Keith Bogans and James Harden were both hit with matching technical fouls after the two came together in an incident both described afterwards as much ado about nothing.
After Bogans was hit with a very cheap offensive foul call for putting his arm on Harden, the Rockets All-Star walked past Bogans loudly clapping his hands.
That irked the Nets veteran, who came over to Harden and got in his face, with the two then beginning to yell at each other and needing to be separated.
“It was just getting really physical,” Bogans said afterwards. “We were going back and forth at each other and started to talk a little bit and it really wasn’t personal or anything. We were just playing basketball.”
For Harden, who had been struggling to score at the time, the explanation was simpler.
“Frustration, I guess,” he said, followed by a shrug.
Harden got the upper-hand on the court, though, finishing with 22 points, including a 3-pointer over Bogans’ outstretched arm with 39.8 seconds left that propelled the Rockets to a 106-96 victory over the Nets. Bogans finished with six points but went 2-for-9 from the field, including 2-for-8 from 3-point range.
tbontemps@nypost.com