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Sports

Chris Paul Led Rockets Through Secret Entrance to Fight Clippers in Locker Room

Apparently some Rockets wanted to get into it with Austin Rivers. And maybe Blake Griffin, too. LAPD was called.
Robert Hanashiro-USA TODAY Sports

Last night's Clippers-Rockets game in Los Angeles started with a video tribute to former point guard Chris Paul. It ended with Paul leading a clandestine attack into the Los Angeles locker room. The Clippers beat the Rockets 113-102 in a fairly contentious game and, afterwards, Houston players stormed the Clippers locker room via a secret passage that connects both locker rooms. According to reports, Paul led the way. Reporters were initially told that a fight broke out in the Rockets locker room—it sounded at first like things got heated between Paul and James Harden—but when the dust finally settled, it turns out Paul led a surgical strike into the home team's locker room. Also, the police were called. This is why the NBA is the best.

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Rivers was reportedly talking an increasing amount of shit from the bench as the game went on and Rockets players were fired up. Blake Griffin also had an interesting game, getting into a scuffle with Trevor Ariza that resulted in his ejection with just about a minute left. Prior to that he got into a screaming match with Rockets head coach Mike D'Antoni, eliciting a "FUCK YOU!" from the coach. Paul had a few words for his former teammate as well.

Griffin had been complaining about D'Antoni being out of his coaching box and D'Antoni claims that Griffin hit him right before the two got into it. You can see Griffin below immediately point over at D'Antoni, run right next to him out of bounds, and then D'Antoni points it out to the ref.

All of this nonsense culminated in the Peak Nonsense NBA moment where a former player exploits his knowledge of his old arena to sneak into the opponent's locker room looking for a brawl. But how close did we get to a locker room melee? Let's check in with ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski:

"It was classic NBA," one Clipper witness told ESPN. "None of these guys were going to fight."

Classic NBA is the best NBA.