Houston Rockets James Harden Suspended 1 Game for Kicking LeBron James [WATCH]

Houston Rockets point guard James Harden has been suspended one game for kicking LeBron James during Sunday's 105-103 win over the Cleveland Cavaliers, the NBA announced Monday night.

The kick occurred during the third quarter when Harden was getting double-teamed by the James and James Jones. Harden, who was holding tightly onto the ball, fell onto the floor and subsequently kicked LeBron in the groin. Harden was issued a flagrant foul 1.

"It's a reaction," Harden said in a post-game interview. "They called a flagrant. Next play we moved on."

Harden added that he reacted in the situation and did not think that he would be disciplined. LeBron, however, did not agree and believed that the league would definitely look at the incident. Ethan J. Skolnick tweeted both players' reactions after the on-court incident.

"It was an intentional groin kick. It was an intentional kick to a troublesome area," Jones added

ESPN's Tim Legler backed the NBA's decision to suspend Harden, stating, "I'm not surprised by it. Everybody looked at it. It looked fairly intentional. I don't know that he necessarily was trying to kick him there. But he definitely took his foot in [LeBron's] direction."

This is not the first suspension that the league has issued for this kind of offense. During the 2012-13 season, the NBA suspended Dwayne Wade of the Miami Heat one game for kicking Ramon Sessions in the groin. In 2006, the league suspended Jason Terry one game for punching Michael Finley in the groin.

Harden has not commented about his suspension. He has been averaging 27.1 points, 6.9 assists and 5.8 rebounds in 36.6 minutes this season.

Houston coach Kevin McHale said Monday, "It was a pretty intense game that started off with a little scrum on the floor in front of our bench with Pat and LeBron. It just kind of stayed kind of chippy all game long, which is fine. Some games are chippy like that."

The Rockets will play the Atlanta Hawks on Tuesday.

Watch the kick happen at the 0:49 mark: