Rocket's Day at Line Costs Grizzly Who Cries Foul Bob Levey/Associated Press Houston's James Harden, second from left, piled up the points and led the Rockets to victory by sinking 22 of 25 foul shots. Over the course of a long N.B.A. season, it is not uncommon to see a player, or more often a coach, punished by the N.B.A. for publicly criticizing the refereeing in a game. So it was hardly remarkable that Memphis's Zach Randolph was fined $25,000 by the N.B.A. on Friday for his uninhibited comments the night before, when the Rockets beat the Grizzlies, 100-92, in Houston in a game in which Randolph said the referees were so biased against his team that it was "eight against five." Pretty blunt words, although over the years, people no doubt have said worse about the officials on the court. But what made Randolph's case somewhat more notable was the source of his grievance - the 27 points that James Harden of the Rockets scored in the game while shooting just 2 of 9 from the field. Instead, Harden piled up the points and led the Rockets to victory by sinking 22 of 25 foul shots. It was the first time an N.B.A. player had managed to score 27 points with two or fewer field goals, according to the Elias Sports Bureau. Harden converted nine of those free throws in the final 11 minutes of the game as the Rockets, now 20-11 on the season, battled back to beat the Grizzlies, who are now 12-16. The 6-foot-5-inch Harden, 24, who is one of the best and most distinctive players in the league, with his skilled left-handed ball-handling and shooting and big, bushy beard, is averaging 9.2 free-throw attempts per game this season, which is second in the N.B.A. behind Oklahoma City's Kevin Durant, who was averaging 9.3 after the Thunder's win Friday over Charlotte. So the fact that Harden is fouled a lot is hardly news. Still, 25 free-throw attempts is a whole other matter, and Randolph was upset. "It's obvious," Randolph said after Thursday's game when he was asked by reporters about when he thought the momentum turned. It was the refs tonight. "The man shoot free throws every time," he said of Harden, adding: "It can't be like that, man. We're out here playing, too. Until Thursday's game, the most foul shots that Harden had taken in an N.B.A. game was the 21 he took (he converted 19) in a victory over the Bobcats in January 2013. A solid 84.2 percent career shooter from the free-throw line, Harden was also fifth in scoring over all in the N.B.A. this season, with a 24.2 points-per-game average, going into Friday's games. And while Randolph, a lefty like Harden, but bigger and burlier at 6 feet 9 inches, was not amused by what went on Thursday night, Harden's teammate Dwight Howard might have been. A notoriously shaky free-throw shooter, who often enough is deliberately sent to the foul line by the other team, Howard holds the N.B.A. record for most foul shots in a game, with 39. And it happened to him not once, but twice. In a game last season while he was still with the Los Angeles Lakers, Howard made 25 of those 39 free throws. The season before, while still with the Orlando Magic, he converted just 21. Harden, of course, rarely gets sent to the line on purpose. In Thursday's game, he began attacking the basket and drawing fouls after realizing his outside shot was off, although whether every foul that was subsequently called was justified is a matter of debate. "I couldn't make a shot," Harden said afterward. I just tried to get to the rim. We were kind of stagnant through the middle of the game, especially the third quarter, so I just wanted to get in attack mode. One footnote to Thursday's game: Randolph himself went 7 for 12 from the line while scoring 23 points. A second footnote: Friday was also Zach Randolph Day in Memphis, the player honored for his charitable efforts in the city he has played the last five seasons. Presumably, none of the referees from Thursday's game were present. A previous version of this article misidentified the team that allowed 21 free throws by the Houston Rockets' James Harden in a game last January. It was the Charlotte Bobcats, not the Charlotte Hornets.