Sometimes you need to lean on the wisdom of Marshawn Lynch in the midst of confusion.

"I mean, I know I'm gone get got, but I'm gone get mine more than I get got, though," Beastmode once said of taking on defenders at the point of contact.

After the Rockets melted down Thursday and lost 99-98 to Celtics after leading by as many as 26 points on the road, Harden complained about the quality of the officiating. This has been a constant refrain for the NBA's leading scorer lately, and it's getting old and tired.

Granted, Thursday's contest was unusual. Only two officials, as opposed to the typical three, staffed the game after one couldn't take the floor due to injury. That's no excuse for Harden, who benefits from the whistle more than any player in the league, having led the NBA in free throw attempts going on four seasons, to start bellyaching.

Harden, despite scoring a game-high 34 points to go with 10 assists, has no one to blame but himself for his team's defeat, its fourth in a row after a 25-4 start to this season.

As bad as he claims the officiating was, he still visited the charity stripe 15 times, his fifth-most attempts this season. And the stripes didn't have anything to do with why Harden had his worst shooting performance of 2017-18, knocking down just seven of 27 attempts, or why he committed eight turnovers, also a game high and his second-most of the season.

And they certainly didn't have anything to do with why he allowed Marcus Smart to bait him into two straight offensive fouls, only one of which looked legitimate, in the game's final seven seconds as Boston rallied for the win.

With the exception of former teammate and Warriors superstar Kevin Durant, Harden might be the league's most-skilled scorer, but much of his offensive attack is predicated on coaxing officials into hitting his opponents with cheap fouls off contact he goes to great, bordering on illegal, lengths to create. Smart is vying to be known one of the NBA's tougher perimeter defenders, but he's also a notorious flopper.

Harden cons refs. So does Smart. Thursday, the five-time all-star got beat at his own game at the most crucial point in a marquee matchup. He can miss me with all the griping