loss, you know what I mean, tough loss. Get up out of here. I think it's ice headed to Houston."

Clippers head coach also declined to reveal any details of the confrontation as he said "Let's put it like this: Our team was in our locker room. That's all I'll say. I'll let you do the rest of the investigation. I will say their entire team was not in their locker room. You're going to have to figure it out from there." Griffin following his coach had something very similar to say on the matter.

The game really got out of hand in the later parts of the game when Griffin and Dan Antonio were given double technical fouls. If that wasn’t enough, with just 9 seconds left in the game, Griffin and Ariza received double technicals after exchanging words and both were ejected. Griffin high-fived players on the Clippers' bench as he stormed off the court, tearing off his jersey in the process.

What's next?

We would expect another heated confrontation between these two as they play each other again on Feb. 28th and then once again on March 1st

Author's take

The battle should be restricted to within the court and therefore there was no need for the Rockets players to take it to into the locker room. These players are often role models for youngsters and for this to happen on Martin Lurther King Jr. Day is quite ironical.