James Harden (34/12) and Chris Paul (18/9/8) combined for 52 points and 21 assists on 50% shooting on Sunday as Houston won its fifth consecutive game with a 129-120 victory at Minnesota. Coming off Saturday's 107-101 win in New Orleans, it was an impressive showing on both ends of a road back-to-back for the Rockets (56-14) — each against probable Western Conference playoff teams. - With the two wins by Houston and losses by Golden State (53-17) on Friday and Toronto (52-18) on Sunday, the Rockets now effectively have a four-game advantage (counting tiebreakers) on both teams in the race for home-court advantage throughout the NBA playoffs with only 12 games left to play. - Harden, long considered the league's MVP frontrunner, also led the way in scoring (32/11/8) in New Orleans. Clint Capela (13/11, 3 blocks) posted another double-double on the interior against Anthony Davis, while Paul (21/8/5) and Trevor Ariza (17 points, 4-of-6 on 3s) each bounced back from poor showings in Thursday's tight win over the Clippers. - In Sunday night's postgame show, we explore those storylines and much more from the weekend back-to-back at New Orleans and Minnesota. Besides the aforementioned subjects, other topics include lackluster showings for stretches of each second half, apparent minor hand injuries to Harden and Capela and when Houston can and/or should rest them; and the growth shown by Capela in a key three-game stretch against Davis, DeAndre Jordan, and Karl-Anthony Towns. - #Rockets #NBA #Wolves #Pelicans - Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices