James Harden has scored 51 points in back-to-back games ... and lost both

James Harden has scored 102 points combined in the Rockets last two games but both of them ended up as losses. On Friday night, the Rockets lost to 128-118 to the Clippers to put a cap on Harden’s latest masterful effort.

He put on an absolute scoring clinic and there wasn’t much the Clippers could do about it. He went 15-28 from the floor and went to the free throw line 16 times. He exploded right out the gate with a 20 point first quarter.

But his night ended in a silly ejection after he knocked the ball out of a referee’s hands.

As hilarious as that is, that’s clearly frustration bubbling over from Harden’s superhuman efforts falling short two nights in a row. Against two teams the Rockets have no business losing to, no less.

Definitely not. They’re still one of the best two or three teams in the league and have the best backcourt in the league by far. Harden’s still one of the front-runners for MVP and Chris Paul has been incredible.

But they’re not healthy right now. They’re missing what might be their top three defenders in Chris Paul, Clint Capela, and Luc Richard Mbah a Moute. They don’t have many other positive defenders on the team and Mike D’Antoni already likes to keep a tight rotation.

It hasn’t been easy to work through, but they’re too good not to figure things out. What we’re seeing here, though, is that it can’t only be Harden picking up the slack — role players have to play well, too. When they do the team will catch its stride again.