James Harden is only playing with poor Ricky Rubio

The Houston Rockets met with little resistance in their first two games against Utah Jazz. They racked up 240 points on the NBA's second-best defense and hit 32 three points. (These would be useful last May.) Eric Gordon and P.J. Tucker get theirs, the odd bench unit works perfectly, and of course, James Harden is leading the show.

Harden scored "only" 29 points in 33 minutes in the first game against the Rockets (122-90), then Wednesday buried the Jazz in the first quarter on Wednesday. 7:30 ruthless basketball and perfect. Utah playmaker Ricky Rubio has been tasked with slowing down Harden, and he's really having a hard time. In the second minute of Houston's 118-98 victory, Harden sent Rubio flying out of that damned screen with a crossover, then pounced on him before he managed to score three. If he had hit that shot, the Jazz would have been forced to brandish the white flag and concede the series on the spot.

Harden Rubio treated as a cat treats a rodent:

At one point in the first game, Rubio had even tried to protect Harden from his back. Nothing else worked, but it did not work at all.

If you give Rubio a baseball bat, he could possibly limit Harden to 25 points.