Kurtenbach: Order restored — why the Warriors and Rockets stopped complaining in Game 2

OAKLAND — I honestly didn’t think I’d see it.

Given how Game 1 of the Warriors and Rockets’ second-round matchup went — given the contentiousness during the contest and the politicking regarding foul calls after — I presumed that things would only escalate as the series progressed.

But Game 2 could not have been more different than the unwatchable slog that was Game 1. It was good, clean, honest basketball — well-officiated and well-played played by two teams that barely griped.

Game 2 was such a departure that Rockets’ guard James Harden seemingly forgot all about his gripes with the officials and Warriors after the opening contest.

“What ref chatter?” a red-eyed Harden said after the Rockets’ 115-109 loss. “There was no chatter.”

Maybe the hit to his head in the first half of Game 2 erased the memory of Sunday’s postgame press conference, when Harden — following a flop-filled contest — decried that he just wanted a “fair chance” from the referees.

Oh well — you can’t ask Harden and his compatriot in drama and pettiness, Chris Paul, to change their stripes, but you can commend them and the Warriors for not carrying that nonsense onto the court Tuesday.

Yes, you know something is up when Draymond Green isn’t arguing calls but instead putting his head down and running back on defense, as he did in Game 2.

It’s clear that order has been restored to this rivalry, with all parties — the referees, the players, and the coaches — in cahoots.

One can only hope it sticks around for the remainder of this series. These two teams are too good to have this showdown be about anything other than their play.

“I felt like both teams, both coaches, just let the refs do their job all night. There wasn’t [any] talk about it. Out on the court, the chatter wasn’t about anything outside of the game, what was happening between the players,” Kevin Durant said after the game.

“I didn’t even notice the officiating. I don’t think anyone did. I think that’s the best compliment you can give them. They did a great job — this game was just about basketball,” said Warriors coach Steve Kerr.

As much as Tuesday’s game seemed like a normal basketball contest, it really wasn’t. The Warriors and Rockets entered this series as perhaps the two top-complaining teams in the NBA, and Game 1 was toxic.

It was enough to make me question if the NBA could survive more games like it.

After that game, Harden made his now-forgotten outlandish comments and the Rockets’ front office and coaching staff got to leaking, pushing through multiple media outlets their internal audit of last year’s Western Conference Finals, which deduced that — get this — referees missed calls that could have gone their way.

In the aftermath of that unbecoming behavior, Oracle Arena was a tinderbox for Game 2. The early moments of the contest were fraught with anticipation — the Warriors’ crowd and surely the television audience watching at home, too, wondering what would transpire following the referee’s first subjective call of the night.

It turns out, nothing happened. There was no flopping, no gesticulating after the whistle to be found.

What happened?

Maybe the Rockets realized how pathetic they were being and that their gambit to influence the officials wasn’t going to pay off in Game 2.

But best I can tell, a love of the game took over:

“It’s kind of embarrassing for the game of basketball, how much it’s been talked about, fouls and officiating. What about beating your man? What about stopping your man? Nobody talked about schemes the last couple days — [it was] all about foul calls,” Green said.

“It’s kind of disheartening for the game I love… to see the talk over the last two days was nothing about basketball and everything about foul calls. Is that what this game is coming to?

“I think both teams just realized what the hell was going on the last two days.“

“They weren’t complaining about many calls, we weren’t complaining about many calls. I think both teams were locked in on coming out and playing the game to the best of their ability. You have to give credit, both clubs did that.”

Perhaps the players and coaches took into account the human element of the game — and it’s officiating — as well.

Players make mistakes — no one expects Durant to make every shot or Green to stop his mark every time he’s on defense — and the same truth applies to referees. They’re human, too — to err is to prove it.

No one could argue that the referees were perfect in Game 1, but perfection was never possible, even if it seems expected in this era of truly instant replay. Add in Houston’s disingenuousness and you had a truly no-win scenario.

Being a referee is a thankless job — at best, you’re not noticed — but it is, indeed, worth crediting the Warriors and Rockets for cutting the poor guys some slack on Tuesday.

Hopefully — for this sake of this series — it’s not a one-off thing.