James Harden will sit out Sunday night's game against the New Orleans Pelicans with a sprained toe.

It is the first game he'll miss this season.

"He probably could [play], but given the circumstances it's better that he doesn't. He's banged up a little bit," said Mike D'Antoni.

Russell Westbrook will also miss the game due to rest. 

The Rockets are 8-6 without Harden in the last 3 seasons. 

The Houston Rockets have agreed to sign William Howard to a Two-Way contract.

Howard is averaging 13.1 points, 5.4 rebounds and 2.1 assists in 30.4 minutes per game in the G League for the Salt Lake City Stars. Howard is also shooting 44.3 percent on three-pointers.

The Rockets recently signed Chris Clemons to a three-year deal after he ran out of days on his Two-Way contract.

The Houston Rockets have agreed to a three-year contract with Chris Clemons.

Clemons was previously on a Two-Way contract with the Rockets, but he had run out of his allotment of Two-Way days. Clemons has appeared in 20 games for the Rockets.

Clemons went undrafted out of Campbell in 2019.

The Houston Rockets could be at a crossroads this season if they don't advance to The Finals. Mike D'Antoni and the Rockets were unable to agree to a contract extension and he's no longer interested in discussing one. Daryl Morey is under increased pressure following his Tweet of support for Hong Kong.

"I think this era of Rockets' basketball is at stake with this season," said Adrian Wojnarowski. "They're going to try to everything they can to improve this team, but I don't know if there's a lot of moves out there for them."

The Rockets have little to trade this year with Eric Gordon signing an extension and P.J. Tucker proving too indispensable for what they do.

Daryl Morey has all but given up on acquiring Andre Iguodala. 

James Harden scored 54 points while shooting 10-of-15 from 3 in the Houston Rockets' 130-107 win over the Orlando Magic.

Harden's 10 3s tied a team record that he set in the previous game.

"I just want to win. Whatever it takes," said Harden after the game.

The Rockets shot a combined 22-of-39 from 3. 

Evan Fournier added that there was little the Magic could do when Harden is on. 

"He's the MVP for a reason. We talked about in pregame that he'll take shots, and we'll just live with the results. He did not miss tonight, period."

The Houston Rockets have "serious interest" in trading for Robert Covington, league sources told Kevin O'Connor of The Ringer.

The Rockets are in the market to trade for another wing.

O'Connor adds that several playoff teams are also monitoring Covington with an eye towards a trade.

The Houston Rockets are targeting a wing player in the trade market, league sources told Shams Charania of The Athletic.

The team are willing to give up a future asset for a player who helps their roster right now.

The Athletic reported earlier that Mike D'Antoni is unlikely to return to the team next season unless they win the title this season.

The NBA has announced that Commissioner Adam Silver has denied the Houston Rockets protest of their 135-133 loss to the San Antonio Spurs on Dec. 3, 2019, following receipt by the league office of submissions from both teams and the completion of its investigation.

In the protest, the Rockets argued that the officials misapplied the playing rules by failing to grant a Coach’s Challenge in connection with James Harden’s fourth quarter dunk, and that this error had a clear impact on the outcome of the game by depriving the team of two points. While agreeing that the referees misapplied the rules, Commissioner Silver determined that the Rockets had sufficient time to overcome the error during the remainder of the fourth quarter and two subsequent overtime periods and thus the extraordinary remedy of granting a game protest was not warranted.

In addition, the league announced that it has disciplined all three referees from the game for misapplying the Coach’s Challenge rule.

With 7:50 remaining in the fourth quarter and the score 102-89 in favor of Houston, Harden stole the ball and converted an uncontested dunk. The ball was dunked with such force that, as it cleared the net, the ball was propelled around the basket and upward, creating an initial appearance that it was not a successful field goal. Houston then called a timeout, and the officiating crew conferenced to discuss the play.

After deliberation, the crew informed the Houston coaching staff that a basket interference violation had been called on Harden, and Houston asked for a Coach’s Challenge. This request was denied by the officials because more than 30 seconds had elapsed from the start of the timeout. But the 30-second time limit for Coach’s Challenges only applies when the challenge arises during a mandatory timeout or a timeout called by the opposing team. Because Houston called the timeout in this case, it was entitled to challenge the basket interference call upon being informed of it by the game officials.

If the Coach’s Challenge requested by Houston had been properly granted, instant replay would have shown that Harden’s dunk was a successful field goal.

As a follow-up to the NBA’s investigation of this matter, the NBA will work with the Competition Committee to develop additional procedures to help prevent the situation with Harden’s made basket from occurring again.

Carmelo Anthony warned Chris Paul to be careful of the Houston Rockets based on his exit from the team. Paul was traded by the Rockets to the Oklahoma City Thunder last offseason after being told that he would not be moved.

"No, I wasn't surprised at all," Anthony said. "When my situation happened in Houston, he was the first person that I called to come to my room. And we had to clear some things up, and I wanted to know if he had anything to do with it. And that was the first thing that I wanted to know, and he told me, 'No.' And from that point on, I told him, looked him in his eyes and said, 'Look, just be careful.' You know what I mean? Just be careful. And damn sure if [the same situation] didn't happen to him."

Anthony said he had no ill will toward Daryl Morey or the Rockets

"I haven't talked to nobody in their organization, no," Anthony said. "I'm not angry. I'm not bitter at it. It happens. I wish I had an explanation when it happened, but I'm past it."

Paul recently spoke with Marc J. Spears of his experience with the Rockets.

"I was shocked," Paul told The Undefeated. "Truth be told, I just talked to Daryl a couple days before the trade, and he said he wasn't going to trade me [to Oklahoma City]. That's funny because that is going to be the alert that pops up on everybody's phone because nobody knows that. But what the hell, I just said it."

The Houston Rockets pursued Jimmy Butler during the 2019 free agency period after they offered multiple draft picks to the Minnesota Timberwolves for him before his trade to the Philadelphia 76ers.

"Look, the Houston Rockets wanted to pay Jimmy Butler the four-year max and he ghosted them," said Tim MacMahon on the Brian Windhorst & The Hoop Collective Podcast. "They thought they had them and he left them hanging."

"They had trades lined up, I don't know the teams (or) the destinations, but they had trades lined up for (Clint) Capela and (Eric) Gordon. They were ready to pay Jimmy Butler. They really liked their chances and then suddenly, Jimmy had other thoughts."

Butler ultimately orchestrated a sign-and-trade to the Miami Heat. Houston kept Capela and Gordon while trading Chris Paul for Russell Westbrook.