HOUSTON — Connecting the dots on these Houston Rockets this season starts with James Harden, the presumptive Kia MVP frontrunner and superstar scoring champ and game changing superstar.

Next is the addition of superstar point guard Chris Paul, for years now the epitome of the feisty floor general whose competitive nature can change the temperature in the room in an instant.

The third dot is Clint Capela. That’s right, the Swiss big man whose energy, athleticism, rim-protecting and rim-rolling gives the Rockets a lift the opposition often struggles to match when the talents of these three critical components of the best regular season in Rockets’ history come together.

It’s not as simple as that, of course, but the raw numbers — the Rockets were 43-3 during the regular season with all three of them in the lineup — make it clear to anyone that the cosmic energy of the Rockets’ three most dynamic players is undeniable.

That Capela completes the Rockets’ version of a “Big Three” is perhaps the biggest surprise in a season filled with them. Capela is a rising star, a bouncy young big whose name doesn’t always come up when the discussion shifts to the best young centers in the game. That could change if he duplicates his performance from the Rockets’ Game 1 win over the Minnesota Timberwolves in their first round playoff series.

Capela worked the Timberwolves for 20 points and 10 rebounds in the first half and finished with 24, 12 and three blocks, thoroughly outplaying Timberwolves All-Star Karl-Anthony Towns in his playoff debut.

“I’ve been here since Clint got here,” Harden said after that Game 1 win. “He’s developed, he listens, he works his butt off every single day, and it shows for big moments like that. So he has a long way to go. [But] helluva a job for Game one.”