COURTSIDE

The Rockets will live with whatever results Harden produces. And, so far, he has rarely disappointed. Little wonder, them, that he’s back in the MVP conversation, no small feat given the body of work Giannis Antetokounmpo has put together for the surging Bucks. Yesterday, though, he proved that he’s also human, and that for all his otherworldly exertions, he, too, can have an off day; he canned just one of 17 threepoint attempts en route to a pedestrian 11-of-32 clip all told. Yet, it’s a tribute to his importance to the cause that he still wound up just a rebound short of a tripledouble in nearly engineering a road win.