Daryl Morey, Tad Brown Criticize Referees, Charles Barkley After Win vs Warriors

Despite the Houston Rockets' 97-96 win over the Stephen Curry-less Golden State Warriors in Game 3 of their playoff series Thursday, team management took issue with the referees and Charles Barkley following the contest. 

General manager Daryl Morey was critical of the officiating and pointed to two incidents that went in the Dubs' favor.

The first involved Warriors center Andrew Bogut and Rockets center Dwight Howard engaging in an arm bar, which led to D-12 getting called for a technical foul for throwing the ball at Bogut.

In a tweet, Morey likened the tactic to a mixed martial arts move:

He then referenced Warriors forward Draymond Green flooring Michael Beasley near the end of the game in a play with no foul called:

Most of the vitriol was saved for TNT analyst and Hall of Famer Charles Barkley.

The former NBA MVP accused the Rockets of lacking effort, which prompted CEO Tad Brown to take aim at the 11-time All-Star's four-year stint in Houston at the end of his career:

"

@dfbarron Charles would know, his entire rockets career was fake hustle

— Tad Brown (@tadbbrown) April 22, 2016"

The 2015-16 regular season was disappointing for the Rockets, as they barely made the playoffs one year after reaching the Western Conference Finals.

Although they are stacked with star power, especially in the form of Howard and James Harden, the Rockets have struggled to come together as a team.

Houston did manage to prevail Thursday despite nearly blowing a sizable lead, and it seems some within the organization may be carrying chips on their shoulders.

The Rockets have the potential to be a great team based on talent alone, and while they showed that to some degree in Game 3, the looming return of Curry could render it moot.

But winning is the best way to silence detractors, and Houston is now three victories away from what would be one of the biggest upsets in playoff history. However, unless the team can pull it off, the criticism is likely to continue.

Follow @MikeChiari on Twitter.