Rockets vs. Clippers game thread: Dominate the conversation

James Harden went supernova last night, his second straight game of 40 points or more. In fact, he's the third player ever to go back-to-back games with 40 points, 8 rebounds and 8 assists or more. The other two were Kobe Bryant and Michael Jordan (thanks ESPN for that stat).

He also played 43 minutes and the Rockets play again tonight, so let's not bank on him replicating that performance. if there's any team to do it against, though, it's the Clippers. They've had the Rockets' number, weirdly enough, for the past two years despite sporting among the very worst perimeter defense in the NBA.

The Rockets are 36-16 and in third place in the West. Harden and the Rockets dominated the NBA conversation today because of his stellar performance and the insane anti-analytics ramblings of Charles Barkley. Another win over a Western Conference contender, another huge performance from Harden, and we would be the talk of All-Star weekend.

That's right, I said it: if Harden goes off and the Rockets win on national television in the NBA's final game before the All-Star break, everyone will be talking about us in a good way. It will feel strange, but it will be nice. Let's get it.