James Harden Wants 'Fair Chance' After No-Call; Cites 2017 Kawhi Leonard Injury

Houston Rockets guard James Harden doesn't want to get hurt playing the Golden State Warriors in the playoffs like Kawhi Leonard did in 2017 and revealed as much following Sunday's 104-100 loss.

"I just want a fair chance," he said in reference to his potential game-tying three that missed in the closing seconds, per Jonathan Feigen of the Houston Chronicle. "We all know what happened a couple years back with Kawhi. Call the game the way it's supposed to be called, and we'll live with the results."

Leonard was a member of the San Antonio Spurs in 2017 and suffered an injury in Game 1 of the Western Conference Finals when Zaza Pachulia—then with Golden State—undercut him on a three-point attempt and didn't give him enough space to land.

Harden believed Draymond Green did the same thing in Sunday's contest and fell down immediately after launching the shot.

Rough Ending for the Rockets

The no-call—which involved Harden jumping forward and appearing to hunt the foul call like he so often does—was part of a frantic game-ending sequence that gave the Warriors the 1-0 lead in the series.

Stephen Curry finished with just 18 points but seemed to clinch the win when he drilled a three-pointer over Nene Hilario to push the Warriors' lead to five in the final 30 seconds. However, Houston scored and stole the ball from Kevin Durant to set up Harden's final miss.

Even after the miss, Chris Paul grabbed the offensive rebound but proceeded to turn it over before the visitors could attempt another shot. He was then ejected when he picked up his second technical foul for arguing with the officials about the play.

Harden's last shot and Golden State's tendency to close hard on his landing space throughout the contest was the focus of plenty of postgame discussion, and Utah Jazz big man Rudy Gobert noticed his team wasn't allowed to do the same in the first round:

Still, the Rockets had plenty of chances to win regardless of whether Harden was fouled or not. They were an ugly 14-of-47 (29.8 percent) from deep and could have won before the closing stretch if they shot even slightly better. They also had 14 turnovers—including the late, costly one from Paul—and failed to fully take advantage of Golden State's 20 turnovers.

The pressing question now is whether Harden's complaints and reference to Leonard's injury will set up the officials to give him a friendly whistle in Tuesday's game.