HOUSTON _ Going toe-to-toe with the Golden State Warriors was the challenge a night earlier.
All that required was taking down an entire team.
This time the task was singular, and far more imposing in all of its bearded splendor.
With James Harden scoring 58 points, the most ever by an opponent, the Miami Heat could only marvel at the dominance of it all in what turned into a 121-118 Houston Rockets victory at the Toyota Center.
The previous high against the Heat was 54 by Willie Burton when he was with the Philadelphia 76ers, on Dec. 13, 1994.
Harden closed 16 of 32 from the field, 8 of 18 on 3-pointers and 18 of 18 from the line, tossing in 10 assists for good measure.
It was too much for the Heat to overcome on a night Kelly Olynyk scored 21, Goran Dragic 21, Justise Winslow 19 and Josh Richardson 18.
The Heat trailed 33-32 at the end of the first period, led 69-55 at halftime and then pushed their lead to 21 early in the third period.
But just as the Warriors fought back from a 24-point deficit against the Heat a night earlier, the Rockets quickly had their deficit down to nine by the midpoint of the third period.
Then, after Rockets forward P.J. Tucker was ejected with a pair of technical fouls for arguing an offensive foul later in the third period, the Heat regrouped to go into the fourth quarter up 98-86.
From there, Harden stepped it up to another level, with the Rockets eventually moving up 115-113 on a pair of Chris Paul free throws.
Eventually, on an offensive rebound off a Harden miss, Paul converted a 15-foot jumper with 46.2 seconds to play for a 121-118 Rockets lead.
The Heat then had a chance to tie in the waning seconds, with Dion Waiters off on a 3-point attempt.
