Trevor Ariza And Gerald Green Are The Fall Guys For The Rockets' Locker Room Raid

Per Adrian Wojnarowski, Houston’s Trevor Ariza and Gerald Green will be the only players getting discipline from the NBA after the Rockets’ reported invasion-by-secret-passage of the Clippers’ locker room following their loss in L.A. on Monday night. Chris Paul and James Harden, despite reportedly being a part of the brigade, will get off with no penalties.

“Aggressively entering” is evidently the NBA’s own official wording for what Ariza and Green did, and it’s a good rhetorical flourish. Woj mentioned yesterday evening that, according to his sources, Ariza was the “most aggressive and determined” to try and get into the locker room, while Paul and Harden tried to slow him down. The NBA’s Kiki VanDeWeghe also described Paul and Harden as “peacemakers” in the whole affair.

Marc Stein of the New York Times said he was also “hearing strongly today” that Clint Capela, who Woj initially reported to be hanging out in the Clippers’ locker room doorway, was actually Tarik Black. You might be thinking that Black was employed as some sort of diversionary tactic. He was not, says Stein.

A bunch of Rockets spoke to the media today and made some attempts at denying the most hilarious parts of the reports. James Harden, specifically, had to claim that there is no “secret passageway” to get into the Clippers locker room, and that apparently it’s just a plain old passageway that everyone knows about.

Update (7:49 p.m. ET): The NBA explains the Tarik Black detail, saying that he went to lift weights after the game and was curious about the loud noises.