NBA News: James Harden Trends On Twitter After Explosion Against Clippers

James Harden was unstoppable for the Houston Rockets when they hosted the Los Angeles Clippers on Wednesday night in a nationally televised action.

In an early showdown between teams that may face off in a latter Western Conference playoff round, Harden erupted for 47 points, six rebounds, seven assists, and three steals to lead the Rockets to a 102-93 win over the Clippers.

ESPN Stats and Info noted that this is Harden's 70th game with 40 points and five assists, making him only the third player to reach such numbers 70 times. He joined an elite group that consists of Michael Jordan and Oscar Robertson.

Speaking of Jordan, Harden, when interviewed after the game, said that he was reminded of him after he went 47-7 on the Clippers.

What made Harden's performance so impressive was that 17 of his points came in the fourth quarter -- and in the last five minutes at that.

That included two booming triples from almost the same spot to help the Rockets pull away from the Clippers.

To further sweeten the James Harden portfolio, he, who has been criticized for having the lack of defensive effort, stripped the ball away from Kawhi Leonard. Harden then found a wide-open Tyson Chandler for the dagger alley-oop reverse jam.

ESPN's Tim MacMahon kinda expected that Chandler would showboat that slam.

Shannon Sharpe of "Undisputed" later went to Twitter to troll at Leonard.

"Kawhi must be load managing again. No way this happens with Kawhi on the court," said Sharpe.

Earlier in the game, Harden owned Leonard offensively when the former drained a three-pointer against the latter's outstretched arms. They just laughed it off.

However, one not so good stat about Harden is that he struggled against a familiar foe, former teammate Patrick Beverley.

MacMahon noted that Harden was 0-for-6 against Beverley, an obvious sign about Beverley's familiarity with Harden and the fact that he has become one of the National Basketball Association's prime perimeter stoppers.

Well, during a timeout, both Beverley and Harden exchanged sweet nothings.

After the game, though, Harden took the time to commend Beverley for a tremendous job of guarding him.

But Russell Westbrook was not impressed with Beverley's defensive stand on Harden, telling reporters, “Pat Bev trick y'all like he play defense. He doesn't guard nobody, man. It's just running around doing nothing. As you seen what happened - 47. All that commotion to get 47.”

Westbrook's statement is somehow expected as he and Beverley have a longstanding beef that dated back to the time Beverley's steal attempt on Westbrook when the latter called a timeout in a playoff game led to a knee injury on the latter.