Courtesy of an improbable 126-104 loss by the Milwaukee Bucks on Monday night in San Antonio, the Houston Rockets are now the NBA’s highest-scoring team this season.

Driven by a historic and league-high average of 38.4 points from superstar guard James Harden, the Rockets (24-11) are scoring 119.4 points per game as a team. That total is just ahead of the Bucks (32-6), who fell from 119.6 to 119.2 after Monday’s loss.

The Bucks and Rockets rank first and second in the league in pace, which means they have more possessions per game to score (and defend) than other NBA teams. Adjusting for efficiency, Houston and Milwaukee are second and third, respectively, in net offensive rating behind Dallas.

As far as the Rockets go, their elite offense always starts with Harden. The 2018 MVP’s current scoring clip would be the highest total of any NBA player in 56 years, and the most by a guard ever. He’s also posting his numbers on superior efficiency, relative to past seasons.

But what’s unique to the 2019-20 Rockets, relative to past Harden seasons, is the presence of Russell Westbrook. The 2017 league MVP is averaging 24.1 points, 7.9 rebounds, and 7.0 assists in 35.3 minutes per game, making it the first time in the Harden era for Houston to have two different players averaging more than 20 points per game.

For the franchise, the Rockets haven’t had dual 20-point scorers in the same season since Yao Ming and Tracy McGrady in 2007-08.

On paper, a potential NBA Finals matchup between the Bucks and Rockets — and a showdown of current MVP frontrunners Harden and Giannis Antetokounmpo — would seem to be quite entertaining, from a scoring perspective. For the Rockets to make it happen, their priority moving forward needs to be shoring up the other end of the floor.

Though the Rockets have outscored the Bucks, they’ve lost five more games this season in large part because Milwaukee has a clearly superior defense. Entering Wednesday, the Bucks ranked 11th in the league in points allowed at 107.3, whereas the Rockets are several notches below at 23rd (with a 113.9 average).

Adjusting for efficiency factors such as pace, the Bucks lead the entire NBA with a net defensive rating of 102.2, while the Rockets are languishing at No. 18 with a rating of 109.1.

The good news for Houston is that they’re trending in the right direction. The team graded out as a top 10 defense (by net rating) last week, and they were rewarded with a pair of double-digit home wins over two very good opponents in Denver (25-11) and Philadelphia (24-14).

The Rockets will look to build on that momentum during back-to-back games Wednesday and Thursday, first at Atlanta (8-29) and then at Westbrook’s old stomping grounds in Oklahoma City (21-16).