Thought it was an accident at first, but the fact the Artest didnt even look back or react after hitting Harden tells me otherwise. Not premeditated, but he knew somebody was there and that they'd likely get hit.
Why Harden tried to shove MWP in the first place? Beardman tried to play tough but had it backfired. This doesn't excuse MWP by all means but I find it ironic.
Trying avoid Artest how? By moving sideways into running Artest cutting him off and putting elbow to the chest level? C'mon. I've seen Hayward being bumped like that after his fast break dunk few times. It was clearly an attempt to deliver some sort of message and it was FAIL.Keep seeing people say this in various places and it is ridiculous. Harden was obviously just trying to get around Ron Artest ASAP so the Thunder could get the ball inbounds and down the court as fast as possible. You get someone show-boating after a dunk on one of your best players, all you want to do is get the ball in and down the court and something going to silence the crowd.