Well, that's one way to keep them out.
The growing feud between the Los Angeles Clippers, former teammate Chris Paul, and the Houston Rockets, reached a hilarious turn both on and off the court on Wednesday night.
To preface, the Clippers defeated the Rockets--wihtout James Harden--by a score of 113-102 back on Jan. 15. The contentious game was filled with bad blood on both sides, and afterwards, it spilled into the locker rooms as Paul led his Houston teammates, Trevor Ariza, Gerald Green and Harden through a back corridor into the Clippers' locker room to confront Blake Griffin and James Harden.
Paul, who knows the corridors of Staples Center well after playing for the Clippers for seven years, led his teammates through a side door in the visitor's locker room, down a back corridor, into the back entrance of the Clippers locker room where things got heated before security was able to break it up and restore order.
Extra security and the LAPD was ultimately called to the scene, and the NBA investigated the incident, handing out two game suspensions to Ariza and Green for their roles in the incident.
Flash forward to Wednesday, where the Rockets, now with Harden, returned to Staples Center riding a 13-game win streak to face the now Blake Griffin-less Clippers.
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The Rockets won the game, crusing the Clippers, 105-92, but not without some more hilarious moments to add to the rivalry along the way.
First, as the Rockets jumped out to a 26-point first quarter lead over Los Angeles, Harden had a highlight reel play as he broke the ankles of Clippers' forward Wesley Johnson with this devastating crossover that saw the M.V.P. frontrunner stare down Johnson before draining a three-pointer
James Harden is mean pic.twitter.com/DwQ5pYIOY7— Michael Lee (@MrMichaelLee) March 1, 2018
"I was trying to figure out what was going on. I was confused," said Harden of the play. "I was looking at him and he was looking at me, and I was wondering what he was going to say. I was always going to shoot it, but I just wanted to see what was going on first."
After the game, as the teams returned to the locker room, the Rockets were greeted with some yellow caution tape barricading the side door that leads to the back corridor between the Clippers and visiting locker rooms.
While most of the players on the Rockets found the prank--and homage to the Jan. incident--hilarious, they would not have been surprised had they heard the words of Clippers' head coach Doc Rivers during his pregame press conference.
Rivers promised that the Clippers would "build a wall," between the two locker rooms in order to make sure there would be no repeat incident between the two teams in their rematch on Wednesday.
"We've kind of barricaded all of the secret passageways," joked Rivers. "I'm going to stay away from the barricades. We're going to build a wall, and I'm not paying for it! Houston's paying for it!"
Rivers' was playing on President Donald Trump's campaign claims that he would build a wall between the United States and Mexico and make Mexico pay for the wall.
Despite Rivers insinuation that it was the Clippers that would put up the barricades, the yellow caution tape inside the Houston locker room was actually put there by Rockets equipment manager Tony Nila.
Both Paul and Harden took pictures of the caution tape that hilariously read, "Caution. Do Not Enter," and posted it to social media with Harden telling reporters, "You guys should take a picture of that. I want you all to see that."
We did.
