In anticipation of their nationally televised showdown with the Cleveland Cavaliers on Thursday night, the Houston Rockets tweeted out a hype video, which featured all of the usual suspects.
There was James Harden, scoring 56 points in the Rockets' Sunday night victory over the Utah Jazz.
There was LeBron James, totaling 57 points in the Cavs' Friday win against the Washington Wizards.
Cavs. #Rockets. TONIGHT. pic.twitter.com/jVTW6zuFyk
— Houston Rockets (@HoustonRockets) November 9, 2017
The use of Arthur, of course, was a thinly veiled shot at James, who on Monday posted a popular meme of the PBS cartoon and children's book star clenching his fist, along with the caption "mood."
{"version":"1.0","title":"Mood...","author_name":"kingjames","author_url":"https://www.instagram.com/kingjames","author_id":19410587,"media_id":"1642523340126361147_19410587","provider_name":"Instagram","provider_url":"https://www.instagram.com","type":"rich","width":658,"height":null,"html":"&#lt;blockquote class=\"instagram-media\" data-instgrm-captioned data-instgrm-version=\"7\" style=\" background:#FFF; border:0; border-radius:3px; box-shadow:0 0 1px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.5),0 1px 10px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.15); margin: 1px; max-width:658px; padding:0; width:99.375%; width:-webkit-calc(100% - 2px); width:calc(100% - 2px);\"&#gt;&#lt;div style=\"padding:8px;\"&#gt; &#lt;div style=\" background:#F8F8F8; line-height:0; margin-top:40px; padding:62.5% 0; text-align:center; width:100%;\"&#gt; &#lt;div style=\" background:url(data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAACwAAAAsCAMAAAApWqozAAAABGdBTUEAALGPC/xhBQAAAAFzUkdCAK7OHOkAAAAMUExURczMzPf399fX1+bm5mzY9AMAAADiSURBVDjLvZXbEsMgCES5/P8/t9FuRVCRmU73JWlzosgSIIZURCjo/ad+EQJJB4Hv8BFt+IDpQoCx1wjOSBFhh2XssxEIYn3ulI/6MNReE07UIWJEv8UEOWDS88LY97kqyTliJKKtuYBbruAyVh5wOHiXmpi5we58Ek028czwyuQdLKPG1Bkb4NnM+VeAnfHqn1k4+GPT6uGQcvu2h2OVuIf/gWUFyy8OWEpdyZSa3aVCqpVoVvzZZ2VTnn2wU8qzVjDDetO90GSy9mVLqtgYSy231MxrY6I2gGqjrTY0L8fxCxfCBbhWrsYYAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC); display:block; height:44px; margin:0 auto -44px; position:relative; top:-22px; width:44px;\"&#gt;&#lt;/div&#gt;&#lt;/div&#gt; &#lt;p style=\" margin:8px 0 0 0; padding:0 4px;\"&#gt; &#lt;a href=\"https://www.instagram.com/p/BbLakZ_hRY7/\" style=\" color:#000; font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; font-style:normal; font-weight:normal; line-height:17px; text-decoration:none; word-wrap:break-word;\" target=\"_blank\"&#gt;Mood...&#lt;/a&#gt;&#lt;/p&#gt; &#lt;p style=\" color:#c9c8cd; font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; line-height:17px; margin-bottom:0; margin-top:8px; overflow:hidden; padding:8px 0 7px; text-align:center; text-overflow:ellipsis; white-space:nowrap;\"&#gt;A post shared by LeBron James (@kingjames) on &#lt;time style=\" font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; line-height:17px;\" datetime=\"2017-11-07T03:07:42+00:00\"&#gt;Nov 6, 2017 at 7:07pm PST&#lt;/time&#gt;&#lt;/p&#gt;&#lt;/div&#gt;&#lt;/blockquote&#gt;\n&#lt;script async defer src=\"//platform.instagram.com/en_US/embeds.js\"&#gt;&#lt;/script&#gt;","thumbnail_url":"https://scontent-lga3-1.cdninstagram.com/t51.2885-15/e15/p640x640/23164769_1999515093666735_7407651003035549696_n.jpg","thumbnail_width":640,"thumbnail_height":800}
Although James denied there being any intent to his use of the meme, which typically denotes one's anger -- "Nah. I like Arthur. That's OK, right," he answered when asked about it -- it manifested itself in the form of the 4-time MVP tallying 30 points, 9 assists and 8 rebounds in Cleveland's 124-119 victory over the Milwaukee Bucks on Tuesday night.
Nevertheless, the Rockets seem comfortable stoking that flame -- regardless of how their trolling may affect James' "mood" and their Thursday night showdown with the Cavaliers.