Only one way to make us keep the faith

This is for us. So we can start to believe in and care about this still-broken team again.

This is for James Harden. Want to be the real MVP when you’re getting at least four games in the worldwide spotlight against the NBA’s actual MVP? Show it. Prove it. Make your team’s owner not sound delusional and crazy when he swears you’re really as good as it gets.

This is for J.B. Bicker-

staff. Pull this April miracle off and you’ll have a little leverage when Leslie Alexander starts to do to you what he did to your good friend Kevin McHale five months ago.

This is for Daryl Morey. Two trips past the first round of the playoffs in nine years doesn’t cut it. Neither does 41-41 and No. 8 in the Western Conference when Rick Adelman, Rafer Alston and Luis Scola won 14 more games.

And this is for Dwight Howard. Twelve seasons. Endless drama. No rings and ultimately a lot of nothing. You came here insisting this is your new home. Now you’re four more defeats away from fleeing to somewhere else again and having little to show for all the talk, hyperbole and … drama.

So much to forget The killer of it all? If this plays out like it should, they’re barely going to get a shot.

Five games, six at best. Then it’s 4-2 Golden State, even if you’re feeling generous and optimistic. Then it’s an unsatisfying conclusion to what will still go down as one of the most disappointing, depressing and frustrating seasons in Rockets history.

So prove us wrong, Rockets. Turn us all into mad fools.

Make us forget 11 games and the shocking end of McHale. Erase 0-3, 38-41, Ty Lawson, 130-99 Spurs, 124-115 Suns and all the other horrors of 2015-16 from our emotionally scarred memories. Do this. Pull off the greatest firstround upset since the Association began. Punch out the 73-win Warriors, freak out the national networks that have been obsessing 24/7 over the Golden team all season, and remind us that 3-1 Clippers became 4-3 Rockets and the Western Conference finals not that long ago.

It’s crazy talk. But that’s what it’s going to take to pull anything from these Rockets other than ashes, dust and discarded bodies.

New coach. No more Dwight. Rebuilt roster. A general manager back in the cross hairs, Alexander sounding like pre-Brock Osweiler Bob McNair and your Rockets easily being the most unattractive offering among our local Big Three.

Didn’t go 73-9 by accident

I believe the Rockets can steal one by the Bay. I know they should be able to claim a little life at Toyota Center, when the arena screams like it’s May 2015 all over again and we remember why Morey worked so hard to bring Harden and Howard here in the first place.

But four victories in seven games? Shooting an earthquake into Oakland, Calif., and crashing the Splash Brothers before the playoffs have even really begun?

Absolutely impossible. Unless you believe in miracles, the Rockets finally believe in themselves, and the God who rules the wonderfully unpredictable world of sports decides to mess with us and insert some Old Testament havoc into our highly logical lives.

These Warriors were created from greatness and descended from kings (the 2014-15 NBA champions, in case you were wondering).

You don’t go 73 and freaking 9 without being sent from the heavens. You can’t just glance up at the rim, flick your wrist from 26 feet away and make thousands go weak at the knees over and over again, unless you’re the second coming of hardwood holiness and the modern game’s version of Michael Jordan at his peak.

What made these Rockets? What’s at their core?

Selfishness. In-fighting. Distrust, apathy and narcissism.

That’s the only way to explain 41-41, falling behind every other night, letting us down all season and pretending like No. 8 vs. No. 1 is how this Pursuit was supposed to start.

I’ve seen the Rockets do great things. Harden can do almost anything with the ball in hand. Howard can still dominate when he gets the ball. Trevor Ariza, Jason Terry and, yes kids, Michael Beasley can go off when the rhythm clicks and the court turns to glass.

But four of seven takes sacrifice and communication. Four of seven requires selflessness and not being allergic to defense. Four of seven against the best regular-season team the NBA has seen will take everything that’s inside a team’s collective heart and the true will of a champion.

Time for the truth serum

The Rockets have been DOA since October: a soap opera plastic-wrapped in reality TV, partying like the end of a wasted year couldn’t come soon enough.

If Harden’s greater than Stephen Curry, we’ll see it.

If this really is the “same team as last year,” we’ll know soon enough.

And if the Rockets can somehow pull this miracle off — win four, endure, survive, cut down 73-9 — then wouldn’t that be something?

We would believe in and care about this team again.