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One of the worst calls of the year helped James Harden beat the Bulls

Dan Devine
·Senior NBA writer

At halftime of Friday night’s game against the Chicago Bulls, the Houston Rockets retired the No. 11 jersey of former All-Star center and groundbreaking Chinese basketball legend Yao Ming. The Rockets’ current All-Star leader, James Harden, was so excited for Yao that he leapt into the 7-foot-6 giant’s arms for a great big hug:

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As we’d later learn, this overflow of exuberance wasn’t the only leap of body-to-body faith the hirsute tactician had in store on Friday:

With the score tied at 115 and just over two minutes left in overtime, the Rockets had the ball and a chance to push ahead. As Eric Gordon handled the ball above the 3-point arc, Harden started to fight with Bulls guard Michael Carter-Williams — back in the lineup to take the place of injured All-Star Jimmy Butler after playing just 6 1/2 minutes in the previous five games — for position at the top of the key.

Well, Carter-Williams started to fight for position, anyway, fronting Harden and hunkering down to try to deny an easy pass to the Rockets’ leading scorer. Harden, in turn, just leaned over and straight-up laid on MCW’s back, sending the two tumbling to the floor and prompting the refs to whistle the play dead.

Remarkably, they called a foul on Carter-Williams, who A) could not believe that he’d just been blamed for a dude deciding to ride him like a pool float and B) was incensed because it was his sixth foul. This play knocked him out for the remainder of a tied game in which he’d surprisingly starred, stepping in for Butler with 23 points on 11-for-18 shooting with nine rebounds, six assists, one block and just one turnover in 35 minutes of work.

Keen observers might remember that this is not Harden’s first trip to this particular rodeo:

Harden drew the foul on Jrue Holiday there, too. Evidently, this is a move that works when used sparingly … and one that, as you might expect, infuriates the opposition.

“I was in front of him, fronting him and he, I just don’t know,” Carter-Williams said after the game, according to ESPN.com’s Calvin Watkins. “He jumped on my back and they called a foul on me. It was a tough call.”

“[Harden] gets so many calls his way, it’s ridiculous sometimes,” Bulls forward Taj Gibson said after the game, according to Nick Friedell of ESPN.com. “I guess we got to call ‘referee hotline.’ There were some rough calls late, we had some guys who learned a lot tonight.”

Harden split his free throws to give Houston a one-point lead with 1:49 remaining in OT, but the Bulls would regain control with a turnaround jumper by Dwyane Wade on the following possession. The Rockets would get another crack, though, forcing Bulls big man Taj Gibson into traveling with 46.8 seconds left to take possession. This time, Harden battled Bulls rookie Paul Zipser at the top of the key, and this time, he decided to take the defender for a ride, instead of the other way around:

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Jab-step, stepback, fadeaway, take the contact, buckets. Harden completed the three-point play to put the Rockets up 119-117. After a missed attempt at a 3-point answer by Chicago’s Doug McDermott, the Beard knocked down another pair of freebies to seal a 121-117 overtime win. Harden finished with a game-high 42 points on 13-for-33 shooting, 12 rebounds, nine assists, two steals, one block and just two turnovers in 44 minutes of floor time.

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Harden’s late-game heroics and, um, not-so-heroics helped Houston avoid a second straight embarrassing meltdown. One night after blowing a 20-point lead in a loss to the Atlanta Hawks, the Rockets had allowed a 17-point first-half advantage to disappear, committing costly turnovers and letting Gibson run rampant in the paint during the third quarter and early stages of the fourth. The Bulls led by eight with 2:45 remaining in regulation … and then, suddenly, the Rockets’ defense showed up.

Houston limited Chicago to just two shots over the final 2:45 and forced three Bulls turnovers to give Harden and company a chance to claw their way back into it with an 8-0 run, capped by a Harden stepback with 27 seconds left to knot the score at 108, setting the stage for the extra session.

“I would like to say I came up with that, but James just felt like, [on] the pick-and-roll, he was tired,” Rockets coach Mike D’Antoni said after the game, according to Jonathan Feigen of the Houston Chronicle. “[Bulls center Robin] Lopez was at the rim. He didn’t feel like he had enough juice to do it. He felt like he could iso at the foul line and get it done.”

The coach was talking about the shot that sent the game to OT, but if we’re being honest, it applies pretty well to the play that fouled out MCW, too.

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Dan Devine is an editor for Ball Don’t Lie on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at devine@yahoo-inc.com or follow him on Twitter!